The chemical and physical processes that break down rock at Earth's surface.
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Erosion
Processes by which rock, sand, and soil are broken down and carried away (i.e. weathering, glaciation)
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Deposition
Refers to processes by which sediment particles settle out as water currents slow, winds die down, or glacier edges melt to form layers of sediment in sink areas.
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Burial
Layers of sediment accumulate in sink areas on top of older, previously deposited sediments, which are compacted and progressively buried deep within a sedimentary basin.
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Diagenisis (lithification)
The physical and chemical changes— caused by pressure, heat, and chemical reactions—by which sediments buried within sedimentary basins are converted into sedimentary rock
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Sediment rounding and sorting
Tendency for variations in current velocity to segregate sediments according to size
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Continental Enviroments
Lakes, alluvial environment, desert, glacial
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Shoreline Environments
Delta, Beach
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Marine Environments
Shelf, reefs, deep-sea
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Bedding
Layers of sediment with different particle sizes or compositions are deposited on top of one another.
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Cross-Bedding
Layers of sediment deposited by wind or water and inclined at angles as much as 35 degrees from the horizontal. Form when sediment particles are deposited on the steeper, down current (leeward) slopes of sand dunes on land or sandbars in rivers and on the seafloor.
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Ripples
Small ridges of sand or silt whose long dimension is at right angles to the current.
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Bioturbation
Organisms churn and burrow through muds and sands.
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Lithification
Compaction and cementation
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Siliciclastic rocks
Conglomerate, sandstone, shale
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Biological
Limestone
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Atoll
Coral islands in the open ocean surrounding circular lagoons
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Chemical
Evaporites
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Intrusive igneous rocks
Coarse Crystals (Granite, Gabbro)
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Extrusive igneous rocks
Lavas or pyroclastic rocks (Basalt, Rhyolite, Porphyry, Obsidian)
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Felsic
Feldspar - Silica (Granite, Rhyolite)
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Mafic
Magnesium - Ferric (Gabbro, Basalt)
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Ultramafic
Peridotite
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Intermediate
Granodiorite, Diorite, Dacite, Andesite
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Melting (i)
Temperature increase (partial melting occurs)
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Melting (ii)
Pressure decrease (decompression melting)
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Melting (iii)
Addition of water
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Where magma forms (i)
Formation of magma chambers in lithosphere cavities
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Where magma forms (ii)
Temperature increase with depth in crust/mantle (not uniform)
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Magmatic differentiation
One magma can crystallize into different rocks
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Fractional crystallization
The process by which the crystals formed in a cooling magma are segregated from the remaining liquid rock.
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Minerals
A naturally occurring, solid crystalline substance, usually inorganic, with a specific chemical composition.
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Cleavage
A mineral's ability to split easily along flat surfaces.
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Fracture
The tendency of a crystal to break along irregular surfaces other flat ones.
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Quartz
Pure silicon and oxygen
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Silicates
All of them contain silicate tetrahedral. Feldspars are very common.
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Carbonates
Calcite and dolomite
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Continental Drift Theory
By Alfred Wegener in 1915 (based on similar geologic features on opposite sides of the Atlantic)
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Major Plates
African Plate, Arabian Plate, Eurasian Plate, Australian Plate, North American Plate, Indian Plate, Antarctic Plate
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Divergent Boundaries
ocean-ocean
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Convergent Boundaries
ocean-ocean, ocean-continent, continent-continent
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Transform
continent-continent
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Magnetic anomalies
The intensity of the magnetic field alternated between high and low values in long, narrow parallel bands.
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Isochrons
Boundaries between magnetic anomalies are contours of equal seafloor age.
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Oldest Seafloor
180 million years
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Eratosthenes
250 BC, He calculated the circumference of the earth to be 40,000 km
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Moho
Separates a crust composed of low-density silicates, which are rich in aluminum and potassium, from the higher-density silicates of the mantle, which contain more magnesium and iron.
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Aethenosphere
The layer of the mantle just below the lithosphere; it is made of molten rock that moves very slowly due to convection currents
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