Geology and Earth Processes: Minerals, Rocks, Plate Tectonics, and Water Cycle

What are minerals?

Minerals are naturally occurring inorganic solids with a definite chemical composition and a crystalline structure.

What are rocks?

Rocks are combinations of minerals.

What does the texture of igneous rocks indicate?

It tells how the rock was cooled, whether crystallization was involved, and where the rock was formed.

What determines where sediments are deposited?

Wind, water, and ice.

How do the coastlines of continents relate to each other?

They fit together like jigsaw pieces.

What are the three types of plate boundaries?

Divergent, Convergent, and Transform.

What determines the rates of magnetic polar forces?

Forces in the core that are constantly changing.

What is the rate of seafloor spreading?

3.47 millimeters per month.

What do convergent plate boundaries form?

Mountains.

What are hotspots?

Areas where hot plumes rise upward, creating volcanoes, such as Hawaii.

What is mass movement?

The process where sediment is brought down by landslides and widens valleys.

What causes mass wasting?

Rain, volcanoes, earthquakes, and weathering.

What does the Angle of Repose represent?

The maximum stable slope for loose material.

What are the stages of the water cycle?

Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, back into the ocean, and then repeat.

Why does a stream meander?

Due to erosion and deposition caused by flow differences.

What forms a flood?

When water overflows the natural boundaries of a body of water.

What is a floodplain?

An area that forms due to multiple instances of flooding.

What is stream discharge?

The volume of water flowing per unit time.

How do natural streams and rivers self-regulate?

They adjust naturally to changes in water volume, sediment load, or slope.

What does a flood frequency curve show?

The relationship between the magnitude of floods and their frequency at a location.

What factors determine if a region is classified as a desert?

Extreme temperatures, little precipitation, sparse vegetation, and poor soils.

What causes desertification?

Overgrazing, drought, climate change, urbanization, deforestation, and unsustainable agriculture.

What is a glacier?

A large mass of ice that forms on land from accumulated snow and moves under its own weight.

How do glaciers move sediments?

They move sediments, such as rocks, throughout the landscape as they slide.

What role do plate tectonics play?

They help control the arrangements of continents, ocean circulation, mountain building, and atmospheric CO2.