Geology Vocabulary for Matching Quiz on Wednesday

Geology Vocabulary

Fill out the following chart with definitions from the glossary at the back of your Science Probe textbook.  You will have a matching quiz on these terms on Monday. 

Minerals	Pure, naturally occurring substances that are found in Earth’s Crust.
Magma	Hot molten under the Earth’s surface.
Igneous	Rock that forms from the hardening of liquid magma.
Sediment	Solid particles (such as rock particles, clay, mud, sand, gravel, and boulders) that are carried by moving water and gradually settle onto the floor of a lake or ocean.
Sedimentary rock	Rock that is formed by the breaking down, depositing, compacting, and cementing of sediment.
Metamorphic rock	Rock that is formed below the Earth’s surface when heat and pressure cause the characteristics of the existing rock to change.
Fossils	Rock-like casts, impression, or actual remains of an organism that was buried when it died, before it could decompose.
Weathering	The process that slowly breaks down natural materials (such as rocks and boulders) into smaller pieces.
Erosion	The movement of weathered rock material from one place to another.
Deposition	The settling of eroded rock materials on Earth’s surface.
Crust	The “shell” of rock that makes up the hard outermost layer of Earth; “floats” on the inner layers of Earth because it is made of lighter materials than the lower layers.
Mantle	The layer of Earth between the crust and the outer core; a hot, thick layer of solid and partly melted rock.
Outer Core	A dense, hot layer of Earth between the mantle and inner core; made up of mostly liquid iron and some nickel.
Inner Core	The innermost layer of Earth, which is made up of iron and nickel.
Pangaea	The name of a hypothetical supercontinent proposed by Alfred Wegener.
Plate tectonics	The theory that the surface of Earth consists of approximately a dozen large plates that are continually moving.
Divergent boundary	An area of Earth’s crust between plates that are moving apart.
Convergent boundary	An area of Earth’s crust between plates that are moving toward each other and colliding.
Subduction zone	An area of Earth’s crust where one plate is sinking below another.
Plateaus	A large area of high, fairly flattened ground.
Transform fault boundaries	An area of Earth’s crust between plates that are slipping past each other.
Earthquakes	A vibration of Earth’s crust, caused by the sudden release of accumulated energy from plate movement.
Volcano	Any opening in Earth’s crust through which molten rock and other materials erupt.
Geology	The science comprising the study of solid Earth.