Exam 1 (ESC)

All minerals have at least ________ element(s).

1

What is the most abundant mineral or mineral group in Earth's crust?

Feldspars

Why are garnets used in sandpaper?

Garnets have a value of 8 or 9 on the Mohs Hardness Scale, making them very abrasive.

________ discovered the three laws of planetary motion.

Kepler

Which of the following textures indicates two stages of cooling and crystallization?

Porphyritic

Which planet rotates the opposite direction it revolves around the Sun?

Venus

The mineral fluorite is an example of:

a halide mineral.

Where do most metamorphic rocks form?

between a few and many kilometers beneath Earth's surface

In the Ptolemaic (Greek) model of the universe, the stars are attached to the ________.

celestial sphere

What mineral is the major component of rock salt?

halite

Ultramafic rocks contain __________ and are commonly found in __________.

olivine; mantle

When will magma rise to Earth's surface?

when the magma is less dense than adjacent rock

Compared to Earth's atmosphere, the atmosphere of Mars has surface pressures that are ________.

0.1 times those on Earth; major gases are water vapor and carbon dioxide

The micas, biotite and muscovite, both exhibit ________ direction(s) of cleavage.

1

A main-sequence star like our sun is expected to be stable for approximately ________.

10 billion years

Gold has a specific gravity of almost 20. A 5-gallon bucket of water weighs 40 pounds. How much would a 5-gallon bucket of gold weigh?

800 pounds

What is an accessory mineral?

A mineral that makes up a relatively small portion of the total rock composition

What causes the same mineral to occur in varieties that are different colors?

A small amount of impurities in the crystal structure.

What is the rock name of an intermediate rock with two distinct grain sizes?

Andesite porphyry

What causes a lack of cleavage in some minerals?

Bonds of equal strength in all directions

________ accurately recorded the position of the planet Mars.

Brahe

In 1960 the largest gold producer was South Africa. Now it is ________.

China

Which of the following best describes the term cleavage?

Cleavage is the splitting of minerals along natural planes of weakness.

Suppose you found a mineral crystal that looked like topaz. What two minerals could you use in a scratch test to help determine if the mineral is indeed topaz?

Corundum and quartz

Why are mineral bands in metamorphic rocks light and dark colored?

Dark minerals rich in iron and magnesium separate from light minerals rich in silica and aluminum.

Name the hardest and softest mineral on the Moh's scale.

Diamond (hardest) and talc (softest)

In general, why does Earth's crust sit on top of the mantle?

Earth's crust is less dense than the mantle.

________ are found both on Mars and Earth.

Erosional features related to flowing water

Which of the following is not a planet?

Europa

________, a moon orbiting Jupiter, has an unusually smooth, uncratered, ice-covered surface.

Europa

Which of the following exhibits three sets of cleavage at 90° angles?

Galena

Why is glass is not considered a mineral?

Glass has a disorderly atomic structure.

Which of the following best describes the difference between granite and rhyolite?

Granite is phaneritic and rhyolite is aphanitic. Submit

What was Hubble's major contribution to Cosmology?

He identified numerous new galaxies outside the Milky Way.

How are felsic magmas formed?

Heat from the mantle melts part of the lower crust.

What is the basic foundation of Moh's hardness scale?

If a mineral scratches an object, then the mineral is harder than the object.

Alpha Centauri is a famous star because it is one of the closest stars to earth (other than the Sun of course). Where would you look in the night sky for Alpha Centauri?

Look for the brightest star in the constellation Centaurus.

Our galaxy is called the ________.

Milky Way

How do rocks differ from minerals?

Minerals aggregate to form rocks, but rocks do not aggregate to form minerals.

Why do bands of minerals form when rocks are put under normal stress?

Minerals dissolve, atoms migrate to new locations, and minerals reform.

The ________ explains how our solar system probably formed from a giant cloud of gases and dispersed solid particles.

Nebular Theory

Could metamorphic rocks reach the surface of a planet without rock-uplifting processes?

No, metamorphic rocks must be uplifted and exposed by erosion.

The Big Dipper is near the ________ celestial pole.

North

Oceanography includes a study of ________.

Ocean animals, the effect of oceans on climate, the ocean floor and chemistry of sea water

The largest known volcano in the solar system is ________.

Olympus Mons on Mars

How does a mineral resource differ from an ore deposit?

Ore deposits are concentrations of metal, whereas mineral resources do not contain metals.

Which of the following textures describes an igneous rock with anomalously large crystals?

Pegmatitic

Metamorphic rocks can form when which of the following conditions are met?

Pre-existing rocks undergo metamorphism when they are subjected to heat and pressure without melting.

How do mafic volcanic rocks get to Earth's surface?

Pressure from overlying crust forces mantle magmas through cracks to Earth's surface. These magmas erupt out of volcanoes, cool, and solidify into rock.

What is the right ascension and declination for Polaris, the North Star?

RA indeterminate, D 90 degrees

Which of the following statements about rock melting is most accurate?

Rock can remain solid, become partially melted, or melt completely at the same depth within Earth, depending on the temperature.

Choose the most likely scenario for how this rock formed. You can infer the environmental conditions where the rock formed from the characteristics of the clasts. For example, in places where sediments are affected by high-energy waves or wind, clasts will be weathered to a similar size and thus will be well sorted. In places with quiet, calm water, small clasts like mud are most likely to accumulate in thin layers.

Rocks eroded from mountains were deposited over a short time in a dry environment, where they were buried by other sediments and cemented into rock.

The formation of sedimentary rocks occurs under what conditions?

Sedimentary rocks form when weathered particles are cemented and/or compacted.

Where will the North Star be, relative to the celestial coordinates, 12,000 years from now?

Several degrees from the North Pole position, and Vega will be the North Star instead of Polaris.

Below is a picture of an Appalachian mountain ridge and Himalayan mountain peaks (left and right, respectively). Why are the Appalachians so much smoother and lower than the Himalayan Mountains?

The Appalachian Mountains are older and thus have become more worn down.

By what process did the gabbro turn into amphibolite?

The gabbro was heated to 500 °C and buried a few miles below the Earth's surface.

We know from the Apollo missions and unmanned probes that the Moon's surface is covered with loose, unconsolidated material with a texture similar to soil on earth. How did this material form on the Moon?

The loose material is mostly micrometeorite fragments and ejecta from impact craters, so is very different from soil on Earth.

What does an igneous rock with a pyroclastic texture tell a geologist?

The rock was likely formed by a violent volcanic eruption.

Which of the following best describes mineral habit?

The shape a mineral grows into, given sufficient space.

Why does quartzite not exhibit foliated texture?

There are very few or no tabular minerals in quartzite.

Light elements like hydrogen and helium form a large percentage of the outer planets and Sun is made up primarily of hydrogen. Why are these elements nearly absent from the inner planets?

These light elements are blown away from the inner planets by the solar wind.

Jupiter's atmosphere displays spectacular cyclonic and anticyclonic storms, some persisting for long periods of time. How do these storms form?

They are due to internal heat exchange within the planet, basically convection currents transferring internal heat to the surface.

What do pumice and scoria have in common?

They both exhibit a vesicular texture.

Neptune and Uranus both appear bluish in sunlight whereas Jupiter and Saturn are multicolored. Why are Neptune and Uranus blue?

They contain methane ice in their atmosphere which causes the color.

How did Eratosthenes estimate the size of Earth?

They measured the angle of the Sun above the horizon at midday in two places with different latitude and used the angle to estimate the circumference of Earth.

Why is Tuttle and Bowen's experiment useful to geologists?

This experiment allows geologists to interpret where granitic rock solidifies beneath Earth's surface.

Other than space, what two additional factors are significant for a crystal to attain habit?

Time and necessary elements

The most extreme example of the greenhouse effect in the solar system is associated with an abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of ________.

Venus

Which of the following describes a texture containing bubble-shaped cavities?

Vesicular

How does water content of melt change with increasing pressure?

Water content increases with increasing pressure.

Venus has dense clouds and thick atmosphere, yet there is no evidence for water on the surface. Why?

Water could not survive as liquid water on the surface because it is too hot.

What role does hot ion-rich water play in the process of metamorphism?

Water migrates into host rock carrying ions to stable minerals in order to facilitate growth of new metamorphic minerals.

While working in the field, you discover an outcrop of metamorphic rocks. What can you conclude from this observation?

You know that these rocks formed at great depth below the surface.

In general, when will melted rock in the mantle rise?

almost always

When Earth is the farthest from the Sun, it is said to be in the ________ position.

aphelion

All of the following are possible steps of scientific investigation except for ________.

assumption of conclusions without prior experimentation or observation

Minerals must be solid, have an orderly atomic structure, have a recognized chemical composition, be naturally occurring, and __________.

be generally inorganic in origin

What coal is soft, black in color, and produces soot upon handling?

bituminous

A star in which light cannot escape because of the immense gravitational pull is called a(n) ________.

black hole

A Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (H-R Diagram) is a plot of ________. temperature versus color

brightness versus temperature

What mineral is not scratched by a fingernail, but is scratched by a copper penny?

calcite

________ refers to the bright head of a comet.

coma

What is the classification of igneous rocks based on?

composition and texture

Quartz exhibits __________.

conchoidal fracture

The Himalayan Mountains and adjacent Tibet are a mountain system formed by ________.

continental collision

What process forms igneous rocks?

cooling and solidification of magma

What is a coarse-grained rock composed of intermediate plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene?

diorite

Which processes result in mineral flattening during metamorphism?

dissolution followed by crystallization

Cepheid Variables are stars whose brightness varies in a predictable manner so that the absolute magnitude of the star can be determined, and this allows the ________ of the star to be determined.

distance from Earth

Planets appear to move ________ each night, but occasionally they appear to stop and reverse direction.

eastward

The apparent path of the Sun upon the celestial sphere is called the ________.

ecliptic

What discourages minerals from achieving habit?

enclosed spaces

The red color of emission nebulae comes from the ________.

energy emission of hydrogen

Rock salt is an example of a(n) __________, deposited by saturation and precipitation in evaporating water.

evaporite

The first minerals to be mined (over 6000 years ago) were ________ and ________.

flint; chert

Comets are made up primarily of ________.

frozen water, carbon dioxide, and methane

What kind of metamorphic texture results in the segregation of light and dark mineral bands?

gneissic texture

In the list below, indicate which of the items are minerals

golf nugget quartz

An igneous rock that contains quartz and potassium feldspar would have a mineralogic content placing it in the range of __________.

granitic or felsic rocks

The temperature of a red giant increases rapidly because ________.

gravitational energy is converted to heat

What is a mantle plume?

hot mantle rock rising from deep within the Earth

A blue star is ________ our Sun.

hotter and larger than

The ratio of silicon to oxygen atoms in silicate minerals depends on:

how the atoms in silicon-oxygen tetrahedra are shared.

Interstellar matter is composed primarily of ________. dust

hydrogen

What agent might metamorphose rocks found adjacent to a large magma body?

hydrothermal solutions

Which of the following is a mineral?

ice

Most of the mass in the solar system is contained ________.

in the Sun

Application of low-grade metamorphic forces to a rock causes _____.

increase in rock density

Galaxies are collections of ________.

interstellar matter

All of the following criteria define a mineral except:

it is organic

The external expression of a mineral's orderly internal arrangement of atoms is referred to as:

its crystal form

Regolith is not a true soil because it ________.

lacks organic material

What is one way a glassy texture forms?

lava cools rapidly

The ________ forms the relatively cool, brittle tectonic plates.

lithosphere

When viewed through an optical telescope, planetary nebula ________.

look like giant planets such as Jupiter

Abundant plant material accumulating in a swampy environment with __________ is required for peat to form.

low oxygen levels

The property of cleavage reflects:

mechanical breakage along planes of weakness within the mineral.

Which two rock types would you expect to see sitting next to each other after a very long period characterized by only uplift and erosion?

metamorphic and sedimentary rocks

How is anthracite produced from bituminous coal?

metamorphism

Hurricanes and tornados are natural disasters. What branch of the Earth sciences studies the origin of these phenomena?

meteorology

The study of Earth's atmosphere is known as ________.

meteorology

Saturn's moon Titan has rain like Earth, but the rain is ________, not water.

methane

A scientist creates diamonds using high-pressure laboratory experiments. These diamonds are not considered minerals because which of the following requirements has been violated?

minerals must occur naturally

(DCA 7-8) A mineral's is produced by its ability to transmit light. Opaque minerals always have a ________ luster because they ________ light.

nonmetallic; do not transmit

Prior to the formation of the protostar, ________.

nuclear fusion does not occur

The silicon-oxygen tetrahedron contains:

one silicon atom and four oxygen atoms.

How will minerals orient when a rock is put under shear stress?

parallel to the direction of the shear stress

Humans are ________ the Earth System ________ Earth's environment in a major way.

part of; and affect

Name the progression of coal types with increased heat and pressure from burial.

peat, lignite, bituminous, anthracite

How will minerals grow when a rock is put under normal stress?

perpendicular to the direction of the greatest stress

How will minerals orient when a rock is put under normal stress?

perpendicular to the direction of the greatest stress

Kepler said that the ________ go(es) around the ________ on ________ orbits.

planets; Sun; elliptical

Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.

pluto

Basalt is an igneous rock that can be identified by its small crystals. What are they composed of?

pyroxene and calcium-rich plagioclase feldspar

In the field, you find an unidentified mineral that is clear, exhibits conchoidal fracture, and can scratch glass. This mineral is most likely:

quartz

The principal mineral used in making glass is:

quartz

Hardness describes a mineral's __________.

resistance to being scratched

What is a fine-grained igneous rock composed primarily of very small crystals of potassium feldspar and a few large crystals of quartz?

rhyolite porphyry

Which of the following agents move sediment from one place to another?

rivers, wind, glaciers

Which of the following rock types is most abundant on Earth's land surface?

sedimentary rock

Diamond and graphite are both minerals composed of ________.

single element

The formation of the solar system from a huge cloud of gases and dispersed particles is known as the ________.

solar galactic hypothesis

What is the modern explanation for "guest stars" that appear in the night sky and then disappear?

stars that go nova or supernova and appear as bright objects during the event and then go away

In the United States, the most common type of coal is __________ and the largest producing state is __________.

sub-bituminous; Wyoming Submit

The Andes Mountains in South America are formed as a result of ________.

subduction

The 5000 year old Stonehenge stone circle of Salisbury Plains, England, allows light shafts to come straight between two rocks on ________ in the Northern hemisphere.

summer solstice

Very large red stars, such as Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion, are called ________.

supergiants

The period of time required for the Moon to complete a cycle of phases is called the ________ month.

synodic

What experiments did Tuttle and Bowen perform?

tests of the temperature and pressure conditions required to melt granite and form magma

Crystal habit is the shape that a mineral develops by the repetition of __________.

the basic unit cell of a mineral

In silicate minerals, the type of cleavage or fracture is influenced by:

the bonding of the silicon-oxygen tetrahedra within the mineral.

The Oort cloud is ________.

the outer solar system where planetesimals, rocky debris and comets orbit outside beyond the outer planets but cross into the inner solar system at times

What is rock texture?

the way the rock looks

How do metamorphic rocks reach Earth's surface?

through removal of overlying rocks

Deep ocean trenches typically are not located adjacent to ________.

transform plate boundaries

The length of daylight on the Moon is about ________.

two weeks

Hornblende has _____ cleavage planes at _____ angles.

two; non-90°

What material was added to powdered rock during Tuttle and Bowen's experiments?

water

How does water content of granitic magmas change as the magmas move towards Earth's surface?

water content decreases

When would a granitic magma remain a magma beneath Earth's surface?

when the magma remains below the depth at which magmas become solid when the magma retains enough water to keep it from solidifying, regardless of depth

The belt of constellations through which all the planets move is called the ________.

zodiac