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Geology

124 cards · 🇺🇸 English

Rocks, minerals, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes and geologic time.

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Geology

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  1. 1Geology
    A branch of natural sciences concerned with the Earth and other astronomical bodies, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time
  2. 2Mineral
    A naturally occurring element or compound with a definite homogeneous chemical composition and an ordered atomic arrangement
  3. 3Three major types of rock
    Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic
  4. 4Igneous rock
    A rock that solidifies or crystallizes from melt (magma or lava)
  5. 5Sedimentary rock
    A rock formed when weathered and eroded material is redeposited and lithified; mainly divided into sandstone, shale, carbonate, and evaporite
  6. 6Metamorphic rock
    A rock formed when igneous or sedimentary rocks are transformed by heat and pressure that change its mineral content, resulting in a characteristic fabric
  7. 7Rock cycle
    The continuous process showing the relationship between igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, where all three types can melt and reform, or transform into one another
  8. 8Streak in mineralogy
    The color of the mark left by a mineral when scratched on a porcelain plate, used to help identify the mineral
  9. 9Hardness in mineralogy
    The resistance of a mineral to scratching or indentation
  10. 10Cleavage in mineralogy
    The breakage of a mineral along closely spaced parallel planes, as opposed to fracture which is breakage on uneven surfaces
  11. 11Luster
    The quality of light reflected from the surface of a mineral; examples include metallic, pearly, waxy, and dull
  12. 12Specific gravity
    The weight of a specific volume of a mineral
  13. 13Lithosphere
    The Earth's crust and rigid uppermost portion of the upper mantle, which is separated into tectonic plates
  14. 14Asthenosphere
    The plastically deforming, solid upper mantle beneath the lithosphere, over which tectonic plates move
  15. 15Plate tectonics
    The theory describing the coupling between rigid plates moving on the Earth's surface and the convecting mantle below
  16. 16Mid-ocean ridges
    High regions on the seafloor where hydrothermal vents and volcanoes exist, seen as divergent boundaries where two plates move apart
  17. 17Convergent boundaries
    Plate boundaries where plates move toward each other; one plate may subduct under another, forming volcanic arcs and earthquakes
  18. 18Transform boundaries
    Plate boundaries where plates slide horizontally past each other, such as the San Andreas Fault system
  19. 19Subduction
    The process where one tectonic plate moves under another at a convergent boundary
  20. 20Continental drift
    Alfred Wegener's theory that continents move across the Earth's surface over geological time, later explained by plate tectonics
  21. 21Main layers of Earth's structure
    From innermost: inner core, outer core, lower mantle, upper mantle, lithosphere, and crust (the uppermost part of the lithosphere)
  22. 22Inner core
    The dense solid innermost layer of the Earth
  23. 23Outer core
    The liquid layer of the Earth where shear waves cannot propagate
  24. 24Seismology
    The study of seismic waves, used to image the interior of the Earth and understand its layered structure
  25. 25Pangaea
    A supercontinent that existed from about 300 to 180 million years ago (Ma)
  26. 26Principle of uniformitarianism
    The geological processes observed in operation that modify the Earth's crust at present have worked in much the same way over geological time; 'the present is the key to the past'
  27. 27Principle of intrusive relationships
    When an igneous intrusion cuts across a formation of sedimentary rock, the igneous intrusion is younger than the sedimentary rock
  28. 28Principle of cross-cutting relationships
    Faults are younger than the rocks they cut; formations that were cut are older than the fault, and those not cut must be younger
  29. 29Principle of inclusions
    If inclusions (or clasts) are found in a formation, then the inclusions must be older than the formation that contains them
  30. 30Principle of original horizontality
    The deposition of sediments occurs as essentially horizontal beds

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