?What is the most abundant element in Earth’s crust? What is the second most abundant

Rank the following stages of sedimentary rock formation from first to last: (a) erosion, (b) lithification, (c) weathering, (d) deposition.

Other than location, what is the primary difference between Earth’s core and Earth’s crust? Explain.

What do we call minerals that have the same combination of elements but a different arrangement of elements?

The factors that influence bond strength influence mineral hardness. What are these factors?

Why is color not always the best way to identify a mineral?

While you are hiking in the wilderness, you find a shiny, glassy-looking mineral. What physical test could you use to determine whether this mineral is a diamond?

What makes gold so soft (easily scratched) while quartz and diamond are so much harder?

Imagine that we have a liquid with a density of \(3.5 \mathrm{~g} / \mathrm{cm}^{3}\) . Knowing that objects of higher density will sink in the liquid, will a piece of quartz sink or float in the liquid? How about a piece of chromite? Text Transcription: 3.5 g/cm^3

Is cleavage the same thing as crystal form? Why or why not?

For identifying metallic minerals, why is streak more useful than color?

How are minerals classified?

Silicon is essential for the computer industry in making microchips. Can silicon be mined directly from Earth? Defend your answer.

What two minerals make up most of the sand in the world?

What two mineral groups provide most of the ore that society needs?

How are ferromagnesian silicates different from nonferromagnesian silicates?

What is an ore?

If a rock contains mineral A (30% silica) and mineral B (25% silica), which would melt first as temperature rises?

If a rock contains mineral A (30% silica) and mineral B (25% silica), which would melt last as temperature increases?

If a magma contains molten forms of mineral A (30% silica) and mineral B (25% silica), which would crystallize first as the magma cools?

If a magma contains molten forms of mineral A (30% silica) and mineral B (25% silica), which would crystallize last as the magma cools?

If high-silica minerals are the last to crystallize, why aren’t high-silica minerals the last to melt?

Which of these is a true statement about silicate minerals? (a) Melting point decreases as silica percentage increases. (b) Melting point increases as silica percentage increases.

If a magma contains molten forms of quartz and olivine (a silicate mineral), which crystallizes first as the magma cools?

Are high-silica content minerals “easier” to melt than those with low silica?

What mainly determines a rock’s initial melting temperature?

If a rock contains both quartz and pyroxene (a silicate mineral), which melts first as the rock is heated?

Why is halite commonly the last mineral to precipitate from evaporating seawater?

Is Earth’s interior mostly magma? Explain.

In which parts of Earth’s crust (oceanic and/or continental crust) do we find the two common igneous rocks, basalt and granite?

Are the Hawaiian Islands made up primarily of igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic rock?

Why does magma composition change as it cools?

Is it possible for crystallization to enrich magma in more than just silica? Defend your answer.

Where does most magma originate?

Where on Earth’s surface are lava flows most common?

Would you expect to find any fossils in limestone? Why or why not?

How do chemical sediments produce rock? Name two rock types that form by chemical sedimentation.

Relate the shape and sorting of sand particles to the way in which they were most likely transported.

What general rock feature does a geologist look for in a sedimentary rock to determine the distance the rock has traveled from its place of origin?

What feature of clastic sedimentary rock enables the flow of oil after it has been formed?

In what two ways does sediment turn into sedimentary rock?

In a conglomerate rock, why are pebbles of granite very common and pebbles of limestone relatively uncommon?

Cite two examples of sedimentary rocks that provide information about past geologic events at Earth’s surface.

What is a fossil? How are fossils used in the study of geology?

What kind of weathering is imposed on a rock when it is smashed into small pieces? When it is dissolved in acid?

Can metamorphic rocks exist on an island of purely volcanic origin? Defend your answer.

What patterns of alteration are characteristic of contact metamorphism?

What are the two processes by which rock is changed during metamorphism?

What properties of slate make it good roofing material?

Name two mica minerals that can give a metamorphic rock its foliation.

How is foliation different from sedimentary layering?

Why do we find folded and fractured rock layers in zones of regional metamorphism?

What feature helps distinguish schist and gneiss from quartzite and marble?

How does gneiss differ from granite?

Why is schist so easily recognized?

Which type(s) of rock is (are) made from previously existing rock? Which type does not require high temperature and pressure for its formation?

What is the difference between the minerals that make up a rock and the minerals we find in common dietary supplements? Is it possible to supplement our diet by simply eating rocks?

If the volcanic glass obsidian is not considered a mineral, why is it considered a rock?

We have learned that silica content is a key factor in a mineral’s melting point. What other two factors can change a rock’s melting point?

Which type of rock is most sought by petroleum prospectors: igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic? Why?

Our dependency on fossil fuels has many repercussions—both economic and environmental. For example, the 2010 explosion of BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil rig is, to date, the largest accidental oil spill in history. What measures can be taken to prevent further oil spill disasters?

What physical properties are used to identify minerals?

Most mineral samples do not display their crystal forms. Why not?

What is a polymorph?

What is the difference between a silicate mineral and a nonsilicate mineral?

Silicate minerals are subdivided into ferromagnesian silicates and nonferromagnesian silicates. What two factors contribute to this subdivision?

What is the most abundant mineral in Earth’s crust? What is the second most abundant mineral?

Describe the process of crystallization.

What are two sources from which minerals crystallize?

As minerals crystallize in cooling magma, which minerals are the first to crystallize: The minerals with lower amounts of silica or the minerals with higher amounts of silica?

When water evaporates from a body of water, what type of sediment is left behind?

Name the three major types of rocks and describe the conditions of their origin.

What are the most common igneous rocks, and where do they generally occur?

What is meant by partial melting?

With respect to the silica content of the parent rock, what type of magma does partial melting produce?

What is the primary determining factor for a rock’s melting/crystallization point?

In Earth’s interior, does temperature increase or decrease with depth?

How does weathering produce sediment? Distinguish between weathering and erosion.

What is a clastic sedimentary rock?

What are the three most common clastic sedimentary rocks?

What is the most abundant carbonate rock?

How are most carbonate rocks formed?

What is metamorphism? What causes it?

Distinguish between foliated and nonfoliated metamorphic rocks.

In contact metamorphism, water-rich, low-melting temperature minerals are found far away from the contact zone. Give two examples of such minerals.

To see how various elements can separate from one another fill an empty large-mouthed jar (for example, a peanut butter jar) with sand, pebbles, coarse gravel, and small styrofoam pellets (perlite). Cap the jar and shake. After a vigorous shake, observe how the different materials settle. Is there a pattern? Shake the mixture a few times to allow the materials to settle. Which materials settle toward the bottom of the jar? Which materials migrate upward? How does the settling of various materials in the peanut butter jar mimic the distribution of Earth’s elements?

Rock candy is a great example of crystallization in a supersaturated solution. Dissolve as much sugar as possible in some boiling water, then allow the solution to cool. To form crystals you need a place for them to nucleate. Tie some string to a weight and lower the string into the solution before it cools. The longer you leave the string undisturbed in the solution, the larger the crystals of sugar. Although rock candy is a crystalline solid, it is not classified as a mineral. Why?

Look at some crystals of table salt under a microscope or a magnifying glass and observe their generally cubic shapes. There’s no machine at the salt factory specifically designed to give salt crystals these cubic shapes, as opposed to round or triangular ones. The cubic shape occurs naturally and is a reflection of how the atoms of salt are organized—cubically. Smash a few of these salt cubes and then look at them again carefully. What you’ll see are smaller salt cubes! Use the cleavage properties of crystals to explain these results.

A physical property of any material is its density—its mass per volume. Pennies made after 1982 contain both copper and zinc. Pennies made before 1982 are pure copper. Zinc is less dense than copper, so post-1982 pennies are less dense and have less mass than pre-1982 pennies. Dig into your penny collection and find 20 pre-1982 and 20 post-1982 pennies. Measure their masses on a sensitive scale, such as a home postage scale. Alternatively, hold the pennies in opposite hands to see if you can feel the difference in their masses. How few pennies can you hold and still feel the difference? Try holding single pennies on your left and right index fingers. Can you tell the difference with your eyes closed? Try this with a friend.

The freezing, then thawing, of three common refrigerator items—ice, butter, and cheese—will help solidify your understanding of partial melting. Step 1. Mix cubes of ice, butter, and cheese together with a little water, and put this mixture in the freezer. Once this mixture has frozen, it will be your “rock.” Step 2. Put this “rock” in a bowl in the refrigerator overnight, and then examine the contents of the bowl the next day. (a) In this mixture: What melts? What doesn’t melt? How is the melt different from the original “rock”? Now let’s think about the partial melting of real rocks: (b) What melts? What doesn’t melt? How is the melt different from the original rock? Now let’s consider the cooling and solidification of the melt: (c) How are the first-formed igneous rocks different from the rock that originally melted?

Gold has a density of 19.3 g/\(\mathrm{cm}^{3}\) . A 5-gal pail of water (density of water = 1.0 g/\(\mathrm{cm}^{3}\) ) has a mass of about 18 kg. What is the mass of a 5-gal pail of gold? Text Transcription: cm^3

Refer to “Figuring Science: Silica Enrichment in Magma” on page 545 to solve the following problems: What are the mass percentages of the oxides MgO, FeO, and \(\mathrm{SiO}_{2}\) in pyroxene, \(\mathrm{MgFeSi}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{6}\)? Give your answers in whole numbers. Hint: Express the formula for pyroxene as a sum of its constituent oxides. (a) How many kilograms of silica are in 225 kg of pyroxene? (b) If 325 kg of olivine and 225 kg of pyroxene have crystallized out of the 1000 kg of magma, what is the mass percentage of silica in the remaining liquid? Text Transcription: SiO_2 MgFeSi_2O_6

When Earth first formed, it’s elements were distributed evenly. Rank, from first to last, the episodes that brought about Earth’s uneven distribution of elements: (a) gravitational contraction heating, (b) radioactive decay heating, (c) density segregation, (d) impact heating.

Mineral hardness depends on chemical bond strength. From hardest to softest, rank the following minerals: (a) quartz, (b) diamond, (c) gold.

Rank the magma types in order of increasing (low to high) silica content: (a) basaltic, (b) granitic, (c) andesitic.

Each of the following statements describes one or more characteristics of a particular metamorphic rock. Name the rock for each statement, then rank them from lowgrade to high-grade. (a) foliated rock, sometimes derived from granite, (b) foliated rock, possessing excellent rock cleavage; generally used in making blackboards, (c) foliated rock containing about 50% platy minerals; named according to the major minerals in the rock.

Chemical bond strength greatly influences certain physical properties of a mineral. Rank these properties as to how much (from most to least) they are affected by chemical bonding. (a) color, (b) density, (c) hardness, (d) cleavage.

Most minerals can be identified by their physical properties. Rank the following properties used for mineral identification from most useful to least useful: (a) color, (b) hardness, (c) streak, (d) cleavage.

Rank these rock-forming minerals from most abundant to least abundant: (a) silicates, (b) carbonates, (c) sulfates, (d) phosphates.

Different minerals crystallize at different times. Rank the following minerals in their order of crystallization: (a) quartz, (b) feldspar, (c) olivine, (d) pyroxene.

In partial melting, rocks and minerals with a low melting temperature melt more easily. Rank these minerals in order of partial melting: (a) quartz, (b) feldspar, (c) olivine, (d) pyroxene.

How did density segregation contribute to Earth’s internal layers?

What three sources of heat contributed to the melting and density segregation of early Earth?

What is the most abundant element for Earth as a whole?

What is the most abundant element in Earth’s crust? What is the second most abundant element?

. What is a mineral?

What does inorganic mean in the definition of a mineral?

Which of these rocks—granite, sandstone, limestone, or halite—is the first to weather in a wet (humid) climate? Why?