Geololgy Terms

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Rock

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The material that forms Earth's hard outer surface.

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Crust

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The layer of rock that forms Earth's outer surface.

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Geology

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The study of solid Earth.

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Geologist

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A scientist who studies the forces that make and shape Earth's surface.

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Seismic Wave

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A vibration that travels through Earth carrying the energy released during a earthquake.

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Inner Core

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A dense sphere of solid iron and nickle in the center of the Earth.

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Outer Core

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A layer of molten iron and nickle in the center of the earth.

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Mantle

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The layer of hot, solid material between Earth's crust and core.

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Lithosphere

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A rigid layer made of the uppermost part of Earth's mantole and crust. One of the four spheres which scientist divide Earth.

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Mineral

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A naturaling occuring inorganic solid that has a crystal structure and a definite chemical composition.

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Crystal

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A solid in which atoms are aranged in a pattern that repeats again and again.

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Streak

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The color of a minneral powder.

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Luster

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The way a mineral reflects light from it's surface.

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Fracture

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The way a mineral looks when it breaks aparrt in a irregular way.

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Density

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The measurment of how much mass of a substance is contained in a given volume.

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Cleavege

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A mineral's ability to split easily along a flat surface.

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Vein

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A narrow band of a mineral that forms from solution underground.

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Gemstone

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A hard, colorful mineral that has a brilliant or glassy luster.

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Texture

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Th size, shape, and pattern of a rock's grains.

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Grain

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A particle of a mineral or other rock that gives a rock it's texture

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Igneous Rock

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A type ofrock that forms from the cooling of molten rockat or below the surface of the Earth.

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Lava

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Magma that reaches the surface, also the rocked formed whenliquid lava hardens.

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Magma

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The molten mixture of rock-forming substances, gases, and water that make up part of Earths mantle.

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Intrusive Rock

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Igneous rock that forms when magma hardens beneath Earth's surface.

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Extrusive Rock

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Igneous rock that forms from lava on Earth's surface.

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Sedimentary Rock

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A type of rock that forms when particles from other rocks or the remains of plants and animals are pressed and cemented together

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Cementation

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When all the sedimment is "glued" together

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Compaction

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When all the sediment is squeezed together.

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Sediment

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Small, solid particals of material from rocks or organisms which are moved by water or wind, resulting in erosion or deposition.

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Erosion

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The process by which water, ice, wind orgravity moves fragments of rock and soil.

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Deposition

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The process by which sediment settles out of the water or wind that is carrying it, and is deposited in a new location.

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Metamorphic Rock

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A type of rock that forms from a existing rock that is changed by heat, preassure, or chemical reactions.

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Rock Cycle

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A series of processes on the surface and inside the Earththat slowly changes rocks from one kind to another.

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Plates

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A section of the lithosphere that slowly moves carrying peices of continental and ocenic crust.

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Pangea

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The name of the single landmass that broke apart 225 million years ago and gave rise to todays continent's.

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Theory of Plate Tectonics

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Earth's plates are always in slow motion.The Theory explaines how the plates form and move.

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Plate boundries

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A crak in the lithosphere where of the two Earth's plates meet.

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Alfred Wegener

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The Scientist who came up with the movingplates and Pangaea idea.

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Divergant Boundry

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The plates move apart from eachother forming a rift valley. (African Rift Valley)

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Convergant Boundry

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The plates move together forming a mountain. (Himalayas)

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Transform Boundry

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The plates slide past eachother causing a earthquake. (The San Andreas Fault, California)

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Hardness

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The hardness of a mineral depends on wether or not it can scratch certain things.

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Moh's Hardness Scale

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A scale made to rate the hardness of a mineral.

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Weathering

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Like erosion, it scatters and blows sediments everywhere.

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Continental Drift Theory

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The theory that wegner thought made all the plates move.