Earth's Structure, Rocks, and Cycles
Key facts on Earth's layers, plate tectonics, the rock cycle, and the water cycle for exam success.
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Questions Covered in This Set
10 cards to master
What are Earth's four main layers, from outside in?
Crust, mantle, outer core, inner core.
What is the lithosphere?
The rigid outer shell — the crust plus the uppermost cool mantle — broken into about 15 tectonic plates that move over the weaker asthenosphere.
What drives the movement of tectonic plates?
Convection currents in the mantle, powered by heat from radioactive decay, plus slab pull at subduction zones.
Name the three types of plate boundary and one example of each.
Divergent/constructive (Mid-Atlantic Ridge), convergent/destructive (Andes or Japan), transform/conservative (San Andreas Fault).
Why was Wegener's continental drift idea rejected at first?
He had evidence (matching coastlines, Glossopteris fossils, rock sequences, glacial scratches) but no mechanism; sea-floor spreading and magnetic striping in the 1960s later supplied it.
How does cooling rate affect igneous crystal size?
Slower cooling = bigger crystals. Granite cools slowly underground (intrusive, large crystals); basalt cools fast at the surface (extrusive, small crystals).
How do sedimentary rocks form, and what is special about them?
Sediment is transported, deposited in layers, then compacted and cemented (or precipitated from shells/chemicals). They are the only rocks that contain fossils.
How do metamorphic rocks form? Give two examples.
Existing rock is changed by heat and/or pressure without melting: limestone → marble; shale → slate (granite → gneiss).
What is the difference between weathering and erosion?
Weathering is the breakdown of rock in place (freeze–thaw, chemical, biological); erosion is the transport of the fragments by water, wind or ice.
What energy sources drive the water cycle?
Solar energy (causing evaporation and transpiration) plus gravity (causing precipitation, run-off and percolation).
