1. Comparisons of rocks and minerals and how they are related

2.  A mineral is a substance found in nature. They are solid, non-living substances.  Minerals are made of atoms  Earth has more than 3,500 different kinds of minerals.

3.  Crystal shape – A mineral’s atoms can make shapes called crystals. The crystal gets its shape from the way the atoms inside are arranged. Crystals have smooth, flat surfaces and sharp edges.  Cubicorthorhombic rhomboid

4. Hardness Hardness test – Mohs scale from 1 – 10 Talc #1 --------- Diamond #10 Streak – The colored line a mineral makes on a plate.

5.  Some minerals break apart in a special way.  CleavageFracture  Color Luster

6.  When minerals mix together, they become rocks.  Magma is made from many minerals.  As magma cools, the minerals harden together and become rocks.

7.  Igneous rocks are rock made from cooled magma.  ObsidianGraniteBasalt

8.  Metamorphic rocks are changed by being heated and squeezed.  Metamorphic rocks are usually very dense.  Gneiss SchistMarble

9.  Sedimentary rocks are made of pieces of sediment that have been glued together.  The glue for the rocks is made when water dissolves some minerals which later harden.  Breccia Conglomerate Sandstone

10.  The rock cycle is continuous and moving in all possible directions.

11.  It takes mechanical energy to move the sediments to form sedimentary rocks.  Magma has a tremendous amount of heat to melt minerals together.  It requires tremendous heat and pressure to form metamorphic rocks.

12.  Erosion changes the surface of the Earth by wearing away the materials.  mudslide water erosion Dust storm

13.  Weathering changes Earth materials.  Chemical Mechanical

14.  Soil forms when rock has been weathered and eroded.

15.  Fossils are the remains or traces of ancient life.  They are at least 10,000 years old.  They can be mineralized samples such as petrified wood.  They can be materials from the organism like bones and fur.  They can also be traces of the organism like footprints or nests.

16.  Fossils are most commonly formed when:  1. An animal dies and its skeleton settles to the seafloor where it is buried by sediment.  2. The sediment thickens and begins to turn to stone.  3. The skeleton dissolves and a mold is formed.  4. Minerals crystallize inside the mold and a cast is formed.  5. The fossil is exposed on Earth’s surface due to erosion.

17.  Deposition happens when the energy causing the transportation of sediments is unable to move them further.  Therefore, they are deposited in an area.  Sediments are deposited in layers.

18.  Rocks are dated by relative age.  The older rocks are said to be at the bottom, while the younger rocks are normally on the top.

19.  These rocks have been folded  In this case the youngest ones may not always be on top.

20.  These rocks have been faulted  Again some of the rocks have shifted, so relative age is harder to determine.

21.  Fossils show evidence of the changing surface of the Earth.  This fish fossil found in a mountain side is evidence that there was once a water habitat in this area.

22.  Recently deposited fossil layers are more likely to contain fossils resembling existing species than the older rock layers.  The fossils in unit O will be closer to the existing species than those in the lower units. M will contain the oldest species.

23.  Energy from Earth’s interior causes changes to Earth’s surface. EarthquakesVolcanoes

24.  The Earth’s rock layer is broken into pieces that are in constant slow motion.  From time to time, the pieces lock together, and energy that accumulates between the pieces may be suddenly released.  It travels through the Earth in the form  of waves.  People on the Earth experience an earthquake.

25.  An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth’s crust that creates seismic waves.  These seismic waves transfer mechanical energy.

26.  A volcano is an opening in the Earth’s crust which allows hot magma to escape from below the surface.

27.  A volcano is a release of energy that built below the surface of the Earth due to heat and pressure.  Flowing magma transfers heat and mechanical energy.

28.  Small changes over time add up to major changes on Earth’s surface.