GEOLOGY STUDY GUIDE
By Mitchell Cottom, Camryn Owens
and Zackery deLaroche
Layers of the Earth
Layers of the earth
 Crust- thinnest layer
 Mantle- convection currents, thickest layer
 Outer Core- heats up the magma for the
convection currents in mantle
 Inner Core- compressed
Iron and nickel, so hot it’s
solid
Layers of the Earth and
Layers of the Atmosphere
Lithosphere
 thinnest layer
 the rock “shell” around the earth
Aesthenoshpere
 holds convection currents
Hydrosphere
 a thin layer of water that rests on the earth
 oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.
 covers ¾ of the earth’s surface
Troposphere
 lowest layer of the earth, contains all life and air
3 Types of mountains
 Folded
 Fault block
 Dome
Folded
 Folded mountains are formed when pressure
bends and folds rocks and the layers push
against each other.
FAULT BLOCK
 Pressure causes rocks layers to break and one
side pushes up or down.
 A fault then forms or a crack forms in a rock
layer.
Dome mountain
 Magma tries to push up through the surface
the mountain looks just like a pimple.
Alf’s theory
Alfred Wegener's theory that
the world was all on or
connected together in a
super contennt pangea
Evidince
 Continents look like they could fit togt\her
 Same Follies from two different continents
 Same mountain ranges and rocks.
Failure
 Unforgantly Alfred was not a person to study
u
rocks he was a whether man that’s why no
one belived him.
 But later on he was proven right.
Contenational drift
 The plates move cause of convection currents
at the assthenospere in the mantle.
 The lava down their swirls it cools then heats
up and the cycle repeats. And this makes the
plates move.
The direction plates move
 There are 3 different way a plate moves.
 1. Divergent is were 2 plates move away from
eah other.
 2. convergent is were 2 plates crash against
each other.
 3. transform fault is were 1 plate is going up
and the other going down and there grinding
into ech other.
Causes??????
 Divergent: sea floor spreading
 Convergent: mountain formation and
volcanoes
 Transform fault: earthquakes
Rock cycle
 three ways rocks break down are ice, water
,wind and gravity
 rock cycle is the forming of rocks
 the main cause of erosion is gravity
Igneous rock
 when lava or magma cools and hardens,
igneous rocks forms
 Intrusive is formed underground
 Extrusive is formed above ground

Weathering and erosions
 Weathering is the breaking down rocks
 Erosions breaks down rock in many ways
Wind , Ice, Gravity
 Gravity is the main causes of erosions
Minerals
 there are billions of minerals every where
 minerals are the building blocks of rocks
 minerals form up every rock
Sedimentary Rock
 Sedimentary rocks form when weathering
breaks down rocks and erosion carries it to a
different location
 the oldest fossils are found in this type of
rock
sedimentary rocks have lots of layers
Metamorphic
 Two causes of metamorphic rocks are heat
and pressure
 two examples of metamorphic rocks are
shale and sandstone