Earth’s structure & plate boundaries

1. What class of rock forms when existing rock is transformed by high heat and pressure without melting (e.g. limestone becoming marble): metamorphic or igneous?

2. Which type of crust is denser and thinner, causing it to subduct beneath continental crust: oceanic crust or continental crust?

3. What do we call the rigid outer shell of Earth comprising the crust and uppermost solid mantle: the lithosphere or the stratosphere?

4. What is the thin, outermost rocky layer of the Earth called: the crust or the inner core?

5. Why are fossils almost always found in sedimentary rock rather than igneous rock: molten magma destroys organic remains, or sedimentary rock forms in volcanoes?

6. What instrument records the ground vibrations (seismic waves) produced by an earthquake: a seismometer or a barometer?

7. What type of plate boundary occurs where two plates slide horizontally past each other (such as the San Andreas Fault): transform or divergent?

8. Which two metallic elements make up most of Earth’s dense core: iron and nickel, or sodium and potassium?

9. What generates Earth’s global magnetic field (magnetosphere): convection of liquid metal in the outer core, or ocean tides?

10. What class of rock forms from the compaction and cementation of deposited layers of sand, silt or shells (e.g. sandstone and limestone): sedimentary or metamorphic?

11. Which underwater mountain system runs down the centre of the Atlantic Ocean along a divergent boundary: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge or the Mariana Trench?

12. What type of tectonic plate boundary occurs where two plates move apart and new oceanic crust forms: divergent or convergent?