Earth’s structure & plate boundaries

1. Which seismic body waves travel fastest through the Earth and can pass through both solids and liquids: P-waves (primary) or S-waves (secondary)?

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

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

4. 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?

5. What ocean wave can be triggered when a powerful submarine earthquake vertically displaces the seafloor: a tsunami or a spring tide?

6. What class of rock forms when molten magma or lava cools and solidifies (e.g. basalt and granite): igneous or sedimentary?

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

8. When slow-cooling magma solidifies deep underground (such as granite), does it form large visible crystals or no crystals?

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

10. Is Earth’s inner core solid or liquid despite its extreme temperature, due to immense pressure?

11. What type of plate boundary occurs where two plates collide, forming fold mountains or subduction trenches: convergent or transform?

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