Mrs. Downs' Science Classes – Minerals, Rocks, and Soil Unit Review Sheet

Minerals, Rocks, and Soil Unit Review Sheet

Directions: Use your notes and BOTH texts to fill in this review sheet. Keep it and study it and do not turn it in to me until the day you are ready to take your test over Minerals, Rocks and Soil Formation.

1.	A is an inorganic, naturally occurring, solid crystalline substance with a definite chemical composition. They may be either , or pure substances like gold (Au), copper (Cu), graphite (C), and sulfur (S), or , with two or more kinds of atoms, like quartz (SiO₂) and halite (NaCl).
2.	We seldom find pure elements or even pure minerals lying around, we mostly find , which are composed of one or more minerals. If the rock contains an economically desirable metal, it is a/an . Heating and refining it to separate the valuable part is called .
3.	Make sure you refresh your memory on the more common minerals uses and special properties. Remember that is resistance to scratching, is breaking with smooth, flat surfaces, is breaking unevenly, is the shininess of the mineral, and is the color of the powdered mineral. In addition, if the mineral can be hammered into a thin sheet, it is said to be , if it is it can be stretched into a thin wire, and if electricity will flow through it, it is .
4.	The United States makes up only _____% of the world’s population, but uses up a whopping _____% of its mineral resources.
5.	In open-pit or strip mining, giant machines remove the ore from huge holes in the ground. The ore is separated from the leftover rock, and large piles of the discarded materials, called chat, are left in chat piles. Less damaging to the environment, but more dangerous to the miners, is shaft mining. The three greatest dangers are the collapse of the shafts, explosions caused by natural gas, and lung disease, maybe years later, caused by breathing particulate matter. means scraping or vacuuming the bottom of rivers or the ocean for sand and gravel.
6.	We can minimize the damages mining causes the earth by: , or using the same product over and over again, , in which discarded products are treated and used to make new products, and , or using a renewable resource in place of a nonrenewable one.
7.	rocks form when molten rock cools and hardens. rocks form from the compaction and cementation of bits and pieces of pre-existing rock, and chemical and organic methods. rocks form when other rocks are changed by heat and pressure.
8.	Igneous rocks can be classified by , or grain size (fine, medium, and coarse) and by , often indicated to us by color (light, medium, and dark). The light colored minerals are in the family, examples are and . The darker minerals are in the family, and examples are and . The medium colored minerals are in the family, and examples are and .
9.	Sedimentary rocks can be classified to the method by which they formed. sedimentary rocks form from the fragments of other rocks. Examples are and . sedimentary rocks form when mineral grains or settle out of a chemical solution, or by evaporation. Examples are: and . chemical sedimentary rocks form from the remains of plants and animals, like and some types of .
10.	Metamorphic rocks are classified according to their mineral composition and whether or not they exhibit (are banded or striped.) Examples are and .
11.	Any type of rock may turn into another type of rock through the never ending .
12.	is the solid rock that weathers and eventually becomes soil. An area of bedrock that is the source of an area of soil is said to be its rock. is a mixture of inorganic particles, air, water, and organic materials. It may take hundreds or thousands of years to form just _______ cm of topsoil. A is a vertical cross section of the soil, and contains distinct layers, such as the A horizon, or , the B horizon, or , the C horizon, or partially weathered bedrock, also called , and the R horizon, or .
13.	soils contain mineral grains from .05 – 2.0 mm in diameter. soils contain mineral grains from .002 – .05 mm in diameter. soils contain mineral grains < .002 mm in diameter. The best soils are a mixture of all three, called soils.