What is the source of energy that transforms igneous rocks into sedimentary rocks? What is the source of energy that transforms sedimentary rocks into metamorphic rocks?
What is the source of energy that transforms metamorphic rocks into igneous rocks? Are these sources of energy internal or external? Explain.
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: Sedimentary rocks result from external processes, including weathering, transport, and deposition. The energy to break down and move sediment comes ultimately from the sun. To get rocks to a place where they can be weathered, energy from plate tectonics must also be involved. Igneous rocks are certainly related to internal heat and plate tectonics; metamorphic rocks are also more internal-process related. A sedimentary rock that is going to be transformed into an igneous rock by melting will most likely first metamorphose as it warms up. So, metamorphic and igneous rocks form as a result of Earth's internal energy, the same energy that drives plate tectonics. The surface processes that generate, move, and dump sediments are ultimately driven by solar energy.
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A hanging valley forms from the eroded valley of a tributary valley glacier that met the trunk valley
glacier at an elevation high above the valley floor of the latter. What will be an ideal response?
Most gases enter the ocean from ________. They dissolve most readily in ________ water
a. hydrothermal vents; cold b. hydrothermal vents; warm c. the sea surface; warm d. the sea surface, cold
A valley breeze would develop its maximum strength:a
at sunrise. b. in early afternoon. c. about an hour after sunset. d. about midnight.
A landfill that was abandoned about 20 years ago has been eroding. Trees and grasses that had grown on the surface have died, the soil is eroding away, and buried wastes are now exposed at the surfaces
Nobody has been doing anything with the landfill for years. Most likely, these problems are the result of A) rodents trying to dig up the buried wastes. B) biogas seeping to the surface. C) settling of the Earth as the buried wastes decompose. D) leachate generation from the buried wastes.