1. Writing and Bell Ringer 2-14-11
Where would you expect to find the oldest rock on the ocean floor?
What is deep-ocean trench?
Why is important to understand minerals before looking at rocks?

2. Writing and Bell Ringer 2-15-11
Write a summary over the lesson from yesterday.
What happens to oceanic crust at a deep-ocean trench?
What features form where two continental plates come together?

3. Writing and Bell Ringer 2-16-11
What are some questions you still have about minerals and rocks?
What are plates?
In your own words, what is the theory of plate tectonics?

4. Writing and Bell Ringer 2-17-11
What does plate tectonics means to you?
What do scientists think causes the movement of Earth’s plates?
What are the three types of plate boundaries?

5. Writing and Bell Ringer 2-22-11
What are some things you learned from the assignment from Thursday?
What kind of indirect evidence do geologists use to study the structure of Earth?
How do temperature and pressure change as you go deeper into Earth?

6. Writing and Bell Ringer 2-23-11
Give a detailed description of what plate tectonics means to you.
What happens in Earth’s interior to produce Earth’s magnetic field? Describe the layer where the magnetic field is produced.
Why are there convection currents in the mantle?

7. Writing and Bell Ringer 2-24-11
How are clastic rocks and organic rocks similar? How are they different?
Why are the oldest parts of the ocean floor no older than about 200 million years old?
How do magnetic stripes form on the ocean floor? Why are these stripes significant?

8. Writing and Bell Ringer 2-25-11
Why are earthquakes so common in California?
How are oceanic and continental crust alike? How do they differ?
What do many geologists think is the driving force of plate tectonics? Explain

9. Writing and Bell Ringer 2-28-11
Write a short paragraph that explaining in your own words what a geologist does.
Scientists refer to plate tectonics as a theory. What is a theory? How is plate tectonics a theory?
Why isn’t continental drift considered a theory?

10. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-1-11
Explain how pressure and temperature change with depth.
Briefly describe the inner and outer cores, the mantle, and the crust.
In what ways is the lithosphere different from the athenosphere?

11. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-2-11
What would Earth look like of most of its crust was above sea level?
Why do you see only the dry land areas of tectonics plates on a typical world map?
Describe the structure of most tectonics plates.

12. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-3-11
Which evidence for continental drift do you think is the most convincing? Explain your answer.
How does the age of the sea floor show the plates move?
What evidence did Wegener gather to support his continental drift hypothesis?

13. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-4-11
A friend tells you he read on a Web site that Earth is getting smaller. What can you tell him that shows Earth’s size is not changing?
Give three types of evidence from the sea floor that prove Earth’s tectonic plates move.
Explain how the motions in the asthenosphere can move tectonic plates around Earth.

14. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-7-11
Explain what happens when oceanic plates move apart.
What happens when the floor of a rift valley sinks below sea level?
How does a hot-spot volcano form?

15. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-8-11
Suppose a magnetic reversal occurred today. How would new rocks at mid-ocean ridges differ from rocks that formed last year?
Name and describe the three types of plate movements.
How are hot spots used to track plate motion?

16. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-9-11
Write a summary of yesterday lesson.
Why do deep-ocean trenches form at both types of subduction?
What makes the San Andreas Fault a transform boundary?

17. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-10-11
Why is the theory of plate tectonics so important to geologists?
What are three types of convergent boundaries?
Describe what happens at a transform boundary.

18. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-11-11
What problems did you encounter creating your model of the earth?
How does the theory of plate tectonics help geologists predict future geologic events?
How do rocks record changes Earth’s magnetic field?

19. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-15-11
Write about a current event that happened recently that involves an earthquake.
How does shearing affect rock in Earth’s crust?
What is the difference between a hanging wall and a footwall?

20. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-16-11
What are your thoughts on the earthquake that happened in Japan?
What type of plate movement causes fault-block mountains to form?
What are the three main types of stress in rock?

21. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-17-11
Why do hills often show different kinds of rocks?
How does tension change the shape of Earth’s crust?
Compare the way that compression affects the crust to the way then tension that affects the crust.

22. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-21-11
Explain how the directions of force differ in compression, tension, and shearing.
What is a fault?
Why do faults often occur along plate boundaries?

23. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-22-11
Compare and contrast the three types of seismic waves.
What type of fault is formed when plates diverge, or pull apart? What type of fault is formed when plates are pushed together?
Name five kinds of landforms caused by plate movement.

24. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-23-11
What are the advantages of using the moment magnitude scale to measure an earthquake?
How does energy from an earthquake reach Earth’s surface?
What kind of movement is produced by each of the three types of seismic waves?

25. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-24-11
What type of data do geologists use to locate an earthquake’s epicenter?
When do P waves arrive at the surface in relation to S waves and surface waves?
What is an earthquake’s magnitude?

26. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-25-11
How does liquefaction cause damage during an earthquake?
What is a seismograph?
What are four ways that earthquakes cause damage?

27. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-28-11
Compare and contrast mechanical weathering and chemical weathering.
What is weathering?
What is erosion?

28. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-29-11
How does rainfall affect the rate of weathering.
What is chemical weathering?
What are two factors that affect the rate of weathering?

29. Writing and Bell Ringer 3-30-11
Discuss the three main factors used to classify soils?
What five materials make up soil?
How do soil horizons form?