The Rock Cycle

Question 1

Which of the following best describes how the Sun’s energy drives the water cycle on Earth?

Accepted Answer

The Sun’s heat causes water in oceans and lakes to evaporate, turning it into water vapor that rises, cools, condenses into clouds, and later falls as precipitation.

Answer

The Sun’s light directly pushes water droplets upward from the surface into the atmosphere, where they combine to form clouds that eventually fall as rain.

Answer

The Sun’s energy creates strong winds that blow water vapor across the planet, and the moving vapor eventually turns into rain without any change in temperature.

Answer

The Sun’s warmth melts ice caps, and the resulting liquid water flows downhill into rivers that carry it to the oceans, completing the cycle.

Question 2

A geologist studies a piece of basalt that erupts from a volcano. Over millions of years the rock is uplifted, weathers into sand, the sand is compacted into a new rock, then the rock is buried deep enough to experience high heat and pressure, and finally it melts and solidifies again. Which of the following sequences correctly lists the rock types the sample becomes at each stage?

Accepted Answer

Basalt → Sandstone → Quartzite → Granite

Answer

Basalt → Shale → Marble → Granite

Answer

Basalt → Limestone → Schist → Basalt

Answer

Basalt → Conglomerate → Limestone → Granite

Question 3

Which statement correctly describes how a sedimentary rock is formed?

Accepted Answer

Layers of sand, mud, and small shells become compacted and cemented together over time.

Answer

Magma cools slowly beneath the Earth’s surface and solidifies into rock.

Answer

Heat and pressure transform existing rock into a new type of rock.

Answer

Lava cools quickly on the Earth’s surface and hardens into rock.

Try three questions

Which of the following best describes how the Sun’s energy drives the water cycle on Earth?

Which statement correctly describes how a sedimentary rock is formed?

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