What is the molten rock that flows out of a volcano called?
Answer : Lava
Lava is magma that has reached the surface.
Questions and answers: Geology & Volcanoes
Revise Geology & Volcanoes: here is a selection of questions of every level, with the answer and an explanation. To test yourself without seeing the answers, play the quizzes.
Play the Geology & Volcanoes quizzesVery easy
What do we call the shaking of the ground caused by moving plates?
Answer : An earthquake
Such shaking is also called a seismic event.
Which of these is a rock?
Answer : Granite
Granite is a hard rock.
What is the central part of the Earth called?
Answer : The core
The core is the deepest layer.
What is the opening at the top of a volcano called?
Answer : The crater
The crater is where lava and gas escape.
On which layer of the Earth do we live?
Answer : The crust
The crust is the thin outer layer.
What is the highest mountain in the world above sea level?
Answer : Mount Everest
Everest is in the Himalayas.
In which country is Mount Fuji?
Answer : Japan
Fuji is an iconic volcano of Japan.
Easy
Which of these is one of the main types of rock?
Answer : Sedimentary
The three types are igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.
Which scale is traditionally used to measure earthquake magnitude?
Answer : The Richter scale
Charles Richter devised it in 1935.
What is molten rock found underground called?
Answer : Magma
Magma becomes lava when it reaches the surface.
What was the supercontinent that joined all land about 250 million years ago called?
Answer : Pangaea
Pangaea later broke apart.
Which mineral is the hardest on the Mohs scale?
Answer : Diamond
Diamond has a hardness of 10.
What is a rock formed by cooling magma called?
Answer : An igneous rock
Granite and basalt are examples.
Which volcano destroyed Pompeii in 79 AD?
Answer : Vesuvius
Pompeii was buried under ash.
What is the point on the surface directly above an earthquake's origin called?
Answer : The epicentre
The epicentre is often the hardest-hit area.
Medium
What is quartz mainly made of?
Answer : Silicon dioxide
Quartz is crystalline silica (SiO2).
Which layer of the Earth lies between the crust and the core?
Answer : The mantle
The mantle makes up most of Earth's volume.
Which instrument records ground vibrations during an earthquake?
Answer : The seismograph
The seismograph draws the seismogram.
Marble forms by the transformation of which rock?
Answer : Limestone
Limestone turns into marble under heat and pressure.
Where is new oceanic crust formed?
Answer : At mid-ocean ridges
Magma rises there and solidifies.
Mauna Loa in Hawaii is which type of volcano?
Answer : A shield volcano
Shield volcanoes have gentle slopes.
On which mid-ocean ridge does Iceland lie?
Answer : The Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Two plates are moving apart there.
What is the boundary where two plates slide horizontally past each other, like the San Andreas Fault?
Answer : A transform boundary
The San Andreas Fault is the classic example.
Hard
What is the boundary between the crust and the mantle called?
Answer : The Moho (Mohorovičić discontinuity)
It was identified in 1909.
Which mineral is number 1 on the Mohs scale?
Answer : Talc
Talc is the softest mineral.
Which seismic waves arrive first at a seismograph?
Answer : P waves
P waves are the fastest.
In which year did the great eruption of Krakatoa take place?
Answer : 1883
It caused a deadly tsunami.
Which part of the Earth's core is liquid?
Answer : The outer core
The inner core is solid despite the heat.
To which category of rock does sandstone belong?
Answer : Sedimentary rocks
It is made of cemented sand grains.
What is the process where one tectonic plate sinks beneath another called?
Answer : Subduction
It happens at ocean trenches.
Which scale measures the explosiveness of volcanic eruptions?
Answer : The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)
The VEI runs from 0 to 8.
Expert
What is the boundary between the mantle and the outer core called?
Answer : The Gutenberg discontinuity
It lies at about 2,900 km depth.
Which Danish seismologist discovered the solid inner core in 1936?
Answer : Inge Lehmann
She interpreted reflected P waves.
The 1815 eruption of Tambora led to the "year without a summer" in which year?
Answer : 1816
The ash cooled the global climate.
Which mineral dominates peridotite, the main rock of the upper mantle?
Answer : Olivine
Olivine is a magnesium-iron silicate.
What is the correct order of the Mesozoic periods, oldest to youngest?
Answer : Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous
The Mesozoic is the era of dinosaurs.
Which natural volcanic glass forms from the rapid cooling of silica-rich lava?
Answer : Obsidian
Obsidian breaks with a conchoidal fracture.
Where did the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, in 1960 with magnitude about 9.5, strike?
Answer : Chile
It is known as the Valdivia earthquake.
Which mineral has a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale?
Answer : Corundum
Ruby and sapphire are varieties of corundum.
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