Name: _____________________________________________ Period: __________

Minerals and Rocks Test Review Sheet

Our Test is Thursday, December 5th
** Remember tests are 70% of your science grade.

Directions: Use what you have learned about minerals and rocks, and the information glued
into the back of your lab notebook to help you answer the following questions. This review
sheet is for your use to help prepare for the mineral and rocks test.

1. What are rocks made of? ________________________________________

2. How do scientists identify the different minerals that are found in rocks?

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3. Give three examples of properties that scientist might look for when they are trying

to identify a mineral.

a. One property is

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b. A second property is

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c. A third property is

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4. Does the size of a mineral affect (change) the properties of a mineral? For

example, if one diamond is smaller than another diamond, will the hardness of the

smaller diamond be different than the hardness of the larger diamond?

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5. Look at these minerals from the Mohs Hardness Scale: Quartz (scratches copper,

and scratches glass), Gypsum (scratches copper but does not scratch glass).

a. Which one in this list of minerals is the hardest? How do you know?

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b. Which one in this list of minerals is the softest? How do you know?

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6. What is the rock cycle?

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7. Explain how an igneous rock is formed.

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8. Explain how a sedimentary rock is formed.

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9. Explain how a metamorphic rock is formed.

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10. What are two identifying characteristics of a metamorphic rock?

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11. What are two identifying characteristics of an igneous rock?

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12. What are two identifying characteristics of a sedimentary rock?

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13. What is a natural resource?

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14. A rock is slowly worn down into smaller pieces by wind and rain. What is this

process called? ____________________________________________________

15. You are looking at a cliff that contains layers of sedimentary rocks. There are

four layers that you can see. If we number the layers 1, 2, 3, and 4 with layer 1

being the top layer and layer 4 being the bottom layer, which layer is the oldest?

The oldest rock is layer number ________________

I know this is the oldest layer because

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16. Why are sedimentary rocks the only ones that contain fossils?

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