Unit 8 End of unit questions

8 .1 The diagram below shows a vertical section through an area of land.

Rocks A, B and C are sedimentary rocks. Rock D was formed from hot lava
that cooled. Rock E was changed by the heat from the lava.
a What type of rock is rock D? [1]
b What type of rock is rock E? [1]
C Rock A contains fossils.
i What is a fossil? [2]
ii Which other two rocks could contain fossils? [1]
d Explain how the sedimentary rocks were formed. [4]
e Give two ways in which the properties of rocks of the same type as rock D
differ from the properties of sedimentary rocks. [2]

8 .2 Two geologists investigated the transport of rock fragments by moving water.

They set up 50 m of tubing cut in half. They arranged the tubing so that the slope
got gradually less steep. The diagram below shows how they did this.

tubing cut

8 The Earth
 8 End of unit questions

The geologists then mixed rock fragments of different sizes into the water.
They poured the mixture of water and rock fragments into the top of the
tubing, at point 0 m.
As the mixture flowed down the tubing, the rock fragments gradually
dropped out of the water.
The geologists recorded the mass and diameter of the rock fragments
deposited at different distances from the starting point. At each of these
distances they examined the individual fragments and worked out the
mean mass and mean diameter for fragments found at each distance.

D istan ce from sta rtin g Mean m ass of rock Mean diam eter of rock
p o in t/m fra gm en ts / g fra g m e n ts/m m
5 0 no fragments deposited
10 0 no fragments deposited
15 16 4.0
20 23 3-5
25 27 3.0
30 31 2-5
35 36 2.5
40 39 2.0
45 45 1-5
50 48 0.5

a On graph paper, draw line graphs to show these results.

• Put ‘Distance from starting point’ on the horizontal axis.
• Put ‘Mean mass of rock fragments’ on the left-hand vertical axis.
• Put ‘Mean diameter of rock fragments’ on the right-hand vertical axis.
• Choose suitable scales for each of the axes. Label them fully, including
the correct units.
• Use a neat cross, X , to plot the points for ‘Mean mass of rock fragments’.
• Use a dot with a circle around it, © , to plot the points for
‘Mean diameter of rock fragments’.
• Join each set of points with a carefully drawn line.
b Describe how the mean mass of the rock fragments at each distance varies
with the distance from the start of the tubing.
C Describe how the mean diameter of the rock fragments varies with the
distance from the start of the tubing. •