Question 1
Very slow flow of hot rock deep inside Earth
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Key Idea
Mantle convection moves only centimeters per year, but over millions of years it acts like a giant heat conveyor belt that helps drive plate motion and fuels volcanoes.
Earth Sciences Quiz
The Earth and the processes that shape it.
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Question 2
Break in rock where the two sides have moved past each other
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Key Idea
Faults can slip suddenly in earthquakes or creep slowly over years, and geologists classify them as normal, reverse, or strike-slip based on how the rocks move.
Question 3
This image question appears in the interactive quiz.
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Key Idea
Floods occur when water exceeds the land’s capacity to contain or absorb it.
Question 4
What process commonly thickens the crust, which helps high elevations last a long time?
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Key Idea
In collision zones, crustal thickening creates a deep, buoyant "root" that helps mountains stay high, and later rebound upward as erosion strips mass away.
Question 5
Mineral chemistry allows ions of very different size and charge to substitute inside a crystal.
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Key Idea
Mineral chemistry allows ions of similar size and charge to substitute inside a crystal. Crystal lattices are picky: Goldschmidt's rules say substitutions work best when ionic radii differ by less than about 15%, and charge mismatches usually require coupled substitution to stay neutral.
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