Coaching Centre
Chapter 6: The Changing Earth Notes
The structure of the Earth, moving plates, igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, weathering, erosion and deposition, the rock cycle, minerals and mining, fossils, and how scientists work out the age of rocks.
Sections
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6A Inside the Earth Mastered
How the Earth formed, its layers (crust, mantle, outer core and inner core), the lithosphere and asthenosphere, and how earthquake waves let scientists see inside the planet.
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6B Moving plates Mastered
Continental drift and Gondwana, tectonic plates and why they move, divergent, convergent and transform boundaries, and how plate movement causes earthquakes, volcanoes and mountains, including in Australia.
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6C Igneous rocks Mastered
Magma and lava, intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks, why cooling rate controls crystal size, and common igneous rocks such as granite, basalt, pumice, scoria and obsidian.
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6D Sedimentary and metamorphic rocks Mastered
How sediments are deposited, compacted and cemented into sandstone, shale, conglomerate, limestone, coal and rock salt, and how heat and pressure change rocks into slate, schist, gneiss, marble, quartzite and hornfels.
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6E Weathering, erosion and deposition Mastered
Physical, chemical and biological weathering, erosion by water, wind, ice and gravity, deposition, and the Australian landforms they create.
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6F The rock cycle Mastered
The rock cycle as a model linking igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, the processes and energy sources that drive it, plate tectonics as its engine, and James Hutton's discovery of deep time.
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6G Rocks and minerals Mastered
The difference between rocks and minerals, mineral properties (colour, lustre, streak, hardness, cleavage and more), the Mohs scale, using a key to identify minerals and rocks, and why properties decide how we use them.
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6H Mining and mineral resources Mastered
Ores and the metals they contain, Australia's mineral resources, how geologists find ore deposits, open-cut, underground and in-situ mining, processing, recycling, rehabilitation, First Nations heritage, and science careers in the minerals industry.
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6I Fossils Mastered
What fossils are, the conditions under which they form, kinds of fossils (body, mould and cast, trace, amber, petrified), how palaeontologists study them, and famous Australian fossil sites.
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6J Dating rocks and deep time Mastered
Relative dating with superposition, cross-cutting relationships, unconformities and index fossils; radiometric dating and half-life; the age of the Earth; and the geological time scale.
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6K The changing Earth review Mastered
A summary of the whole Changing Earth chapter, key words, and a mixed test covering the Earth's structure, plates, the three rock types, weathering and erosion, the rock cycle, minerals, mining, fossils and dating.