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WalesGeologyQuick questions
F1: Elements, Minerals and Rocks
Quick questions on The rock cycle - WJEC A-Level Geology
5short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the rock cycle as a system?Show answer
The rock cycle is the continuous set of processes that creates, destroys and recycles rock, linking the three classes. There is no fixed route around it: a rock may move from any class to any other depending on where it ends up in the Earth. The cycle is best understood as a balance between processes that break rock down at the surface and processes that build and transform it at depth.
What are recycled crust at subduction zones?Show answer
Oceanic sediment carried down a subduction zone is metamorphosed and partly melted, feeding volcanoes that build new igneous rock, a working example of the cycle at a plate margin. The Welsh slate belt. Mudstones deposited in a sea were buried, lithified, then regionally metamorphosed to slate during mountain building, then uplifted and quarried, several rock-cycle stages preserved in one region. Time and the cycle. Because the cycle has run throughout Earth history, very old crustal atoms have passed through many rocks, which is why dating individual minerals can give older ages than the rock that now hosts them.
What is q1?Show answer
Define lithification and name its two processes. [2 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Name the process that converts magma into igneous rock and the process that converts a buried rock into a metamorphic rock. [2 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
State the two energy sources that drive the rock cycle and what each powers. [2 marks]
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