2. Why does marble rarely contain fossils?
This is because of the way that it is formed. When you have a rock that is formed through metamorphosis then it has been created through heat and pressure acting on other rocks.
Fossils are inherently delicate things and therefore precious little would withstand the conditions that are required to create marble - and therefore marble hardly ever contains fossils as a direct result of this.
It moves because the huge pressure of the ice and snow lowers the freezing point of its lower layers, causing them to melt.
4. Why did the continents spread apart?
This is due to the heat generated from the earth's interior and earthquakes - the convection currents deep within the earth because the movement of the material that sits on top.
5. Which type of rock is critical for the formation of geysers?
Liquid rock is needed for geysers to form in the form of what is called magma - which is the geological name for liquid rock. Without that, you cannot get geysers forming.
The lower section of the Earth's crust has been reached. The possibility of the mantle is not far away. Depths of over 4,500 feet have been reached.
7. Which kind of volcano is the most destructive?
Well each type of volcano can be very destructive and if you are talking in human loss of life terms than the answer is any type of volcano that is near dense population.
The most destructive type of volcano though that is generally acknowledged; as such, independent of people is that which is called the stratovolcano.
This is the Great Barrier Reef off the northeast corner of Australia.
Many carbonate minerals will do this. However since this is a chemistry homework question - I'm guessing for GCSE - then almost certainly the answer they are looking for is calcium carbonate, because this equation often needs to be learnt and then perhaps balanced in an exam question.
10. Where would you expect to find the oldest basalt on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean?
The oldest sea floor in the Atlantic that is made of basalt is to be found closest to the continents, the further into the ocean away from land that you go, the newer the sea floor.
This is because new sea floor is still being added in the middle of the ocean and therefore the banding and age of the rocks gets increasingly older the further you move from the centre of the ocean.
