Review for Lab Exam 1 (week of September 26, 2011)

This Exam will begin at the start of lab and will include questions from the first two labs.

The lab will be open starting Sunday night and continuing during the exam week, so that you can review the minerals.

Lab 1: Density, Isostasy & Plate Tectonics  (you will be provided with a calculator and a ruler)

• Know the approximate (average) densities of ocean crust, continental crust, and asthenosphere and how they behave isostatically (i.e., do they sink, float, float high/float low, etc).
• Be able to calculate density when given mass and volume.
• Be able to compare the densities of different materials and how they would behave isostatically.
  
• Be able to use the bouyancy equations (below) that you used in lab to calculate the height of the crust floating above or below the asthenosphere (based on density differences).
  
  
  
  
• Know the types of plate boundaries (and examples of each), and density differences in the crust, astensophere, and whole Earth.
  
  

Lab 2: Minerals  (you will be given streak plates and glass plates to use during the exam).

• Given a mineral sample*, be able to answer the following questions:

             * Is this mineral metallic or non-metallic?

             * Is this mineral harder or softer than glass?

             * Is this mineral harder or softer than your fingernail?

             * How many directions of cleavage does this mineral have?

             * What color is the streak of this mineral?

*Note: You should be able to answer these questions for any mineral on the list (samples A - O). The samples for this portion of the exam will not necessarily be a mineral sample you saw in lab (i.e., minerals A–V).

• Know the distinguishing properties of minerals A–O (there will be 1 or 2 distinguishing properties for each mineral).
  
• Be able to identify minerals A–O without the charts in your lab manual.

*Hint: You do not need to memorize every property of every mineral;  you only need to memorize each mineral’s distinguishing properties.

For Example: Hematite’s distinguishing property is that it is the only mineral that streaks red/brown. If you are given a sample on the test that streaks red/brown, then you know that it is hematite.

Warning: You will be given some A–O mineral samples that look different than the ones you saw during lab. Prepare for this by knowing the distinguishing properties of minerals A–O; Do NOT try to just memorize what the mineral samples look like.