Format:  24 multiple choice questions (one diagram included); 21 matching questions which have 11 possible answers, so some answers will be used more than once; 8 true-false questions; 4 short answer/essay questions (which can be answered with a couple of sentences).

Things to know:

the difference between a rock and a mineral

The chemical terms (felsic, intermediate, mafic, and ultramafic) and textural terms (aphanitic, phaneritic) for classifying crystalline igneous rocks
That people sometimes use "granitic" to mean felsic, "andesitic" to mean intermediate, "basaltic" to mean mafic,  and consisting of peridotite to mean ultramafic, as these are common rocks composed of those compositions
 

	felsic - most rich in silica	intermediate	mafic - silica poor	ultramafic - poorest in silica
aphanitic - fine grained	rhyolite	andesite	basalt	komatiite
phaneritic - fine grained	granite	diorite	gabbro	peridotite

We have clastic and chemical sediments.  Clastic sediments are classified solely on the basis of size:  gravel, sand, mud

The continental crust of the earth is primarily felsic (although composed of a mixture of different rock types), the oceanic crust is mafic, and the earth's mantle is ultramafic

Chemical layers of the Earth:  crust, mantle, core
Mechanical layers of the Earth:  lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere, outer core, inner core

You should know that the core is made of metal, the inner core is solid, the outer core is liquid. The Earth's magnetic field is generated in the outer core.  The magnetic field has reversed polarity numerous times in the last 3 million years.

The mesosphere is the lower part of the mantle and is a stiff, but plastic solid, which flows under stress; the asthenosphere is a region in the upper mantle (also known as the low-velocity zone), which is a plastic solid, but where the rocks are close to their melting temperature, and small amounts of magma are present--this is the layer where almost all of our magma comes from; the lithosphere is the uppermost mechanical layer of the Earth and is part crust and part mantle.  The "plates" of plate tectonics are pieces of lithosphere.  All of our earthquakes occur in this layer, with most occurring at plate boundaries (we can actually locate the boundaries by seeing where there are a lot of earthquakes).

Plate tectonics:  You should review the evidence that Wegener used for his hypothesis of continental drift (shape of continents, matching fossils on either side of the Atlantic, etc.).  Three types of plate boundaries:  divergent (plates move apart, new oceanic crust/lithosphere created, rift valleys such as the East African Rift Valley and mid-ocean ridges); convergent (plates come together, subduction destroys old oceanic lithosphere, trench at the boundary, intermediate composition volcanoes a bit away from the boundary, leading to continental collisions and formation of folded mountain belts); transform boundary (plates slide by each other, good example is San Andreas fault system).  In general plates, such as the Pacific plate or the North American plate have all types of plate boundaries somewhere along their edges.  Plate tectonics results from the Earth cooling by convection.

Hot spots, such as Hawaii are not part of the convection current motion associated with plate tectonics, but result from a rising column of hot rock known as a mantle plume.

Material that is in isostatic compensation will not have a gravity anomaly.  You get a positive anomaly when rocks underground are "denser" than expected, and a negativ anomaly when rocks are less dense.  (Gravity depends on mass--an anomaly means you have more or less mass than is typical).

Aulocogen - failed rift
Ophiolite - section of oceanic lithosphere that has become incorporated onto a continent during collision of two continental pieces.
Craton - part of continent that has not been tectonically active for the last billion years or so
Orogen - part of continent that has been "recently" tectonically active - and so has had mountain building
Passive continental margin - not at a plate boundary, created by rifting, characterized by a broad continental shelf
Active continental margin - at a plate boundary - characterized by a narrow continental shelf

Mass movements are classified on the basis of type of movement, type of material involved, rate of movement
the slowest type is creep (which can form "trees with knees"), the fastest is a rockfall (which leaves a pile of debris known as talus at the base of mountains)
Slides move along a flat surface, slumps along a curved surface, and flows move as if the material is a liquid
The fundamental cause of mass wasting is gravity overcoming the slope's resisting force
The steepest angle a slope can maintain without collapsing is known as the angle of repose

Streams:  erosion by dissolution (to produce chemical sediiments), abrasion (which is a gradual rubbing away or abrading of material--creates potholes), and hydraulic action (which is a repeated pounding or hammering by a mass of water).  Find gravels and coarse sands near the stream source, giving way to sand in the bed farther from the sediment source.  During floods, water overflows levees and creates a flood plain composed typically of mud.
A meandering stream will erode one side (creating a cut bank) while depositing on the other side (creating a point bar) of a curve.  The makes the curve (ore meander) "curvier" over time.  Eventually, a meander loop can be cut off from the rest of the stream creating an oxbow lake.  Streams create alluvial fans when they abruptly change slope upon leaving a mountainous region, and they create deltas where they meet water (a delta consists of topset, foreset, and bottomset beds, with the finest sediments on the bottom).  Competence is a measure of the largest size particle that a stream can carry; capacity is a measure of the stream's total sediment load (regardless of size).