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Lava Under the Telescopes: The Rock Cycle on Cinder Peak

Grade 7 earth science: an astronomy club studies lava flows of different ages, a baked road cut and basin layers to model the rock cycle and its energy sources.

Grade 7ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-ESS2-1

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
11 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 7
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students analyze lava flow data to describe how weathering breaks down igneous rock over time.
Students use a road cut to model how igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks form from one another.
Students identify the Sun and Earth's interior heat as the energy sources that drive the rock cycle.

How to use

Have students sketch the road cut from Table 2 before they start the second section; the open response works well as an exit ticket.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-ESS2-1

Model the cycling of Earth's materials and the energy that drives the rock cycle.

Preview

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Name Date

Lava Under the Telescopes: The Rock Cycle on Cinder Peak

Use lava flow ages, a road cut and a dry lake basin to model how Earth's materials cycle and what drives them.

Four lava flows

Read the passage and study Table 1. Then answer the questions.

Before the Stars Come Out

1Cinder Peak Observatory sits on top of a volcanic mountain, 2,800 m above sea level, where the air is dry and the night sky is very dark. Once a year, the Westfield Middle School astronomy club spends a night there. This year, before the telescopes opened, the observatory's staff geologist, Dr. Saoirse Delaney, led the club and its advisor, Mr. Callum Reyes, on a sunset walk down the summit trail.

2The mountain is part of a volcanic field. Magma still lies several kilometers below it, and small earthquakes sometimes show that it is moving. When the magma reaches the surface as lava, it cools quickly into basalt, a dark rock with tiny crystals and many gas holes. The trail crosses four lava flows of different ages. On each one, Dr. Delaney broke open a loose stone and showed the club its rind, a pale outer layer where water and air have begun to change the rock. Table 1 shows her measurements.

3The summit gets snow in winter and summer thunderstorms. On many clear nights the temperature drops below 0 °C, even in summer. Rainwater runs down gullies on the mountain's sides and spreads out in a wide, dry lake basin at its foot. After each big storm, a new thin layer of mud and sand settles there.

4On the drive back down, the club stopped at a road cut where workers had sliced through the edge of the basin. Table 2 lists the layers, from top to bottom. Just under the 100,000-year-old lava flow, the mudstone is dark, hard and glassy for about 30 cm, while the mudstone farther down is soft and crumbly. Club member Mateo Quispe noticed that the sandstone is full of small, rounded grains of dark basalt.

5When the telescopes opened, Mr. Reyes pointed out one more thing: the clear, dry nights that make the summit great for stargazing are also the nights when the rock gets coldest.