Earth resources
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| rock cycle | 岩石循环 | yán shí xún huán |
| igneous | 火成岩 | huǒ chéng yán |
| sedimentary | 沉积岩 | chén jī yán |
| metamorphic | 变质岩 | biàn zhì yán |
| water cycle | 水循环 | shuǐ xún huán |
| renewable | 可再生 | kě zài shēng |
| non-renewable | 不可再生 | bù kě zài shēng |
Rock is a cycle, not a state
- The rock cycle 岩石循环 turns igneous into sedimentary into metamorphic and back, over millions of years.
- Igneous 火成岩 forms from cooled magma. Sedimentary 沉积岩 forms from compressed layers of debris. Metamorphic 变质岩 forms when heat and pressure change an existing rock without melting it.
- Every rock you can pick up has been something else, which is what "cycle" means here.
Match each rock type to how it forms.
Every rock has been something else, which is what makes it a cycle.
The water cycle
- The water cycle 水循环 moves water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation and runoff.
- It is the clearest closed cycle in science: the total amount does not change, only where it is.
- The water in a river was in the sea, in a cloud, and in an organism before, and will be again.
What does the water cycle do to the total amount of water on Earth?
A cycle that created matter would break conservation. It moves what already exists.
Resources
- Renewable 可再生 resources replace themselves within a human lifetime — sunlight, wind, timber if managed.
- Non-renewable 不可再生 resources do not: coal, oil, gas, and the metals in an ore body.
- ⚠ "Renewable" describes the rate of replacement, not whether it can be exhausted. A forest cut faster than it grows is being used non-renewably.
A forest is cut faster than it grows back. How is it being used?
"Renewable" describes a rate, not a category the resource belongs to permanently.
Why fossil fuels are non-renewable.
They are still forming — but over tens of millions of years, from buried organic matter under specific conditions.
We use them in a few centuries what took geological time to accumulate.
"Non-renewable" therefore means the rate is impossibly slow relative to use, not that the process has stopped. That distinction is what a good answer states.
Fossil fuels are non-renewable because the process that forms them has stopped.
It continues, but over tens of millions of years — impossibly slow relative to how fast we use them.
Cycles conserve matter; they do not conserve availability. The atoms in a scattered, diluted or chemically locked form are still present and no longer usable, which is what most resource problems actually are.
In one sentence, explain why recycling matters even though matter is conserved.
Example: "The atoms still exist after disposal, but once scattered and mixed they cost far more energy to recover than to keep separated."
Do not say the water cycle "creates" water. It moves and changes the state of water that already exists. A cycle that created matter would break conservation, and the marker is checking that you know it does not.