13. Earth and Space Sciences Flashcards
What is the difference between Earth science, Geology, and Meteorology?
The study of the physical makeup of Earth is often called Earth science. Geology describes Earth’s physical appearance, and meteorology deals with the atmosphere and weather.
What is the difference between the earth’s mesosphere, asthenosphere, and lithosphere?
Mesosphere is located in the lower mantle surrounding earth’s core. In the mesosphere, temperatures are high enough to melt rock, but a tremendous amount of pressure keeps all the material solid.
Asthenosphere is in the middle part of the mantle. The rocks there are solid, but they move like glaciers do. (It’s called plastic flow.) The temperatures in the asthenosphere are still very high, which can lead to some melting.
Lithosphere is the uppermost part of earth’s mantle, and it’s attached to the crust. The rocks in the lithosphere are solid, thick, and brittle, like the crust, but they’re not officially part of the crust because they’re made from different minerals than the crust is.
Geologists classify rocks into three major categories: sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. Differentiate all of them.
Sedimentary: Formed by sediment (such as particles of sand, seashells, and other materials, sedimentary rocks “grow” in layers. Over a long period of time, sediment hardens — but it is still considered soft, as far as rocks go. This type of rock most often contains the fossils.
Metamorphic: Metamorphic rocks form because of the heat and pressure below Earth’s surface. these rocks sometimes gave shiny crystals inside them and may form layers that look like ribbons, such as marble gneiss.
Igneous: Magma, the super-heated molten rocks simmering below Earth’s crust and above its mantle, collects in pockets called magma chambers beneath volcanoes that eventually erupt. (It’s ultra-hot — between 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit). When magma comes out through a volcano, it’s lava. Cooed lava form igneous rocks. Magma that cools quickly is shiny and glasslike; when it cools slowly, crystals can form. Obsidian and granite are types of igneous rock,
What are the three major types of faults in Earth’s crust?
- Reverse fault
- Normal fault
- Strike-slip fault
What is the Richter magnitude scale?
The Richter magnitude scale is a mathematical formula that scientists use to compare the size of earthquakes.
What are oceanographers?
Oceanographers study the physical and biological properties of the seas. They look at temperature, rising, and falling levels, sea creatures, and the geologic frameworks that make the oceans, well, the oceans.
Earth has only one global ocean, which covers 72 percent of the planet and holds 97 percent of the planet’s water, but scientists have divided it into five named oceans to make keeping track of regions easier, what are those?
- Atlantic
- Pacific
- Indian
- Arctic
- Southern
Earth itself is about ______ years old.
4.54-billion-year-old, which scientists determined by studying the oldest mineral grains on Earth (tiny zirconium silicate crystals that are at least 4.3 billion years old).
What are the layers of the Earth’s atmosphere? Differentiate
Different the percentages of how much nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide within the atmosphere.
- Nitrogen = 78%
- Oxygen = 21%
- Argon = 0.93%
- Carbon dioxide = 0.04%
What is the magnetosphere?
Earth’s magnetosphere is a globe of space around the planet’ that is controlled by our magnetic field. It’s not part of the atmosphere, but it is important because it deflects solar wind. Earth’s magnetic field is invisible, but because Earth’s core is made from iron and other hot, liquid metals that create electrical currents, it’s there — and its protective forces come out of the Souther Hemisphere (where the south pole is) and travel back into the planet in the Northen Hemisphere (where the north pole is).
What are contrails?
Air is warmest near ground-level in the bottom of the troposphere, and it becomes colder at higher levels; that is why you can sometimes see snow on the peaks of big mountains in the summer and why jets leave white trails, called contrails, in the sky.
How does temperature affect density?
Temperature affects air density (how closely packed the air molecules are). Cold air is denser than warm air. Because it is denser, cold air has high pressure, compared to warm air’s low pressure. (A barometer measure atmospheric pressure). Air moves from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure, creating wind. The angle of the sun also affects air density (the sun shines directly over the equator but not the poles).
Air masses have certain characteristics depending on where they form, can you elaborate?
- If an air mass forms over land, it’s dry, and if it forms over water, it’s wet.
- Air masses formed in Earth’s northern and southern regions are cold, and those formed at the equator are warm.
What happens when two different air masses meet?
When two different air masses meet, they don’t mix. They form a boundary called a front. When cold air meets warm air, cold front develops. The warm air may be pushed up to form clouds, causing heavy rain. When a warm air mass meets a cold air mass, a warm front develops. The war air passes over the cold air, forming a different kind of cloud, which causes light rain.
What are the three main types of clouds?
What are the phases of the moon?
