Changes To Earth's Surface Flashcards
What is the thin outer layer of the Earth, including dry land and the ocean floor?
The Crust
The crust is the ________ and least ________ layer.
Thinnest, dense.
What layer is thick under continents and thinner under oceans?
The crust
What is the thick layer of the Earth beneath the crust?
Mantle
The upper part of the Mantle is ______, like Earth’s crust.
Rigid
Underneath it is a _______of hot, soft rock.
Zone
What is the crust and the stiff upper part of the mantle?
Lithosphere
What is the lower part of the mantle?
Asthenosphere
What is the Asthenosphere made up of?
Iron and magnesium silicate minerals
The asthenosphere is said to have plasticity because it is ___, ___, and can ____.
Hot, soft, flow
What is the layer of Earth extending from the Earth’s center to the bottom of the mantle?
The Core
What is the core mostly?
Iron and nickel
What is made of very hot LIQUID iron and nickel?
Outer core
The movement of the outer core produces Earth’s what?
Magnetic field
What is very hot but the pressure from the layers around it make it into a solid metal ball?
Inner core
The inner core is a ______?
Solid Metal ball
What is the process by which rock is broken down into smaller pieces?
Weathering
What are some examples of weathering?
Grand Canyon, and the Bad Lands
What is the removal of transportation of weathered materials?
Erosion
What is a powerful tool that causes erosion?
Gravity
What are small pieces of rock that are weathered and eroded and carried by wind and water?
Sediments
What is the dropping or settling of eroded material and occurs vey close to where sediment was originally produced?
Deposition
How do wind water and gravity change Earth’s surface?
They weather, erode, and deposit materials
What is a large sheet of moving ice that stays frozen year round?
Glaciers
What are the 3 ways that glaciers can change the landscape?
A)Can carve out areas of earths surface, deposit large piles of sediment, cause the land to uplift when glaciers retreat
B) cause the land to go down when glaciers retreat, wipe out sediment, fill in areas of Earth’s surface
A
What are rocks from space?
Meteorites
What causes Earth’s craters to form?
Meteorite impacts cause craters to form.
What is the theory that the lithosphere is divided into plates that are always moving, breaking apart, and colliding!
Plate tectonics
Most plates are made up of both _______ and __________ crust.
Oceanic, Continental
Which statement is correct?
A)The North American Plate is smaller & has more continental crust then the pacific plate
B)The North American Plate is larger & has less continental crust then the pacific plate
A
What are the 3 main types of boundaries?
Divergent Boundary, Convergent Boundary, Transform Fault Boundary
What is the boundary where 2 or more plates are moving away from each other
Divergent Boundary
What is a chain of mtns. beneath the ocean?
Mid-Ocean Ridge
What is the highest part of the mid-ocean ridge where plates move?
Rift
What is the new lithosphere formed along the mid-ocean ridge from the ocean bottom cooling & becoming rigid?
Sea-floor spreading
What is the boundary where 2 plates moving PAST eachother?
Transform Fault Boundary
What is the boundary where 2 plates move toward each other?
Convergent boundary
What is a famous transform fault boundary?
San Andreas fault
San Andreas is where ___________ occur from the plates grinding pat eachother.
Earhquakes
What is a super continent where all of the continents where connected about 220 Million years ago.
Pangea
Why do scientists believe there was a super continent that existed about 220 million years ago?
Because the continents fit together much like a puzzle, they have found similar fossils & rock on completely different continents.
What is a break in the Earth’s crust where one side can move in relation to rock on the other side?
Fault
What is a vibration in the Earth’s crust, caused by the release of energy as a fault?
Earthquake
What is the point inside the Earth where an earthquake begins?
Focus
What is the point on Earth’s surface directly above the focus of an earthquake?
Epicenter
What are the fastest waves caused by earthquakes, they compress and expand the ground as they travel?
P waves
What is the 2nd fastest wave caused by earthquakes that move across the direction the p waves are traveling?
S waves
S waves can move __ and ____ or ____ to ____.
up, down, side ,side
What causes an earthquake?
Pressure along faults that is released in the form of waves of energy cause an earthquake.
What are readings used to calculate an earthquake’s strength?
Seismograph
What estimates the amount of energy released by an earthquake?
Richter scale
What uses the amplitude of earthquake waves to estimate an earthquake’s energy and fault rupture area?
Moment Magnitude scale
The Mercalli intensity scale measures what?
An earthquakes damage.
What is a powerful earthquake that occurs beneath the ocean?
Tsunami
What does a Tsunami do to the ocean floor?
Causes it to rise and fall & produce large destructive waves that can travel great distances.
What are the effects of a Tsunami?
Tsunamis flood costal regions & cause major damage & erosion.
What is a mtn. formed when molten rock is pushed to earth’s surface & builds up?
Volcanoes
What causes a volcano to form?
Magma that rises to Earth’s surface & erupts from a vent that causes a volcano.
What are the types of volcanos?
Shield, Composite, and Cinder
What volcano is broad, dome shaped that may erupt many times in a period of more that a million years?
Shield
What volcano may erupt on & off for as long as a million years?
Composite
What volcano has steep side and erupts for a short period of time?
Cinder
Most Cinder volcanoes are less than ____ tall.
300m
What caused the Hawaiian Islands to form?
The Pacific plate moved over a hot spot: magma erupted & formed a chain of volcanoes.
What is the most accurate scale for measuring the amount of energy released during an earthquake?
A) Mercalli intensity scale
B) Moment magnitude scale
C) Richter Scale
B
