Chapter 1

Question 0

Physical geology

Answer 0

Examines the materials comprising earth and seems to understand the many processes that operate beneath and upon it’s surface

Question 1

Geology

Answer 1

The science that pursues an understanding of planet earth

Question 2

Historical geology

Answer 2

Study of the origin of earth and it’s development through time

Question 3

Hydrosphere

Answer 3

A dynamic mass of water that is continually on the move, evaporating from the oceans, to the atmosphere, precipitating to the land, and running back to the ocean again.

Question 4

Atmosphere

Answer 4

Life giving gaseous envelope surrounding earth

Question 5

Biosphere

Answer 5

Includes all life on earth

Question 6

Geosphere

Answer 6

Solid earth that lays beneath the atmosphere and ocean

Question 7

Earth system science

Answer 7

Aims to study earth as a system composed of numerous interacting parts, or subsystems

Question 8

System

Answer 8

Any size group of interacting parts that form a complex whole

Question 9

Closed system

Answer 9

Self containing with regard to matter

Question 10

Open system

Answer 10

Energy and matter flow into and out of the system, most natural systems

Question 11

Negative feedback

Answer 11

Works to maintain status quo

Question 12

Positive feedback

Answer 12

Mechanisms that work to enhance or drive change

Question 13

Hydrologic system

Answer 13

Evap, condensation, precipitation

Question 14

Interface

Answer 14

A common boundary where diff parts of a system come in contact and interact

Question 15

Energy sources for the earth system

Answer 15

Sun drives external processes that occur in the atmosphere and hydrosphere and at earth’s surface, also earths interior

Question 16

Catastrophism

Answer 16

Earth’s landscape have been shaped by great catastrophes

Question 17

Uniformitarianism

Answer 17

The physical, chemical, and biological laws that operate today have also operates in the geologic past

Question 18

Age of Earth

Answer 18

4.6 billion years

Question 19

Relative dating

Answer 19

Events are places in their proper sequence or order without knowing their age in years

Question 20

Law of superposition

Answer 20

A layer is older than the one above it and younger than the ones below

Question 21

Principle of fossil succession

Answer 21

Fossil organisms succeed one another in a definite and determinate order and therefore any time period can be recognized by it’s fossil content

Question 22

Hypothesis

Answer 22

Tentative explanation

Question 23

Theory

Answer 23

A well tested and widely accepted view that the scientific community agrees best explains certain observable facts

Question 24

Continental drift

Answer 24

The idea that the continents moved about the face of the planet

Question 25

The theory of plate tectonics

Answer 25

Provide geologists with the first comprehensive model of earth’s internal workings