Chapter 1 Flashcards
Physical geology
Examines the materials comprising earth and seems to understand the many processes that operate beneath and upon it’s surface
Geology
The science that pursues an understanding of planet earth
Historical geology
Study of the origin of earth and it’s development through time
Hydrosphere
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.
Atmosphere
Life giving gaseous envelope surrounding earth
Biosphere
Includes all life on earth
Geosphere
Solid earth that lays beneath the atmosphere and ocean
Earth system science
Aims to study earth as a system composed of numerous interacting parts, or subsystems
System
Any size group of interacting parts that form a complex whole
Closed system
Self containing with regard to matter
Open system
Energy and matter flow into and out of the system, most natural systems
Negative feedback
Works to maintain status quo
Positive feedback
Mechanisms that work to enhance or drive change
Hydrologic system
Evap, condensation, precipitation
Interface
A common boundary where diff parts of a system come in contact and interact
Energy sources for the earth system
Sun drives external processes that occur in the atmosphere and hydrosphere and at earth’s surface, also earths interior
Catastrophism
Earth’s landscape have been shaped by great catastrophes
Uniformitarianism
The physical, chemical, and biological laws that operate today have also operates in the geologic past
Age of Earth
4.6 billion years
Relative dating
Events are places in their proper sequence or order without knowing their age in years
Law of superposition
A layer is older than the one above it and younger than the ones below
Principle of fossil succession
Fossil organisms succeed one another in a definite and determinate order and therefore any time period can be recognized by it’s fossil content
Hypothesis
Tentative explanation
Theory
A well tested and widely accepted view that the scientific community agrees best explains certain observable facts
Continental drift
The idea that the continents moved about the face of the planet
The theory of plate tectonics
Provide geologists with the first comprehensive model of earth’s internal workings
