Chapter 4 lines of evidence Flashcards
Pangaea
is the name we give to the super continent that existed before the breakup of the plates into their minor constituents.
Creationism
a belief that the Earth was actually young but created to look old
Uniformitarianism
the processes like erosion that happened in the past are happening now
Catastrophism
the belief that the major landforms were created by catastrophic events and that cannot be accounted for by uniform processes
Evolution
an idea that changing life forms take generations to evolve indicating an Earth much older than suggested by Creationists
Paleoclimate
Paleoclimate studies indicate that major ice sheets that covered the poles also covered the landmasses that were at those latitudes.
Glacial striations
indicating the direction of glacial movement
Isotope
An unstable atom or element that has extra mass (neutrons) in its nucleus.
Parent
An unstable isotope.
Daughter
The decay product of an isotope. A daughter product can be another isotope or the stable form of an atom. Different kinds of particles (alpha or beta) are involved in the decay process.
Half-life
The time it takes for one half of the radioactive nuclei in a sample to decay.
eta decay
The decay of carbon-14 is called a beta decay
