Chapters 1-3 Flashcards
___ is often paraphrased as “the present is the key to the past”
Uniformitarianism
The relatively stable interior portion of a continent is known as a
Craton
___ was an important 18th century geologist and proponent of uniformitarianism
James Hutton
The currently accepted age of the Earth is
4.6 billion years
The asthenosphere is actually part of the ____ of the Earth.
Mantle
The most prominent features on the ocean floor are the __
Oceanic ridges
The ___ forms the relatively cool, brittle plates of plate tectonics.
Lithosphere
The __ proposes that the bodies of our solar system formed at essentially the same time from a rotating cloud of gases and dust.
Nebular hypothesis
A ___ is a well tested and widely accepted view that best explains certain scientific observations
Theory
The composition of the core of Earth is thought to be ___
Solid iron-nickel alloy
The continental shelf is located
Landward of the continental slope
Active mountain belts are most likely to be found
Along the margins of continents
Name three sources of evidence as to the composition of the earths interior
Diamond bearing rocks
Slivers of crustal and mantle rocks now exposed at earths surface
Meteorites
The process by which rocks break down in place to produce soils and sediments
Weathering
True or false: continental selfs and stable platforms are part of the interior region known as a craton
True
True or false: internally the earth consists of spherically shells with different compositions and densities
True
Much of our modeling of the earths interior comes from the study of seismic waves
True
True or false. The asthenosphere is a relatively cool and rigid shell that overlies the lithosphere
False
The former last Paleozoic super continent is known as
Pangaea
The continental drift hypothesis was rejected primarily because Alfred Wagner could not___
Identify a mechanism capable of moving the continents
Which of the following paleoclimatic evidence supports the idea of the late Paleozoic super continent in the Southern Hemisphere?
Tillites (rocks formed by glaciers) in South Africa and South America
In the early part of the 20th century, ___ argued forcefully for continental drift
Alfred Wegener
___ was a flora that was widely distributed throughout the once contiguous, late Paleozoic, Southern Hemisphere landmass?
Glossopteris
True or false. A late Paleozoic glaciation affected southern India, southern Africa, and southeastern South America
True
Which carbonate mineral reacts readily with cool, dilute hydrochloric acid to produce visible bubbles of carbon dioxide
Calcite
What best describes ferromagnesian silicates?
They are black to dark green, silicate minerals containing iron and magnesium
How do electrons behave in a mineral with metallic bonding
They can move relatively easily from atom to atom inside the mineral
Which type of chemical bonding are electrons shared between adjacent atoms
Covalent
The ion at the center of a silicate tetrahedron is surround by
4 oxygen atoms
All silicate minerals contain which two elements?
Silicon, oxygen
Which of the following describes the light reflecting and transmission characteristics of a mineral?
Luster
What is the name given to an atom that gains or loses an electron in a chemical reaction
Ion
Which of the following minerals is a silicate? Hematite Halite Calcite Muscovite
Muscovite
Isotopes from the same element (atoms)
The atoms have different number if neutrons and the same number of protons
What element is most abundant in the earths crust by weight?
Oxygen
Atoms of different elements, having gained or lost electrons, for negative and positive ions that are bonded together by attractive forces between ions with opposite charges
Ionic bonding
Hornblende and other amphiboles have what type of silicate structure
Double chains
Clays are a typical product if what?
Weathering
Which of the following will react readily with acids such as hydrochloric? Quartz Calcite Diamond Talc
Calcite
Which group of minerals is most abundant in the earths crust?
Silicates
The strong tendency of certain minerals to break along smooth, parallel planes is known as
Cleavage
Which mineral is composed if silicon dioxide
Quartz
