Definitions for Test #1 (Spring Sem)

Question 1

Absolute Time:

Answer 1

Empty time apart from the events that occupy it.

Question 2

Unconformity:

Answer 2

Gaps in the rock record(3 types)

Question 3

Disconformity:

Answer 3

Break in the rock record caused by erosion or non-deposited sediment.

Question 4

Fossil:

Answer 4

the remains or traces of ancient life.

Question 5

Cyanobacteria:

Answer 5

A taxon of bacteria which conduct photosynthesis. They are not algae, though they were once called blue-green algae. It is a phylum of bacteria, with about 1500 species.

Question 6

Mesozoic:

Answer 6

Second of Earth’s three major geologic eras of Phanerozoic time. The Mesozoic Era began 252.2 million years ago. (MIDDLE LIFE)

Question 7

Relative time:

Answer 7

Relative timestamps display the number of minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years ago

Question 8

Angular unconformity:

Answer 8

Titled or folded sedimentary rocks are overlain by more flat-lying strata/four stages.

Question 9

Radioactivity:

Answer 9

The act of emitting radiation spontaneously. This is done by an atomic nucleus that, for some reason, is unstable.

Question 10

Trilobites:

Answer 10

An extinct marine arthropod that occurred abundantly during the Paleozoic era, with a carapace over the forepart and a segmented hind part divided longitudinally into three lobes.

Question 11

Pangaea:

Answer 11

The name was given to the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, before the process of plate tectonics separated each of the component continents into their current configuration.

Question 12

Cenozoic:

Answer 12

An era of geological history lasting from 70 million years ago to the present time in which there has been a rapid evolution of mammals and birds and of flowering plants.(RECENT LIFE)

Question 13

Uniformitarianism:

Answer 13

The principle that states that geologic processes that occur today are similar to those that have occurred in the past. Theory. The earthworks almost exactly the same today as it did in the past.

Question 14

Non-conformity:

Answer 14

An unconformity between two very different rock types.

Question 15

Half-life:

Answer 15

Amount of time it takes half the atoms of the parent isotope to decay, the ratio of parent-to-daughter is measured.

Question 16

Ammonites:

Answer 16

Extinct cephalopods especially abundant in the Mesozoic age that had flat spiral shells with the interior divided by septa into chambers.

Question 17

Paleozoic:

Answer 17

The era between the Precambrian eon and the Mesozoic era, or the system of rocks deposited during it.(ANCIENT LIFE)