Earth

Question 1

The inner part of the earth is the *. This part of the earth is about 1,800 miles (2,900 km) below the earth’s surface. The core is a dense ball of the elements iron and nickel. It is divided into two layers, the inner core and the outer core.

Answer 1

core

Question 2

The * core - the center of earth - is solid and about 780 miles (1,250 km) thick. The * core is so hot that the metal is always molten, but the inner core pressures are so great that it cannot melt, even though temperatures there reach 6700ºF (3700ºC). The outer core is about 1370 miles (2,200 km) thick.

Answer 2

inner, outer

Question 3

Because the earth rotates, the outer core spins around the inner core and that causes the earth’s *

Answer 3

magnetism

Question 4

The layer above the core is the * . It begins about 6 miles (10 km) below the oceanic crust and about 19 miles (30 km) below the continental crust (see The Crust). The mantle is to divide into the inner mantle and the outer mantle. It is about 1,800 miles (2,900 km) thick and makes up nearly 80 percent of the Earth’s total volume.

Answer 4

mantle

Question 5

The * lies above the mantle and is the earth’s hard outer shell, the surface on which we are living. In relation with the other layers the crust is much thinner. It floats upon the softer, denser mantle. The crust is made up of solid material but these material is not everywhere the same. There is an Oceanic crust and a Continental crust. The first one is about 4-7 miles (6-11 km) thick and consists of heavy rocks, like basalt. The Continental crust is thicker than the Oceanic crust, about 19 miles (30 km) thick. It is mainly made up of light material, like granite.

Answer 5

crust

Question 6

Divergent boundaries within continents initially produce * which eventually become * . Most active divergent plate boundaries occur between oceanic plates and exist as *.

Answer 6

rifts, rift valleys

mid-oceanic ridges

Question 7

Convergent plate boundaries

Answer 7

island arc, trench, mountain range

Question 8

the process which involves movements of the earth’s crust such that a portion id pushed up, push down or forced sideways

Answer 8

DIASTROPHISM

Question 9

the process when the sideward forces acting on rocks deform the rocks into wavelike folds after tilting, bending of wrinkling.

Answer 9

 Folding

Question 10

• the process by which rock fragments and sediments are carried along by such agents as wind and running water

Answer 10

EROSION

Question 11

the process by which rock fragments and sediments ae carried by agents of erosion are dropprd or deposited in other places

Answer 11

DEPOSITION

Question 12

the process by which rock fragments and other materials that accumulated, usually at the bottom of a thick column of water, get cemented together and harden into rock

Answer 12

COMPACTING

Question 13

a change in constitution of a rock brought about by pressure, heat and chemical action resulting in a more compact and highly crystalline condition of the rock

Answer 13

METAMORPHISM

Question 14

used to measure humidity, amount of water vapor in air.

Answer 14

hygrometers or psychrometer

Question 15

any visible mass of water droplets, ice crystals, or a mixture of both that is suspended in the air, usually at a considerable height

Answer 15

Cloud

Question 16

a shallow layer of cloud at or near ground level.

Answer 16

fog

Question 17

Clouds consist entirely of water droplets, entirely of ice crystals, or of a mixture of water droplets and ice crystals, with crystals predominating in the colder, upper regions of the * .

Answer 17

troposphere

Question 18

clouds are high, white, and thin.
They form delicate veil-like patches or wisplike
strands and often have a feathery appearance.
“curl” or “filament.”)

Answer 18

Cirrus

Question 19

clouds consist of flat sheet-like structures or layers

(*) that cover much or all of the sky.

Answer 19

Stratus (stratiform)

Question 20

clouds consist of globular
cloud masses that are often described as cottonlike
in appearance. Isolated heap or tufts

Answer 20

Cumulus means “heap” or “pile” in Latin.)

Question 21

violent rain

a cloud that is a major producer of precipitation.

Answer 21

nimbus

Question 22

drops of
water that fall from a cloud and have a diameter of at
least 0.5 millimeter (0.02 inch) reaching to 6 mm

Answer 22

rain

Question 23

is precipitation in the form of ice crystals (snowflakes)
or, more often, aggregates of crystals.

the solid form of water that crystallizes in the atmosphere and, falling to the Earth,

Answer 23

snow

Question 24

consists of clear to translucent ice pellets

Answer 24

SLEET

Question 25

are a form of precipitation consisting of small, translucent balls of ice.

Answer 25

ice pellets

Question 26

falls as supercooled raindrops that freeze

on contact with roads, power lines, and other surfaces.

Answer 26

FREEZING RAIN, or GLAZE

Question 27

is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a *

Answer 27

Hail, hailstone

Question 28

an instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation over a set period of time.

Answer 28

rain gauge

Question 29

scientific instrument used in meteorology to measure atmospheric pressure.

Answer 29

barometer

Question 30

wind are deflected to the * of their path of motion in the Northern Hemisphere and to the * in the Southern Hemisphere.

Answer 30

right, left

Question 31

are violent windstorms that take the form of a rotating column of
air, or vortex.

Answer 31

Tornadoes

Question 32

used to determine

wind direction

Answer 32

wind vane

Question 33

are intense centers of low pressure
that form over tropical oceans and are characterized by intense convective (thunderstorm) activity and strong
cyclonic circulation

Answer 33

Hurricanes

Question 34

The Sun has several layers: the core, the radiation zone, the convection zone, and the photosphere (which is the surface of the Sun). In addition, there are two layers of gas above the photosphere called the chromosphere and the corona.

Answer 34

readd

Question 35

Events that occur on the Sun include sunspots, solar flares, solar wind, and solar prominences.
Sunspots are magnetic storms on the photosphere that appear as dark areas. Sunspots regularly appear and disappear in eleven-year cycles. Solar flares are spectacular discharges of magnetic energy from the corona. These discharges send streams of protons and electrons outward into space. Solar flares can interrupt the communications network here on Earth. Solar winds are the result of gas expansion in the corona. This expansion leads to ion formation. These ions are hurled outward from the corona at over 500 kilometers per second. Solar prominences are storms of gas which erupt from the surface in the form of columns which either shoot outward into space or twist and loop back to the Sun’s surface.

Answer 35

read

Question 36

The Sun does rotate, but because it is a large gaseous sphere, not all parts rotate at the same speed.
This is known as a *

Answer 36

differential rotation.

Question 37

The very hot outermost layer of a star’s atmosphere. Our Sun’s * can only be seen during a total solar eclipse.

Answer 37

Corona

Question 38

A magnetic storm on the Sun’s surface which shows up as a sudden increase in brightness.

Answer 38

Solar Flares

Question 39

Gases trapped at the edge of the Sun which appear to shoot outward from the Sun’s surface.

Answer 39

Solar Prominences

Question 40

A continuous stream of charged particles which are released from the Sun and hurled outward into space at speeds up to 800 kilometers per second. * are very prominent after solar flare activity.

Answer 40

Solar wind

Question 41

A magnetic storm on the Sun’s surface which appears as a dark area. A sunspot is approximately 1500 degrees Celsius cooler than its surrounding material. The number of * we see on the Sun at any given time appears to cycle every 11 years.

Answer 41

Sunspot