Earth Sciences Flashcards by Ravindra M

Warm ocean current
Passes along Florida’s Coast
Plays significant role in moderating Europe’s climate

Gulf Stream

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Molecule is composed of three oxygen atoms
Plays a crucial role in absorbing ultraviolet radiation from Sun

Ozone

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Geological period known as Last Ice Age
Peaked about 22,000 years ago and ended approximately 11,700 years ago

Last Glacial Period

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Molten rock expelled during volcanic eruption
Solidifies upon cooling

Lava

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Process involves removal and transportation of soil or rock by using natural forces such as water or wind

Erosion

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Supercontinent
Existed about 300 million years ago

Pangea

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Second most abundant mineral in Earth’s crust
Composed of silicon and oxygen

Quartz

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

This technique uses sound waves to detect underwater objects
Measures distances or aids navigation

Sonar

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Large depression
forms after volcano cone collapses due to eruption

Caledra

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

This phenomenon is characterized by an extended period of significantly reduced precipitation

Droughts

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What is the innermost layer of Earth, which is a solid ball primarily made of iron?
It is surrounded by outer core
It generates Earth’s magnetic field

Inner core

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What marine invertebrates form large reef structures and consist of tiny polyps?
They have symbiotic relationship with algae
It is found in warm, shallow water

Corals

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What climate phenomenon is characterized by seasonal shifts in wind direction, leading to wet and dry seasons in tropical regions?
It effects India and Southeast Asia
It can cause heavy rainfall or prolonged droughts

Monsoons

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What atmospheric problem results from sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides mixing with water in the atmosphere?
It harms forests, lakes, and buildings
It is caused due to fossil fuels being burned

Acid Rain

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What massive reef system, stretching over 1,400 miles, is home to diverse marine life and is the largest coral reef in the world?
It is visible from space
It is located of the coast of Australia

The Great Barrier Reef

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What scale is used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes?
It was developed in 1935
It is a logarithm scale

Richter Scale

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What type of weather phenomenon forms when cold air moves over a warm lake, causing heavy snowfall?
It often affects areas near the Great Lakes
It can lead to significant snowfall accumulation

Lake-effect snow

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

• Clue 1: This type of radiation has longer wavelengths than visible light but shorter than X-rays.
• Clue 2: It is responsible for sunburns.
• Clue 3: It is invisible to the human eye.

Ultraviolet Radiation

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

• Clue 1: This is a large body of water that is surrounded by land.
• Clue 2: It is smaller than an ocean but larger than a lake.
• Clue 3: The Mediterranean and the Caribbean are examples of this.

Sea

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

• Increases biodiversity near Nantucket.
• Linked with the Antilles Current.
• Starts near the Florida Strait.
• Flows through North Atlantic.
• Warm ocean current.

Gulf Stream

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

• Home of the “Death Worm.”
• Formed by Tibetan Plateau’s rain shadow.
• Has Bactrian camels.
• China built a “Green Wall.”
• In southern Mongolia.

Gobi Dessert

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

• Floats via isostasy.
• Made of oxygen and silicon.
• Moho marks its boundary.
• Earth’s outer layer.

Crust

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

• Found by Mary Anning.
• Includes coprolites.
• “Sue” is one in Chicago.
• Paleontologists dig these.

Fossils

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

• Measured by Fujita scale.
• Affects places like Bangladesh.
• Waterspouts = over water.
• Violent rotating air columns.
• Also called twisters.

Tornado

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

• Has sand, silt, and clay. • Nutrient-rich for plants. • Studied in pedology. • Layered into horizons. • Called dirt or earth.

Soil

• Dam color in Algeria. • Found in desert protection efforts. • Associated with colorblindness. • Along with red, makes traffic light. • Color of emeralds.

Green

• Include Himalayas, Andes. • Found above snow line. • Home to pika and chamois. • High-altitude biomes. • South American camels. . One feature of this is named to Jurassic Period . Process of folding in crust . Could be caused by fold, block, or volcanic

Mountains

• Between core and crust. • Contains the asthenosphere. • Causes tectonic movement. • Semi-liquid plumes. • Located under Earth’s surface.

Mantle

• Measures age of objects. • Involves carbon-14. • Also uses uranium-lead. • Used in archaeology. • Finds date of fossils.

Radiometric dating

• Also called snow slides • Can be triggered by sound or motion • Prevented using schneekragens • Occur in slab and powder forms • Caused by unstable snowpacks

Avalanches

• Seismic waves helped scientists study it • Has inner and outer layers • Composed of nickel and iron • Associated with Keith Bullen and Inge Lehmann • Earth’s innermost layer

Inner core

• One tested by P.T. Barnum’s elephants • Types include cantilever and suspension • Galloping Gertie collapsed due to resonance • Romans built these over rivers • Engineered to span gaps

Bridges

• Contains the ozone layer • Above the tropopause • Temperature increases with altitude • Where U2 planes and Felix Baumgartner jumped from • Layer of the atmosphere

Stratosphere

• Types: cirque, valley-head • Contain ridges called nunataks • Move by basal sliding • Deposits left behind are eskers • Formations of slow-moving ice

Glaciers

• Warm phase of ENSO • Opposite of La Niña • Causes rise in ocean temperatures • Translates to “The Boy” in Spanish • Involves eastern movement of convection

El nino

• Caused 96% CO₂ atmosphere on Venus • Opposite process observed on Titan • Traps solar heat • Drives climate change • Warms planet’s surface

Greenhouse effect

• Include Okeechobee and Huron • Can release gas in limnic eruptions • Oxbow type is formed by river movement • Called “billabongs” in Australia

Lakes

• Home to ptarmigans and lemmings • Features permafrost • Short growing season • Includes Arctic and Alpine types • Contains Krummholz forests

Tundra

• May form from a cinder cone • Have calderas from collapsed magma chambers • Include flank vents • Examples: Mount Saint Helens • Form landforms that erupt

Volcanoes

• Forms atolls like Christmas Island • Makes up Great Barrier Reef • Found in countries like Tuvalu and Kiribati • Built by living organisms • Forms reef structures

Corals

• Measured with a hygrometer • Affects evaporation from the skin • High in tropical countries • Managed by air conditioners • Represents water vapor in the air

Humidity

• Invented the clepsydra (water clock) • Developed Greek fire • Known for early medicine (Hippocrates) • Also known as the Hellenic Republic • Ancient civilization with major innovations

Greek

• Found above the Moho discontinuity • Part of the lithosphere • Comes in continental and oceanic forms • Created at mid-ocean ridges, destroyed at subduction zones • Earth’s outermost layer

Crust

• Stacked types are called pileus • Storm varieties are labeled nimbus • Cirrus, stratus, and cumulus are types • Formed from water vapor • Release rain and other precipitation

Clouds

• Forms pillow, pahoehoe, ʻAʻā types • Makes coulées when viscous • Solidifies into pumice • Comes from volcanoes • Surface version of magma

Lava

• Forms Giant’s Causeway in Ireland • Found in lunar maria and oceanic crust • Made by volcanic eruptions • Creates hexagonal columns • Fine-grained extrusive igneous rock

Basalt

Types of this material that can be blown in the wind as dust are known as loess Strata of this material is known as horizons This material can be stripped of salt and nutrients

Soil

Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa Homo eructus was the first species to initiate use of this phenomenon

Fire

Hamadas and ergs are common rock formations in these biomes. Photosynthesis evolved amount plants in these biomes.

Desert

Phenomenon On Saturn form hexagon shape at North Pole Earth - contain polar vertices Flights from east Asia to North America can reduce fuel usage Rapidly moving band of air

Jet stream,

Dark type of these entities block light from emission and refelective types Hubble space telescope Messier 1 Star forming regions

Nebulae

• Known for lemurs and fossa • Famous for baobab trees • The island is off the southeastern coast of Africa • Home to the largest chameleon species • Separated from the African mainland about 160 million years ago

Madagascar

• Can become marble through metamorphism • Chalk is a form of this rock • Created from mollusk shells or plankton • Easily dissolves in acidic water • Commonly composed of calcium carbonate

Limestones

• Extracted through fluid catalytic cracking • Found in Bakken formation shale • Extracted as bitumen in Alberta, Canada • Includes gasoline, kerosene, and asphalt

Oil

• Identified by tektite and shatter cones • Formed during the Late Heavy Bombardment • Found in places like the Yucatan Peninsula • Created by the impact of meteors or asteroids

Impact craters

• Created using CVD or HPHT methods in labs • Known for Vickers hardness and used in cutting tools • The hardest mineral with a Mohs hardness of 10 • Forms in kimberlite pipes

Diamond

• Measured in sverdrup • Includes gyres like the Gulf Stream • Driven by thermohaline circulation • Found deep in the ocean • Large, directed flows of water

Currents

• Known for the thorny devil and platypus • Koalas and kangaroos are native here • Home to the Great Barrier Reef • Eucalyptus trees grow here • Largest producer of eucalyptus oil

Australia

• Associated with slash-and-burn agriculture • Leads to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest • Causes habitat loss for animals like the Sumatran orangutan • Logging and wildfires contribute to this phenomenon • Known as a global ecological issue

Deforestation

• Measured using Pulse-Doppler Radar • Fujita scale measures their intensity • Supercells produce some of the most powerful ones • Smaller than hurricanes, but capable of causing destruction • Known for rotating winds and twisting motions

Tornadoes

• These can cause shipwrecks, like the Titanic disaster • They break off from glaciers • Typically formed by calving • Common shapes are tabular and non-tabular • Made of frozen water and float in the ocean

Iceberg

You can measure this with rockwells scale and vichters scale Diamond has most hardness

Hardness

• Describes clouds as cirrus, stratus, or cumulus • These atmospheric features are made of water vapor • Studied by Luke Howard in classifying them • Can include contrails from aircraft • Found in the troposphere

Clouds

• Can be done through methods like fire-setting and dynamite • Includes open-pit and underground types • Involves extracting minerals and ores • Essential for obtaining resources like coal and diamonds • Linked to the production of metals like gold and iron

Mining

• This part of the Earth includes crust, mantle, and core • Heat from this layer fuels tectonic plates • The inner core is made of iron and nickel • Convection currents occur here to create earthquakes • Seismic waves travel through this layer

Earth’s interior

This particle has a spin equal to an integer value. Includes photons or gluons Contrasted with fermions

Boson

Minimized at eutectic point; ethylene glycol disrupts hydrogen bonds to lower it. 2. Salt on roads lowers ice’s melting point; water’s melting point is 0°C.

Melting point

1. Theridiidae spiders make tangle webs; orb-weavers make spiral webs. 2. Silk has tensile strength comparable to steel; tarantulas don’t use webs for prey capture.

Spider webs

Shockley-Queisser limit defines maximum efficiency of solar cells using semiconductors (p-n junctions). 2. Harnessed via photovoltaic effect; less consumed than wind or hydropower.

Solar energy

1. Köppen classification splits climates into five groups; rising CO₂ causes greenhouse effects (global warming). 2. Defines general weather patterns of regions.

Climate

1. Farmers use slash-and-burn techniques due to poor soil nutrient retention (~10%). 2. Upper canopy houses birds of paradise/toucans; floor hosts red-eyed tree frogs. 3. Amazon rainforest has the most biodiversity globally.

Rainforests

1. Felsic rock composition with lower melting points than rocks like basalt or andesite. 2. Coarse-grained intrusive rock; major component in Yosemite domes. 3. Name derives from grain-like texture.

Granite

• Can be coated with kaolinite or talc for gloss. • Invented by Cai Lun. • Made from pulp; Gutenberg used it for the Bible. • Made from cellulose in wood.

Paper

• Classified as diurnal, semi-diurnal, or mixed. • Neap and spring tides occur twice a month. • Caused by the Moon’s gravity.

Tides

• Inge Lehmann found it has a solid part. • Convection here drives the dynamo effect. • Divided into outer molten and inner solid.

Earth’s core

• AVL and red-black are self-balancing types. • Traversed post-order, in-order, pre-order. • Named for branching from a root to leaves.

Trees

• Forms jasper; conchoidal fracture. • Milky, smoky, and rose varieties. • Mohs hardness of 7; silicon-oxygen tetrahedra.

Quartz

• A lysis reaction using this molecule splits alkenes into carboxylic acids and aldehydes. • Its atmospheric concentration is measured in Dobson units. • Chlorofluorocarbons depleted this molecule, causing a hole above Antarctica. • This molecule, O3, forms a protective layer in the atmosphere

Ozone

• This quantity is measured by a psychrometer using dry and wet bulb thermometers. • It indicates how close air is to saturation with water vapor. • It is expressed as a percentage and is low in “dry heat” climates.

Humidity

• The Endeavor Ridge section has black smokers named Mothra and Godzilla. • “mbsf” means meters below this surface. • New crust forms here due to spreading; home to benthivores. • The Mariana Trench is the largest trench here.

Earth’s seabed

• A large prehistoric example is Blackhawk Mountain in the San Bernardino Mountains. • Divided into starting zone, track, and run out zone. • Earthquakes in Nepal can trigger these on Mount Everest. • Snow and debris rapidly descend threatening climbers.

Avalanches

• Altitude lowers temperature needed due to vapor pressure changes. • Adding salt raises the temperature needed. • Occurs at 100°C or 212°F for water due to hydrogen bonding. • Phase transition from liquid to gas.

Earth sciences

• Studied in edaphology and pedology. • Has layers classified into horizons. • Mycorrhizal fungi live here. • Mixture of clay, sand, and humus atop bedrock. • Earthworms improve its fertility.

Soil

• Used to measure blood flow speed and direction by aligning ultrasound signals parallel to flow. • Weather radar uses this principle to detect storm velocity without repeated imaging. • Explains red shifts in light from galaxies, indicating the universe’s expansion. • Named after an Austrian scientist.

Doppler effect

• Large waves caused by abrupt sea floor displacement, often from earthquakes. • Predicted by pressure recorders in the DART system. • The 2004 Indian Ocean event was one of these catastrophic waves. • Japanese name for these giant waves

Tsunami

• Phenomena occurring mainly in the troposphere, studied by Edward Lorenz in chaos theory. • Real-time updates provided by companies like “Weather Underground.” • Includes temperature, precipitation, and atmospheric conditions.

Weather

• Continent at the South Pole with the largest oceanic current flowing clockwise around it. • Region around McMurdo Sound affected by storms called “Herbies.” • Home to abundant krill species.

Antarctica

• Largest terrestrial biome, also called boreal forest. • Home to muskeg bogs and Douglas fir trees. • Tree line marks transition to tundra. • Experiences thermokarst temperature variations.

Taiga