Geography Flashcards
What is the structure of the earth and the properties of each of the layers?
Inner core, Outer core, Matle, Crust
The inner core is solid, the outer core is liquid, and the mantle/crust is solid
What was Alfred Wegner’s theory and what was his evidence?
His theory was about continental drift. His evidence was that:
1. The continents seemed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle
2. There were similiar fossils of similiar animals on different continents.
Name all major plates
North American plate, South American Plate, Juan de Fuca plate, Cocos plate, Nazca Plate, Pacific plate, Antarctic plate, African plate, Eurasian plate, Indo-Australian plate.
Name all types of plate boundaries
Convergent, Conservative, Divergent and Collision
What does the Richter Scale measure?
The amount of energy released from the earthquake
Why are earthquakes and volcanoes found at plate boundaries?
Because the tectonic plates don’t fit well together, it creates earthquakes and volcanic activity when two plates collide, diverge or slide past each other.
What are convection currents?
Convection currents are liquid-like mantle that sticks to plates and moves them in a certain direction. The heat that forms the convection currents comes from radioactive decay deep within Earth.
How are earthquakes measured?
Richter or Mercalli
What does Mercalli measure?
The amount of destruction that an earthquake caused
What is a volcano?
Volcanoes are openings or cracks in the lithosphere where magma from inside the earth can escape onto the surface.
Lava flows and eruptions
Lava spilling out onto the land
Pyroclastic flows
Fast moving currents of hot gas and rock that can go to 350mph
Volcanic ash
A huge hazard in an explosive eruption where the lava dome breaks up fragments of lava and lifts them high into the atmosphere
Volcanic bombs
A mass of molten rock larger than 64mm in diameter
Lahars
Violent types of mudflow or landslides composed of a slurry of pyroclatsic flow off the side of a volcano
