Geography Test (inner forces, outer landfors, tectonic plates etc) Flashcards
Latitude
The distance north or south of the equator measured in degrees.
Longitude
Distance measured in degrees east or west of an imaginary line that runs form the north pole to the south pole.
Mercator projection
It is the current version of the world map. It became the standard map projection for navigation because it is unique in representing north as up and south as down everywhere while preserving local directions and shapes. As a side effect, the Mercator projection inflates the size of objects away from the equator.
Inner forces: Crust
The Earth’s crust is the last layer of the Earth. The crust is split into many pieces which are called plates. All of the plates have names, such as the Eurasian plate and the American plate.
Inner forces: Lithosphere
The outer most part of the Earth’s mantle. This consists of several plates.
Inner forces: Asthenosphere
A plastic-like layer of the Earth’s mantel.
Inner forces: Mantle
The mantle comes after the core in the layers of the earth. Mantle is made out of soft rock mantle. The rocks in the mantle are molten or melted because it is so hot (4000 Cº).
Inner forces: Magma
Magma is molten rock and can be found in the mantel of the earths layers.
Inner forces: Core
The core is divided into the inner and outer core.
- The inner core is made of solid metal because there is high pressure.
- The outer core is made out of molten metal because it is so hot.
Inner forces: Convection
Motion in a gas (as air) or a liquid in which the warmer portions rise and the colder portions sink Heat can be transferred by convection. There are convection currents in the mantle which cause the plates to move as the magma melts and expands in the heat and shrinks in the cold and slides back into the mantel.
Landforms
Tectonic plate movement under the Earth can create landforms by pushing up mountains and hills. Erosion by water and wind can wear down land and create landforms like valleys and canyons.
Erosion
The process by which soil and rock is removed from one area of the Earth through natural causes such as wind, water, and ice and transported elsewhere.
Volcano formation
A volcano is formed when hot molten rock, ash and gases escape from an opening in the Earth’s surface. The molten rock and ash solidify as they cool, forming the distinctive volcano shape.
Theory of the seafloor spreading
It is a theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones, known collectively as the mid-ocean ridge system, and spreads out laterally.
The modern idea is that the ocean floor itself moves and carries the continents with it as it expands from a mid-ocean ridge (an underwater mountain system. It marks the boundary between two tectonic plates which are moving apart.).
Transform faults
Transform fault, in geology and oceanography, a type of fault in which two tectonic plates slide past one another.
San Andreas fault
It’s a plate boundary, where two tectonic plates in the Earth’s crust touch. It’s useful to scientists partly because it’s on land, since most plate boundaries are in the ocean.
Continental Drift
Theory proposed in 1912 by Alfred Wegener
- The continents look as if they were pieces of jigsaw
- Fossils found in places they shouldn’t have been.
- It was based on all the continents basically had been one vast area of land , which he called Pangaea . This land cracked looked up , and the continents drifted apart
