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
Igneous rock
They are formed as a result of volcanic activity. Hot molten magma cools quickly into solid rock on the earth’s surface (ex. Basalt, Pumice) or slowly deep underground (ex. Granite). Metamorphic rock that comes up into the oceanic plates.
Sedimentary rock
They are formed from the particles of rocks, dead plants, and animals. They were deposited on the bed of seas and lakes and built up over time to be compressed into layers of solid rock (ex. Limestones, Sandstone, Coal, Shale)
Metamorphic rock:
They are formed from rocks that already exist, Igneous or sedimentary rocks are changed into new harder rocks by great heat or pressure (ex. Marble, Quartzite, State and Gneiss which is the most common rock in Norway)
Anticline(rising):
Anticlines are the upwards folds in rocks.
Syncline(sinking)
Synclines are the downward folds in rocks.
Ancient Norway (rocks, olsofeltet):
The oldest rock in Norway is the Gneiss which can be found in Finmark and can be dated back to 2.9 billion years. The Oslo Graben or Oslo Rift is a graben (In geology, a graben is a depressed block of the crust of a planet bordered by parallel faults)formed during a geologic rifting event in Permian time, the last phase of the Variscan orogeny.
Caledonian fold mountains
These are the highest mountains in Norway and were formed 430 years ago. They were once as tall as the Himalayas, but have been worn down since.
Converging
Plates colliding with each other. Converging continental plates cause mountain building.
Diverging
Plates moving away from each other. Diverging plates in the ocean cause magma to move upwards into the gap in between the two oceanic plates. Diverging plates on the continent are what cause rift valley’s.
Lateral plate movement
Plates slide past each other, resulting in transform faults
Oceanic plates
Oceanic plates are underwater. Oceanic plates are slightly more dense than continental plates and therefore subduct (to go under) under continental plates.
Continental plates
Continental plates are on land. When two oceanic plates collide you get islands.
Ring of fire(pacific plate)
The Pacific Ring of Fire is an arc around the Pacific Ocean where many volcanoes and earthquakes are formed. (Australia, south east Asia, west of the Americas)
Subduction
Subduction is when one of the tectonic plates move under the other into the earths mantel (usually the oceanic plates move under the continental plates as they are more dense). Subduction causes really powerful earthquakes and in turn cause really dangerous tsunamis too.
Subduction Zones
Areas where subduction occurs very often are called subduction zones.
4.6 billion years ago
The earth was formed
4.5 billion years ago
The earth’s core and crust formed
4.4 billion years ago
the earths first oceans formed
3.85 billion years ago
the first life appeared on earth
1.5 billion years ago
oxygen began to accumulate in earths atmosphere
700 million years ago
the first animals evolved: single celled animals
530 million years ago
the first fish/vertebrates evolved
400 million years ago
the first plants evolved (trees came around this time): oxygen in the atmosphere reacted to form the ozone layer. This served as a protective layer to the harmful rays coming from space which allowed plants to grow.
350 million years ago
the first land vertebrates evolved (reptiles and such)
225 million years ago
The first dinosaurs evolved from lizards
66 million years ago
the dinosaurs went extinct
130,000 years ago
modern humans evolved. (homo sapiens)
