Global Patterns Flashcards
Any evidence of an organism from a former geological time
Fossil
Transverse and longitudinal earthquake waves that travel through the interior of the earth
S and P waves
The scientific study of earthquakes and the internal structure of the earth
Seismology
The German Scientist who first proposed that the continents had once been one big landmass (Pangea) and drifted with time (continental drift)
Alfred Wegener
A break or rupture in the Earth’s crust, which allows magma to escape from deep within the upper mantle
Volcano
Energy travelling through the Earth in the form of a longitudinal or transverse wave.
Seismic wave
The theory that explains how the Earth’s crust is broken into plates and how they move.
Plate tectonics
Layers of gases surrounding the Earth. The main gases include: % highest to lowest — 78% nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide
Atmosphere
Where new crust is generated as the plates pull away from each other
Divergent boundary (mid-oceanic ridge)
The law that states that in undisturbed strata, lower layers of rocks are older than those nearer the top
Superposition
The process in which two or more tectonic plates collide and one plate slides beneath the other
Subduction
Label each of layers of the Earth
…
A series of ‘water waves’ caused by an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption
Tsunami
The outermost terrestrial layer of the earth. The sea bed is on average 8km thick consisting of basalt. The continents are on average 40km thick consisting of granite.
Crust
One of several subdivisions of geological time allowing cross- referencing of rocks, fossils and geological events from place to place.
Geological period