Intro To Earth Science Flashcards
the name for all the sciences that collectively seek to understand Earth and its neighbors in
space.
Earth Science
the study of the Earth, the materials of which it is made, the structure of those materials, and the processes acting upon them.
Geology
examines the materials composing Earth and seeks to understand the many processes
that operate beneath and upon its surface
Physical Geology
to understand the origin of Earth and the development of the planet through its 4.6-billion-year history. It strives to establish an orderly chronological arrangement of the multitude of physical and biological changes that have occurred in the geologic past.
Historical Geology
the study of the composition and movements of
seawater, as well as coastal processes, seafloor topography, and marine life.
Oceanography
the study of the atmosphere and the processes that produce weather and climate.
Meteorology
the study of the universe
Astronomy
physical phenomena caused by atmospheric, water or tectonic processes that threaten people, property or the environment. They can occur within a short or long period of time.
Natural Hazards
represent another important focus
that is of great practical value to people. They include water
and soil, a great variety of metallic and nonmetallic minerals, and energy
Resources
the span of time since the formation of Earth
Geologic time
a tentative (or untested) explanation, and a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation
Hypothesis
a carefully thought-out explanation for observations of the natural world that has been constructed using the scientific method, and which brings together many facts and hypotheses.
Theory
The process just described, in which researchers gather facts through observations and formulate scientific hypotheses and theories
Scientific Method
a dynamic mass of water that is continually on the move, evaporating from the oceans to the atmosphere, precipitating to the land, and running back to the ocean again.
Hydrosphere
made of the layers of gases surrounding a planet or other celestial body.
Atmosphere
Includes all life on Earth
Biosphere
extends from the surface to the center of the planet, a depth of 6400 kilometers [4000 miles], making it by far the largest of Earth’s four spheres.
Geosphere
a theory explaining the structure of the earth’s crust and many associated phenomena as resulting from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates which move slowly over the underlying mantle.
Plate Tectonics
Earth’s rigid outer shell (the lithosphere) is broken into numerous slabs
Lithospheric Plates
Where two plates move together one of the plates plunges beneath the
other and descends into the mantle
Convergent Boundaries
Plates pull apart
Divergent Boundaries
This is when plates do not push together or pull apart. Instead, they slide past one another, so that seafloor is neither created nor destroyed.
Transform Boundaries
“remarkably flat features that have the appearance of plateaus protruding above sea level. The ________ average about 35 kilometers in thickness and density of 2.7 g/cm3”
Continent
bowl-shaped depression in the earth, with complex topography along its deep seafloor. The basaltic rocks that comprise the oceanic
crust average only 7 kilometers (5 miles) thick and have an average density of about 3.0 g/cm3
.
Ocean Basin
a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arisen from the same cause, usually an orogeny.
Mountain Belts
is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere
Craton
which are expansive, flat regions composed of deformed crystalline rock.
Shields
Other flat areas of the stable interior exist in which highly deformed rocks, like those found in the shields, are covered by a relatively thin veneer of sedimentary rocks.
Stable Platforms
is the portion of the seafloor adjacent to major landmasses. It may include the continental shelf, the continental slope, and the continental rise.
Continental Margins
a gently sloping platform of material that extends seaward from the shore.
Continental Shelf
boundary between the continents and the deep ocean basins and a relatively steep dropoff that extends from the outer edge of the continental shelf to the floor of the deep ocean
Continental Slope
a thick accumulation of sediments that moved downslope from the continental shelf to the deep-ocean floor.
Continental Rise
Between the continental margins and oceanic ridges
Deep-Ocean Basins
incredibly flat features of deep-ocean basins
Abyssal Plains
The ocean floor also contains extremely deep depressions that are occasionally more than 11,000 meters (36,000 feet) deep.
Deep-ocean Trenches
Dotting the ocean floor are submerged volcanic structures which sometimes form long, narrow
chains.
Seamounts
the most prominent feature on the ocean floor and this broad elevated feature forms a continuous belt consists of layer upon layer of igneous rock that has been fractured and uplifted.
Oceanic Ridges
aims to study Earth as a system composed of numerous interacting parts, or subsystems.
Earth system science
a group of interacting, or interdependent, parts that form a complex whole.
System
It represents the unending circulation of Earth’s water among the hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.
Hydrologic Cycle
The loop that involves the processes by which one rock changes to another
Rock Cycle
the idea that the continents move about the face of the planet.
Continental Drift
