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S283 > ISS Chapter 2 > Flashcards

ISS Chapter 2 Flashcards

1
Q

What are the three main compositional layers of the Earth?

A

Core, mantle, and crust.

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2
Q

What is the composition of the Earth’s solid inner core?

A

Iron with around 4% nickel.

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3
Q

What is the composition of the Earth’s liquid outer core?

A

Iron, nickel, and a lighter element (which is most likely oxygen or sulphur).

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4
Q

How deep can the deepest mines go into the crust of the Earth?

A

About 15 km.

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5
Q

What is plate tectonics?

A

The study of the movement of the Earth’s plates.

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6
Q

What are plutonic rocks?

A

Rocks formed at great depths within the Earth.

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7
Q

How are deeply formed rocks brought to the surface of Earth?

A

They are carried to the surface by molten lava and preserved when the lava hardens.

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8
Q

What are xenoliths?

A

Rocks unusual to the Earth’s surface and usually brought in from deeper underground by lava flows.

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9
Q

What is self-compression?

A

The compacting of rock or another material due to the weight or pressure from an overburden.

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10
Q

What is the SI unit of pressure?

A

The pascal or Pa.

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11
Q

What is the pascal converted to other SI units?

A

1 Pa = 1 N m^-2 = 1kg m^-1 s^-2

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12
Q

The kbar is often used to describe pressure on other planets. How many times Earth’s atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1 kbar?

A

The pressure af sea-level is 1 bar and 1kbar is 1000 times the sea-level pressure.

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13
Q

How do crystal structures change under the influence of pressure?
Hint: there are two ways in which they change.

A
  1. The atoms are rearranged to form a more dense crystalline structure
  2. Chemical reactions change the material to produce a denser material.
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14
Q

What is peridotite?

A

A mineral from deep within the Earth brought to the surface by lava flows.

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15
Q

What is the difference between a meteor, a meteoroid, and a meteorite.

A

A meteor is a fiery object travelling through the atmosphere.
A meteoroid is a small object travelling through space.
A meteorite is a meteor that has survived to strike the surface.

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16
Q

What is a chondrule?

A

Mineral droplets within a rock that are around 0.1 to 2mm in diameter.

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17
Q

What are CI carbonaceous chondrites?

A

A class of meteorites that contain chondrules and are believed to be the most primitive of meteorites.

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18
Q

What are primitive meteorites?

A

Primitive means their composition resembles that of material that condensed from the Solar Nebula.

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19
Q

What is chondritic composition?

A

A material has a chondritic composition if it has the same elements as chondritic meteorites.

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20
Q

What is used to detect the layers of the Earth?

A

Seismic waves.

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21
Q

What are p-waves?

A

Pressure/compression waves.

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22
Q

What are s-waves?

A

Shearing waves.

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23
Q

What materials can p-waves and s-waves travel through?

A

P-waves: solids and liquids.
S-waves: only solids.

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24
Q

What is the Mohorovicic discontinuity (Moho)?

A

The compositional boundary between the Earth’s mantle and crust.

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25
Q

S-waves cannot propogate through the outer core, why?

A

Because it is a liquid.

26
Q

What is a magnetic dipole?

A

An object with similar properties to a bar magnet.

27
Q

Which of the terrestrial planets has the strongest magnetic field?

A

Earth.

28
Q

What is the most important consequence of Earth’s magnetic field?

A

High energy ionized particles from the Sun’s solar wind are deflected.

29
Q

What is the space around a planet which affects ionized particles called?

A

The magnetosphere.

30
Q

What is the composition of the Earth’s core?

A

Nickel and iron.

31
Q

What is the composition of the Earth’s mantle?

A

Peridotite which is dominated by olivine and pyroxene minerals.

32
Q

What is the composition of the Earth’s crust?

A

Ocean crust: mostly basalt
Continental crust: broadly speaking granite-like in composition.

33
Q

What are refractory substances?

A

Those with the highest tolerance for heat, or the highest condensation/vaporisation point.

34
Q

What are volatile substances?

A

Substances with the lowest condensation/vaporisation point.

35
Q

What is a condensation sequence?

A

A progression from the most refractory substances to the most volatile.

36
Q

What is differentiation in the context of a planet/body?

A

The seperating out of elements or substances dependent on their chemical properties.

37
Q

What is partial melting?

A

When a rock melts different materials within will melt at different temperatures.

38
Q

What is element partitioning?

A

The exchange of elements between solid and liquid states.

39
Q

What model currently best describes the formation of the Moon?

A

It is believed to be the leftover material from impacts between the early Earth and another planetary embryo.

40
Q

What are tektites?

A

Droplets of glass formed from instantaneous melting of target rock and an impactor.

41
Q

What is accretional heating?

A

Heat generated from impacts and the resultant melting.

42
Q

What is tidal heating?

A

Heating created by shape distortions resulting from mutual gravitational attraction.

43
Q

What is radiogenic heating?

A

Heating resulting from radioactive decay.

44
Q

What is radiometric dating?

A

A method of using radioactive decay to age an object.

45
Q

What is the half-life of a radioactive element?

A

The time taken for half of the atoms in a sample of the material to decay into another element.

46
Q

What is the surface area to volume ratio?

A

Surface area/volume.

47
Q

What is conduction?

A

Heat moves through one material and into another.

48
Q

What is convection?

A

Heating a material makes it less dense and it rises through the surrounding material taking heat with it.

49
Q

What is solid-state convection?

A

Convective flow in an otherwise solid appearing material, such as within mineral crystals.

50
Q

What is the asthenosphere?

A

The protion of the mantle where heat and pressure allow convective flow and heat transfer to exist.

51
Q

What is the lithosphere?

A

Solid crust which cannot permit flow.

52
Q

What seperates the asthenosphere and lithosphere?

A

A difference in mechanical properties, ie flow.

53
Q

What is the low velocity zone?

A

A partially liquid area of the Earth’s mantle where the velocity of both p-waves and s-waves decrease.

54
Q

What is advection?

A

A physical transer of heat by magma moving from a deeper area upwards through fractures and transfering heat as it cools.

55
Q

What is a mid-ocean ridge system?

A

Areas where new crustal material is added from below.

56
Q

What is a subduction zone?

A

An area where one tectonic plate is drawn underneath another and recycled into the mantle.

57
Q

What is plate recycling?

A

Where crust is subducted into the mantle and remelted.

58
Q

What is a mantle plume?

A

An area of upwelling of hot material from deep within the mantle that causes bulges in the overlying lithosphere.

59
Q

What are hot spots?

A

Areas of increased volcanic activity.

60
Q

What are the Moon’s maria?

A

The darker ‘lunar sea’ areas of the moon.

61
Q

What are the highland regions of the Moon?

A

Thet are the brighter heavily cratered areas.

S283 (4 decks)

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