Mideterm test Flashcards
What does Hydrosphere consist of?
Hydrosphere - The water in Earth’s system
What does Biosphere consist of?
The regions of the Earth occupied by living organisms. Living things.
What does Cryosphere consist of?
The frozen water portion of Earth’s system. Ice
What does Atmosphere consist of?
The envelope of gases surrounding the Earth. Vapor.
What does Geosphere consist of?
Ground, soil.
What are the geologic time in order from shortest to longest.
- Eon
- Era
- Period
- Epoch
What is relative dating?
The general order of events. Relative dating determines the order of events and the relative age of rocks looking at the position of rocks in the layers.
What is absolute dating
The exact age of rock samples. Determines the exact age of rock samples using radioactive materials.
Check over this one. What three things are required for a fossil to be considered an Index Fossil?
Abundant, existed for a short period of time, and was widespread
Three pieces of evidence that Wegener gave to support his theory.
- Same fossil fuels were found across different continents
- Mountain ranges that continue across oceans
- Glacial striations (scrape marks) that continue across oceans
What is subduction
When two plates meet and one slides underneath the other.
Two diverging oceanic plates leads to…? How does it look like?
Mid-ocean ridges, seafloor spreading creating new ocean floor.
Two converging continental plates leads to…? How does it look like?
Non-volcanic mountain ranges. Plates move opposite ways from each other.
Two converging oceanic plates leads to…? How does it look like?
Denser oceanic plates slides underneath the other. Subduction plates melts and becomes volcanic islands with dee ocean trenches.
Two diverging continental plates leads to…? How does it look like?
Rift valleys, over time new oceans.
Transform boundary leads to…? How does it look like?
Faults, earthquaks
Convergent oceanic and continental plates leads to…? How does it look like?
Volcanoes on land and deep ocean trenches.
Hot spots are…?
Thin spot in Oceanic crust, where a mantle plume can force its way through. An area in the mantle that is super heated and melts through the crust.
Where is crust created? Where is crust destroyed?
Curst is created at subduction zones.
What is density?
Density is the substance’s mass per unit of volume. How much stuff there is in a space.
What are clouds made of?
Liquide H2O
What is condensation?
Gas to liquid (or solid)
What is evaporation
Liquid to gas
What is precipitation
Liquid (or solid) water falling
What is an isotopes
Atoms with the same number of protons, but different number of neutrons
What is older oceanic crust or continental crust?
Continental
What is older oceanic crust or continental crust?
Continental
What is our ocean made of?
Our “ocean” is made up of mostly N2 and O2 instead of H2O
What is the Average atmospheric pressure on Earth
14.7 PSI (pounds/square inch)
What is denser cold or warm air? Why?
Cold air. Because cold things contract (get smaller) warm things expand. Cold air masses exert higher pressure than warm air masses. Molecules are more tightly packed.
What has more pressure, moving air or still air?
Still air
When the air is humid, what is some of the space normally taken up by?
H2O (water vapor)
When the air is humid, what is some of the space normally taken up by?
H2O (water vapor)
What has less mass, humid air or less humid air?
Humid air
What could hold up more water, warm or cold air? Why?
Warm air. Warm air expands, making room for additional water vapor
What is Relative Humidity?
How much water vapor is in the air compared to how much the air could hold
What is dew Point
When an air mass is at 100% relative humidity
What is Diffusion?
Which is denser, humid or dry air?
Humid air
What is an air masses? What are they names based on?
An Air Mass is a body (parcel) of air that shares similar characteristics. Named based on their temperature and humidity levels.
What is Continental?
Dry, found mainly over land
Maritime
Humid, found mainly over oceans
Tropical
Warm, found near the equator
Polar
Cold, found near the poles
What are fronts?
Fronts are where weather events often happen.
What are Warm front?
Warm air mass moving towards cool air mass.
Light, but lengthy precipitation events
Warm air is slowly forced upwards
What are Cold front
Cold air mass moving towards warm air mass.
Forces the warm air up quickly
Leads to short, but intense precipitation events (more dramatic)
Global Wind Patterns Are Driven by?
Convection Currents
Pressure Differences
The Coriolis Effect
What is the Coriolis Effect
The Earth rotates counterclockwise
Air masses moving towards the equator are deflected West
Air masses moving away from the equator are deflected East
What is the Jetstream?
Semi-consistent movement of air
West to East (here in the US)
A polar vortex happens when the jetstream dips below its normal path
Cold weather is much more common above the jet stream and warm weather is found below
What are Incoming radiation from the sun? Three things.
Short waves.
UV rays
Visible Light.
What are Outgoing radiation from Earth? Three things.
“Longwave”
infrared radiation (IR)
heat
Three examples of fossil fuels?
Coal, petroleum, natural gas.
Three examples of fossil fuels?
Coal, petroleum, natural gas.
How is coal made. Three things
Dead plant matter decays into peat. Over a long time, because of heat and pressure coal is formed
What is peat?
soil that is very high in decaying organic matter, normally found in acidic, wet environments
How are petroleum & natural gas formed?
Made from large quantities of dead oceanic organisms (Zooplankton & algae) are subjected to million years of heat and pressure
Four layers of the earth?
Red:
Dark Orange:
Orange:
Yellow:
Curst
Mantle
Outer core
Inner core
what could a Condensation Nuclei be?
dust, pollen
What happens at a cold front?
a front that forms when cold air moves under warm air which is less dense and pushes air up (produces thunderstorms, heavy rain or snow
Principle of cross-cutting relationships means….?
States that such features are younger than all of the layers they cut through - helps to determine relative age.
What is the mantle made of?
Magma
What does the Principle of Original Horizontality state?
The sediment is deposited horizontally or in flat rows and over time the sediment is compacted to form sedimentary rock
Weather is what?
Atmospheric conditions over a short period of time.
What is air mass?
A large body of air that has similar temperature, humidity and air pressure
Is air pressure more dense higher in the atmosphere?
No
The law of superposition says…?
The oldest fossils are found near the bottom of the rock layers.
Law of continuity
Areas with identical rock layers and fossils were once joined together.
What is wind?
The movement of air caused by air pressure
As altitude increases air pressure….increase /decrease?
Decrease
Law of continuity
The geologic principle that states that in horizontal layers of sedimentary rock, each layer is older than the layer above it and younger than the layer below it.
What are warm fornt?
A front where warm air moves over cold air and brings drizzly rain and then are followed by warm and clear weather
Climate is?
The pattern of atmospheric conditions over a longer period of time
