Planet Earth and beyond Flashcards
What does the lithosphere contain?
The land masses make up the lithosphere, this includes all the rocks and soil of the Earth’s crust.
What does the hydrosphere contain?
The water on the the surface and under the surface of the Earth, eg oceans, rivers etc.
What does the atmosphere contain?
The layer of gases which surround the Earth
What does the biosphere contain?
All living things on Earth, all biotic (living, eg plants and animals) and abiotic (non-living eg gases and soil)
What layers make up the Earth’s mass?
The crust, mantle, outer core and inner core.
What is the crust?
A thin outer layer formed of solid rock between 6km and 90km thick. The crust is thickest beneath the continents and thinnest beneath oceans.
What is the mantle?
About 2900km thick, forming over half of Earth’s mass. Rocks in the mantle are in a hot, thick liquid or molten state. The molten rock has a plastic consistency which allows it to move and flow. Its temperature is about 1000C. Convection currents in this part of the mantle cause movement of tectonic plates. The part of the mantle closer to the core has a temperature of 3500C, high pressure in this part of the mantle causes it to be solid.
What is the outer core?
About 2250km thick, it is molten, 4000C and consist of very dense metallic rock
What is the inner core?
bout 2440km thick, 7000C. The extremely high pressure in the inner core causes it to be solid. The pressure is so high, rocks cannot melt. It consists mainly of iron and nickel
What is the composition of the atmosphere?
21% oxygen
1% other gases
78% nitrogen
What is temperature gradient?
Shows us how much the temperature changes with altitude.
What is the troposhere?
The layer of the atmosphere closest to the Earth with a height of 10km above sea level.
What is the stratosphere?
Where temperature increases and air becomes thinner, it has less air resistance.
What is the ozone layer?
A layer of invisible 03 gas that occurs in the stratosphere. It protects the Earth from harmful sunrays, eg ultraviolet
What is the mesosphere?
Where the temperature starts to decrease again about 50km to 80km. Temperatures of -100%
What are shooting stars?
Small pieces of rock moving at high speeds through space,
What are meteors and meteorites?
Small pieces of rock travelling through space and called meteors and when they enter the atmosphere they are called meteorites
What is the thermosphere?
80km above the Earths surface where the temperature increases again
What is the greenhouse effect?
When air pollution spreads gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, CFCs and nitrous gases into the atmosphere =, these gases absorb heat energy and increase the temperature of the atmosphere
What is global warming?
The Earth becoming hotter and hotter.
How does global warming cause sea levels to rise?
Glaciers and ice sheets worldwise are melting and adding water to the ocean and the volume of the ocean is expanding as the water warms
How is star born?
in huge clouds of gas and dust in space called nebulae. Before a star is born the gas in a part of the nebula begins to swirl, gravity pulls clumps into a large ball of glowing gas. The temperature rises higher and eventually nuclear fusion reactions take place. An enormous amount of heat and light is give off.
What is the main gas produced by nuclear fushion?
Helium
What is a protostar?
A very young star that is still gathering mass from it’s parent molecular cloud
