Test 12, Chapters 1 - 12, Final Exam Flashcards
What process breaks rocks down into soil?
weathering
What is a theory that has never been proven false?
law
The amount of matter in an object is the
mass
What branch of science is the study of the earth?
geology
What type of mountain was formed when rocks on one side of a fault were forced upward while the rocks on the other side were forced downward?
fault-block
What type of lava rock is rough and jagged with a crumbly or “blocky” texture?
aa lava
The theory that the earth’s crust and upper mantle consist of huge plates slowly drifting as a result of convection currents in the mantle is the ____ theory.
plate tectonics
What type of volcano consists primarily of erupted volcanic ash and rock fragments held together loosely?
cinder-cone
What i the general term for crystalline substances found naturally in the earth?
minerals
The resistance of a smooth surface of a mineral to being scratched is
hardness
Steel is an alloy of ____ and carbon.
iron
What is the red variety of corundum?
ruby
What is the largest group of minerals?
silicates
What is a low hill formed when a glacier overruns a moraine?
drumlin
any harmful substance released into the soil, air, or water
pollution
the falling of acidic precipitation onto the planet
acid deposition
term meaning “caused by humans”
anthropogenic
method of producing electricity that uses lenses or mirrors to focus the sun’s rays into a small beam that heats a fluid
concentrating solar energy
cold period that lasted from the 1300s to around 1850
Little Ice Age
system that removes certain gases and particles from industrial exhaust
scrubber
synthetic gas used for fuel
syngas
branch of science that studies the interactions of the physical world
environmental science
processes that recycle minerals and other nutrients in the environment
biogeochemical (or nutrient) cycles
what is a fan-shaped deposit of sediments at the mouth of a river?
delta
weathering that involves the breaking or peeling away of rock into layers is
exfoliation
What are regions of the earth’s surface where limestone is exposed and abundant?
karst
what idea attempts to reconcile the Bible and evolution?
theistic evolution
What false belief says that all geological processes have always proceeded at the same rate?
uniformitarianism
the deep-sea-fish living fossil once thought to be the ancestor of the first amphibians is
coelacanth
what term refers to the sudden appearance of life in the fossil record?
Cambrian explosion
the hypothetical time scale that supposedly charts both the earth’s history and the sequence of the rock layers in the earth’s crust is the
geologic column
what are movements of ocean water caused primarily by the moon?
tides
what type of bottle is used to collect water samples form the ocean depths?
Niskin bottles
what is a sandy, gently sloping underwater plain near a continent?
continental shelf
what affects insolation?
angle of sun’s rays, cloud cover, length of daytime
what is the atmosphere’s “weather layer”?
troposphere