Unit 2 APES

Question 1

What is a thin spherical envelope of gases surrounding the Earth’s surface?

Answer 1

atmosphere

Question 2

What consists of the part’s of earth’s air, water, and soil where life is found?

Answer 2

biosphere

Question 3

What gases does the troposphere mainly consist of?

Answer 3

nitrogen and oxygen

Question 4

What layer consists of all of the water on or near earth’s surface

Answer 4

hydrosphere

Question 5

What consists of the earth’s core, mantle, and outer crust

Answer 5

geosphere

Question 6

What are large regions with distinct climates and certain species adapted to them?

Answer 6

biomes

Question 7

What are the two types of aquatic life zones called?

Answer 7

freshwater life zones and marine/ocean life zones

Question 8

What are the three factors that sustain life on Earth?

Answer 8

one-way flow of high-quality energy from the sun, cycling of matter or nutrients through parts of the biosphere, and gravity

Question 9

What is the natural greenhouse effect?

Answer 9

heat buildup in the troposphere caused by the presence of certain gasses, called greenhouse gases; without this effect, the earth would be nearly as cold as Mars, and life as we know it could not exist

Question 10

What layer of the atmosphere contains the ozone layer?

Answer 10

stratosphere

Question 11

What is the core?

Answer 11

the Earth’s innermost zone; extremely hot and has a solid inner part surrounded by a liquid core of molten or semisolid material

Question 12

What is the mantle?

Answer 12

the thick zone surrounding the core; made mostly of solid rock

Question 13

What is the zone of hot, partly melted rock that flows and can be deformed like soft plastic?

Answer 13

athenosphere

Question 14

What are tectonic plates?

Answer 14

various-sized areas of the earth’s lithosphere that move slowly around with the mantle’s flowing asthenosphere

Question 15

What is the lithosphere?

Answer 15

outer shell of the earth, composed of the crust and the rigid, outermost part of the mantle outside the asthenosphere

Question 16

What is it called when plates collide with one another?

Answer 16

convergent plates

Question 17

What is it called when oceanic plates move apart from one another?

Answer 17

divergent plates

Question 18

What is the physical, chemical, and biological processes that break down rocks into smaller particles that help build soil?

Answer 18

weathering

Question 19

What are slowly flowing bodies of ice called?

Answer 19

glaciers

Question 20

Where does an active volcano occur?

Answer 20

where magma reaches the earth’s surface through a central vent or a long crack, called a fissure

Question 21

What is a benefit of volcanic activity?

Answer 21

it creates outstanding scenery in the form of majestic mountains, some lakes, and other landforms

Question 22

What are the vibrations from earthquakes called?

Answer 22

seismic waves

Question 23

What is the place where an earthquake begins?

Answer 23

focus

Question 24

What are primary effects of earthquakes?

Answer 24

shaking and sometimes a permanent vertical or horizontal displacement of the ground

Question 25

What is a tsunami?

Answer 25

a series of large waves generated when part of the ocean floor suddenly rises or drops

Question 26

What is a mineral?

Answer 26

am element or inorganic compound that occurs naturally in the earth’s crust as a solid with a regular internal crystalline structure

Question 27

What are the three types of rocks?

Answer 27

sedimentary rock, igneous rock, and metamorphic rock

Question 28

What is a solid combination of one or more minerals found in the earth’s crust?

Answer 28

rock

Question 29

What is atmospheric pressure?

Answer 29

the force per unit area of a column of air

Question 30

What layer contains about 75-80 percent of the earth’s air mass?

Answer 30

troposphere

Question 31

What is the point of having an ozone layer?

Answer 31

it protects us from UV radiation