Exam Revision Flashcards
(40 cards)
What is the current accepted hypothesis for solar system formation?
The Nebula Hypothesis.
What is the age of the universe?
13.8 billion years old.
What is the regolith?
The earth’s layer of rock and mineral fragments produced by weathering.
What was the key stage in the development of oxygenic photosynthesis?
The functional linking of two photosystems in one organism.
Which element serves both as a key ion in cellular fluids and as a cofactor in biological molecules?
Magnesium.
What is the minimum sea-water temperature?
-2 degrees.
The current characterised by a balance between the Coriolis force and the foce exerted by the horizontal pressure gradient is called:
Geostrophic.
Which set of terms are all relevant to tsunamis?
Very long wave lengths, 100km/h
What is the earth’s magnetic field generated in?
The earth’s liquid metal alloy outer core.
At what temperature does seawater attain its highest density?
-2 degrees.
The industrial age increase in atmospheric CO2 levels concerned an amount of carbon roughly equivalent to:
1/3 the amount of carbon contained in the world’s current living biomass.
The Ekman spiral describes…?
The directional change in transport with depth in a wind-driven surface layer.
On a smooth non-rotating earth…?
We would expect 1 thermally direct circulation cell per hemisphere in the atmosphere.
Considering the global carbon budget over very long time scales, weathering of silicate rocks….
Withdraws CO2 from the atmosphere.
Which characterists do mid-latitude cyclones and hurricanes have in common?
Surface pressure lowest at centre.
What are the sub-atomic particles?
Hadrons containing baryons & mesons (composite particles) & elementary particles containing fermions (quarks and leptons) and bosons.
What is the frost line?
The line in a solar system beyond which water freezes.
What is the earth’s inner core made of?
A Nickel-iron mix.
What is the Earth’s mantle made of?
A stony (silicate) mantle.
What are the two types of meteorites?
Differentiated - Fe/Ni metal, representing already differentiated cores of proto-planets smashed in asteroid belt.
Undifferentiated - Chondrites, 86% of earth falls. Stony, silicate composition, close to sun. Primitive - suggests early formation.
What is the blocking or closure temperature?
The temperature below which daughter molecules can no longer diffuse out of the material e.g. crystallisation of lava.
What is the Lithosphere?
The outermost 100-150km of earth. Behaves rigidly. Comprised of crust and upper mantle.
What is the Asthenosphere?
The upper mantle below the lithosphere. Shallow under oceanic lithosphere, deeper under continental.
What is polar wandering?
The change in the positions of the countries in relation to the magnetic pole of the world.
