Lesson 4 - Earth's System Flashcards
(19 cards)
a dynamic body with many interacting parts and a long and complex history. also called blue planet as 3⁄4 of Earth’s
surface is ocean
Earth
7 CONTINENTS
Asia
Africa
North America
South America
Antarctica
Europe
Australia
5 OCEANS
Pacific Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
Indian Ocean
Southern Ocean
Arctic Ocean
Earth’s age
4.5 billion years old
method of calculating age through examining the decay of radioactive atoms in sedimentary rocks
Radiometric Dating
The most widely accepted view on the origin of the
universe
BIG BANG THEORY
GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE
cenozoic
mesozoic
paleozoic
precambrian
1-65 million years ago
Cenozoic
65-250 million years ago
Mesozoic
251-542 million years ago
Paleozoic
4.5 million years ago
Precambrian
A large landmass that
contains all, or nearly all,
of the existing continents
SUPERCONTINENT
Earliest well-documented
supercontinent formed
during Proterozoic eon
about 1.1 billion years ago
RODINIA
Rodinia began splitting between the year
800-600 million years ago
About 600 million years ago, southern continents were joined into a single landmass called
GONDWANA
“all land”, A supercontinent that existed about 200-250
million years ago which
began to break apart and
form the present day
continents
PANGAEA
“all sea”. A supercontinent that existed about 200-250
million years ago
which began to break
apart and form the
present day continents
PANTHALASSA
In 1915, German meteorologist Alfred
Wegner published a book “The Origin of Continents and Oceans” in which he presented a radical proposal that the
continents are moving.
THEORY OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT
EVIDENCE OF CONTINENTAL DRIFTTHEORY
1.Continental jigsaw puzzle
2.Fossil match across seas
3. Rock types and structure match
4.Ancient climates
