Midterm 1 Flashcards
(178 cards)
Geology:
Derived from the Greek
words “geo” meaning _____
and “logia” meaning _____
Earth
knowledge
5 subdisciplines of geology
Geochemistry • Mineralogy • Geophysics • Paleontology • Geomicrobiology/Geobiology
Three big ideas in geological sciences that form a framework for
understanding the Earth and Earth
processes
• Geological Time (“deep” time) -earth been around 4.6 billion years • Uniformitarianism -principle of how geological processes happen slowly and uniformally over time • Plate Tectonics
Geological record
-Geological time scale is a calender broken into Eons, eras,periods, and epochs
• Geologists examine Earth’s past (rocks) to learn about the
present (processes that form new rocks or features)
• The geologic record is information preserved in rocks
• Rocks contain information about their formation, e.g., fossils,
features such as ripples
ripples
rock found near beach formed by water movement
before ___ million years ago life was only unicellular
542
Uniformitarianism
• Assumption that geologic processes occurring today have
been the same through geologic history
• Imply that changes to the Earth over geologic history have
been a gradual process, not just a series of major
catastrophic events
Earth’s shape is a ______ _______
oblate spheroid
_____ forces cause Earth to bulge near equator, creating an oblate spheroid
rotational
Geodesy: study of
earths size and shape
Everest is in Nepal, North of ____
india
Mount Chimborazo
.technically higher then Everest because of bulge at the equator where it is located
• Inactive volcano in Ecuador – last
eruption ~550 AD
.
at equator Earths radius is __ km greater at the equator
21
_____ ____is used as a reference for all Earth
elevations
Sea level is used as a reference for all Earth elevations, refers to “mean sea level” which is a historic average of sea level measurements
Mariana Trench and Everest are similar because they are both found at the edge of …
interacting plates
Marianas Trench:
contains the deepest point in the ocean, the challenger deep
Earths Layers
Crust-where we are
0-40 km
0.4% of mass
Mantle
40-2890km
67.1%
Outer Core-liquid
2890-5150km
30.8% of mass
Inner core-solid
5150-6370km
1.7%
You can measure a position on Earth using…2
radius of the earth or mean sea level
-radius used for earths layers
the earths layer: _____ is the one with the most mass %
Mantle: 67.1%
Deep vs. Shallow layers in terms of density and main rock type components
Deeper layers of the earth are more dense and contain more Iron-nickel
-iron and nickel form alloys
Shallower layers are less dense and have high concentrations of silica
8 elements which make up about 99% of earth
Magnesium
Calcium
Iron
Nickel
Aluminum
Silica
Oxygen
Sulfur
Oxygen makes up mostof the Earth at __%
30
The Inner core of the earth contains about __% iron and about __% silica
The Earths crust contains about __% iron and __% silica
94, 0
6, 28
As you move deeper into the earth the ammount of Oxygen, Silica, and Aluminum ______
decreases
-Iron and nickel increase
DEFINATELY A QUESTION ON THIS