Midterm

Question 1

What’s the difference between planets and dwarf planets?

Answer 1

Dwarf planets have not cleared the area around their orbit, and they aren’t satellites

Question 2

What sphere takes up the most space on earth?

Answer 2

Hydrosphere

Question 3

How old is the earth?

Answer 3

4.5 billion years old

Question 4

What type of lava has the lowest silica content?

Answer 4

Komatiite

Question 5

What type of rock has the highest viscosity?

Answer 5

Rhyolite

Question 6

What are fluvial systems?

Answer 6

water controlled structures

Question 7

What are eolian deposits?

Answer 7

Wind controlled structures

Question 8

What is mass wasting?

Answer 8

Gravity controlled structures

Question 9

What layer makes up the most of the earth’s mass?

Answer 9

mantle

Question 10

What are p-waves?

Answer 10

push-pull waves, slow down going through fluids

Question 11

What are s-waves?

Answer 11

shear waves, don’t go through fluids at all

Question 12

What is the structure of the earth core?

Answer 12

Outer is liquid, inner is solid

Question 13

What are the main elements in the earth?

Answer 13

Iron and oxygen

Question 14

When did the highest rate of heat flow occur?

Answer 14

Hadean eon

Question 15

Where does the most heat loss occur?

Answer 15

At plate boundaries

Question 16

How are primary and secondary craters different?

Answer 16

Primary: circular, secondary: elliptical

Question 17

What’s the smallest type of crater?

Answer 17

Simple

Question 18

What’s the largest type of crater?

Answer 18

Multi-ring basins

Question 19

What’s the order of events in crater formation?

Answer 19

Compression, excavation, modification

Question 20

What happens in the compression step?

Answer 20

fracturing, brecciation, melting, and vapourization

Question 21

What happens in the excavation step?

Answer 21

there is explosive expansion and large amounts of debris

Question 22

What happens in the modification step?

Answer 22

slumping of crater walls

Question 23

What is degradation?

Answer 23

Later impacts in an existing crater

Question 24

What is a meteorite?

Answer 24

Remains of meteoroids on earth

Question 25

What is a meteoroid?

Answer 25

Small, solid particles in space

Question 26

What is a meteor?

Answer 26

visible path of a meteoroid as it enters earth's atmosphere

Question 27

What layer do meteoroids fragment in?

Answer 27

stratosphere

Question 28

Where do meteorites come from?

Answer 28

asteroid belt

Question 29

What are most meteorites made of?

Answer 29

stony material

Question 30

What type of meteorites have chondrules?

Answer 30

stony

Question 31

What is the light called that's emitted from a meteoroid as it explodes in the atmosphere?

Answer 31

bolide

Question 32

What is a fireball?

Answer 32

A meteor brighter than Venus

Question 33

What is the most common gas in the atmosphere?

Answer 33

Nitrogen, then oxygen

Question 34

What is the atmospheric structure?

Answer 34

troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere

Question 35

Which sphere absorbs UV?

Answer 35

stratosphere

Question 36

What is white light?

Answer 36

made up of all colours

Question 37

What has the shortest wavelength?

Answer 37

Gamma rays

Question 38

As wavelength increases, frequency....

Answer 38

decreases

Question 39

How does wind travel relative to isobars on a non rotating planet?

Answer 39

perpendicular

Question 40

What is the Coriolis effect?

Answer 40

freely moving objects are deflected (northern hemisphere to right, southern hemisphere to left)

Question 41

What type of centres do cyclones have?

Answer 41

Low pressure

Question 42

Where does the solar wind first encounter the magnetosphere?

Answer 42

bow shock

Question 43

What is a Van Allen belt?

Answer 43

charge particles are stored in upper electron and lower proton belts

Question 44

What causes aurora borealis?

Answer 44

when charged particles excite gas molecules to higher energy levels which emits light

Question 45

When was there high heat flow and earth's internal structure formed?

Answer 45

Hadean era

Question 46

When was the continental nuclei formed and origin of life?

Answer 46

Archean eon

Question 47

What was the atmosphere made up of in the archean eon?

Answer 47

carbon dioxide and water from volcanoes

Question 48

What happened in the biosphere in the archean eon?

Answer 48

prokaryotes, asexual reproduction

Question 49

When was the stabilization of continental platforms and oxidation of atmosphere, along with well developed oceans?

Answer 49

Proterozoic eon

Question 50

What was the biosphere like in the proterozoic eon?

Answer 50

from asexual to sexual reproduction, explosion of life near end of eon

Question 51

When was the modern plate tectonic period and expansion of life?

Answer 51

Phanerozoic eon

Question 52

When did organisms get skeletons?

Answer 52

phanerozoic eon

Question 53

What is the mean solar day?

Answer 53

24 hours, time from one noon to the next

Question 54

how long is a sidereal day?

Answer 54

23 hours, blah blah

Question 55

What is revolution?

Answer 55

motion of a celestial body around some point in space

Question 56

Perihelion

Answer 56

closest to sun (winter)

Question 57

Aphelion

Answer 57

furthest from sun (summer)

Question 58

What is precession?

Answer 58

very slow shifting of the direction of the earth's axis

Question 59

What is the celestial equator?

Answer 59

projection of the earth's equator onto celestial sphere

Question 60

What is the equinox?

Answer 60

equal day and equal night

Question 61

What is the winter solstice"?

Answer 61

shortest day, longest night

Question 62

Summer solstice?

Answer 62

longest day, shortest night

Question 63

what is waxing?

Answer 63

increasingly illuminated west side of moon

Question 64

what is waning?

Answer 64

decreasingly illuminated east side of moon

Question 65

how long does it take to see all the phases of the moon?

Answer 65

4 weeks

Question 66

what is synchronous orbit?

Answer 66

revolution == rotation

Question 67

when does a total lunar eclipse happen?

Answer 67

when the moon is fully within the earth's umbra

Question 68

when does an annular eclipse occur?

Answer 68

eclipse happens at the apogee

Question 69

partial lunar eclipse?

Answer 69

moon is in part of the earth's umbra

Question 70

what is a spring tide?

Answer 70

higher than normal, sun and moon aligned

Question 71

what is a neap tide?

Answer 71

lower than normal high tides, sun and moon not aligned