Origin Of Earth Flashcards

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1
Q

Origin of the Earth Theories

A
  • Gaseous Mass Hypothesis of Kant
  • Nebular Theory of Laplace
  • Planetesimal Hypothesis of Chamberlain and Moulton
  • Tidal Collision Hypothesis of Jeans and Jeffreys
  • Electromagnetic Theory of Dr. Hannes Alfvén
  • Inter-stellar Dust Hypothesis of Otto Schmidt
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2
Q

are pieces of evidence of organisms that lived in the past

A

Fossils

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3
Q

They can be actual remains like bones, teeth, shells, leaves, seeds, spores, or traces of past activities such as animal burrows, nests, and dinosaur footprints, or even the ripples created on a prehistoric shore.

A

Fossils

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4
Q

Types of fossils

A
  • molds
  • casts
  • petrified
  • original remains
  • carbon film
  • trace/ichnofossils
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5
Q

Impression made on a substrate = negative image of an organism

A

Molds

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6
Q

Example of molds (fossil)

A

Shells

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7
Q

Type of Fossils

When a mold is filled in

A

Casts

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8
Q

Type of fossils

Organic material is converted into stone

A

Petrified

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9
Q

Examples of casts (type of fossil)

A

Bones and teeth

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10
Q

Examples of petrified fossils

A

Petrified trees & coal balls (fossilized plants & their tissues, in round ball shape)

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11
Q

Preserved wholly (frozen, trapped in tar pits, dried/desiccated inside caves in arid regions or encased in amber/fossilized resin)

A

Original remains

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12
Q

Examples of original remains

A

Woolly mammoth, amber from baltic sea region

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13
Q

Carbon impression in sedimentary rocks

A

Carbon film

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14
Q

Examples of carbon film (fossils)

A

Leaf impression on the rock

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15
Q

Type of Fossils

Record the movements and behaviors of the organism

A

Trace/ichnofossils

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16
Q

Six ways of Fossilization

A
  • unaltered preservation
  • permineralization/petrification
  • replacement
  • carbonization/coalification
  • recrystalization
  • authigenic preservation
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17
Q

Ways of Fossilization:

Small organism or part trapped in amber, hardened plant sap

A

Unaltered preservation

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18
Q

Ways of Fossilization

The organic contents of bone and wood are replaced with silica, calcite or pyrite, forming a rock-like fossil

A

Permineralization/Petrification

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19
Q

Ways of Fossilization

Hard parts are dissolved and replaced by other minerals, like calcite, silica, pyrite, or iron

A

Replacement

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20
Q

Ways of Fossilization

The other elements are removed and only the carbon remained

A

Carbonization/Coalification

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21
Q

Ways of Fossilization

Hard parts are converted to more stable minerals or small crystals turn into larger crystals

A

Recrystallization

22
Q

Ways of Fossilization

Molds and casts are formed after most of the organism have been destroyed or dissolved

A

Authigenic preservation

23
Q

Way that can help a scientist establish its position in the geologic time scale and find its relationship with other fossils

A

Dating the Fossils (Relative Dating & Absolute Dating)

24
Q

Dating the Fossils:

It is only based upon the study of layers of rocks and does not tell the exact age.

A

Relative Dating

25
Q

Dating the Fossils:

Determines the actual age of the fossils using radioactive isotopes like carbon-14 and potassium-40

A

Absolute Dating

26
Q

Rules of Relative Dating:

When sedimentary rock layers are deposited, younger layers are on top of older deposits

A

Law of Superposition

27
Q

Rules of Relative Dating:

Sedimentary rock layers are deposited horizontally. If they are tilted, folded, or broken, it happened later.

A

Law of Original Horizontality

28
Q

Rules of Relative Dating:

If an igneous intrusion or a fault cuts through existing rocks, the intrusion/fault is YOUNGER than the rock it cuts through.

A

Law of Cross-cutting relationships

29
Q

GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE:

The largest division of the GTS which spans hundreds to thousands of millions of years ago

A

Eon

30
Q

GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE:

division in an era that spans time periods of tens to hundreds of millions of years

A

Era

31
Q

GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE:

Division of geologic history that spans no more than one hundreds of millions of years

A

Period

32
Q

GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE:

The smallest division of the geologic time scale characterized by distinct organisms

A

Epoch

33
Q

GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE:

  • 4.8 million years
  • about 88% of the Earth’s history
A

Precambrian

34
Q

GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE:

Age of Early Life where soft-bodied creatures like worms and jellyfish lived in the world’s oceans

A

Precambrian

35
Q

GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE:

Precambrian consists of what eons

A
  • Hadean
  • Archean
  • Proterozoic
36
Q

GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE:

  • Earth coalesced from a cloud of dust into a planet
  • Formation of Earth
  • High temperature
  • Ball of gasses
A

Hadean

37
Q

GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE:

  • Molten rocks cooled down
  • Gasses provided cooler atmosphere
A

Archean

38
Q

GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE:

It is when early life first appeared on Earth

A

Archean

39
Q

GTS:

Our oldest fossils date to roughly ______ years ago and consists of ______________

A

3.5 billion
Bacteria microfossils

40
Q

GTS:

Colonies of photosynthetic bacteria which have been found as fossils in Early Archaean rocks of ______ and ______

A

South Africa, Western Australia

41
Q

GTS:

These are layers of calcium carbonate that form warm, shallow seas by the activitie of photosynthetic bacteria

A

Stromatolites

42
Q

GTS:

Eon when temperature have cooled down significantly and when cyanobacteria existed (w/out oxygen) and oxygenated the Earth

A

Proterozoic

43
Q

GTS:

Oldest fossils of larger, multicellular, soft-bodied marine animals

A

Ediacara fauna

44
Q

GTS:

Era that is approximately 541.0 million years ago

A

Phanerozoic

45
Q

GTS:

Consists of the five major extinction events that is part of the reasons that shifts in Earth’s environmental conditions which made it difficult for some species to survive

A

Phanerozoic

46
Q

GTS:

Eon that is also known as “Visible Life”

A

Phanerozoic

47
Q

GTS:

Era that started more than 540 million years ago and it is when the first surge of life from the first fish to the evolution of land-dwelling organisms happened.

A

Paleozoic Era

48
Q

GTS:

  • Burst of diversity
  • Hard external skeletons protected trilobites, clams, snails, and sea urchins from predators.
A

Cambrian Explosion

49
Q

GTS:

  • Invertebrates filled the oceans
  • straight-shelled cephalopods, trilobites, snails, brachiopods, and corals in a shallow inland sea
A

Ordovician Period

50
Q

GTS:

Plants colonized the land for the first time and was the “golden age” of cephalopods and brachiopods (a clam-like shellfish)

A

Ordovician Period