The Solid Earth - Chapter 4: Causes of Glaciation

Question 1

Many believe that ice ages have only occurred when the earth’s shifting crustal plates carried the continents from tropical latitudes to more ____ positions

Answer 1

poleward

Question 2

What is the most appealing explanation for Ice Ages?

Answer 2

Plate tectonics (Note: not super proven)

Question 3

Changes in oceanic ___ must have occurred before Ice Ages, altering the transport of heat and moisture

Answer 3

circulation

Question 4

Today many scientists believe that the climactic oscillations that characterize the Pleistocene may be linked to variation in the _______

Answer 4

earth’s orbit

Question 5

Milankovitch formed a mathematical model about differentiation in earth’s orbit based on three elements:

Answer 5

variations in the shape of the orbit (eccentricity)
changes in the angle that axis makes with the plane of the orbit (obliquity)
wobbling of the earth’s axis (precession)

Question 6

True or false: plate tectonics and orbit theory are the only possible explanations for glaciation on a large scale

Answer 6

False