Mechanical Layers
Rigid outer layer that makes up tectonic plates.
Lithosphere
The thin outer layer where we live (land and ocean floor).
What is the crust?
Study of Earth's rocks, structure, and history.
What is Geology?
The sphere that contains all the air around Earth.
What is the atmosphere?
Anything that has mass and takes up space.
What is matter?
Soft, partially molten layer under the lithosphere that lets plates move.
What is the asthenosphere?
Thick layer between crust and core made of silicate rock.
What is the mantle?
Study of the ocean, its currents, and life.
What is oceanography?
The sphere that contains all water on Earth.
What is the hydrosphere?
Anything that can do work, like heat or light.
What is energy?
Deeper, more rigid mantle layer that helps transfer heat upward.
What is the mesosphere?
The Earth’s inner compositional region consists mainly of iron and nickel and has two parts — name the region and its two parts.
What is the core: outer core and inner core?
Study of the atmosphere and weather.
What is meteorology?
The solid rock and soil part of Earth.
What is the geosphere?
Give one example of matter and one example of energy.
What is rock (matter) and heat (energy)
What causes rock in the mantle to move and push plates?
What is mantle convection?
Which compositional layer is primarily responsible for generating Earth's magnetic field and why?
What is the outer core?
Study of space beyond Earth (stars, planets).
What is astronomy?
All living things on Earth belong to this sphere.
What is the biosphere?
The force of attraction between all matter in the universe.
What is gravity?
Why do earthquakes happen when plates move?
What is stored stress in the rigid lithosphere causes sudden breaks?
State of outer core and inner core (liquid or solid)?
What is outer core — liquid; inner core — solid?
Study of human interactions with the environment and solutions to environmental problems.
What is environmental science?
Give the main component percentages of the atmosphere (major two gases).
What is 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen?
How does Earth act as a system in terms of matter and energy?
What is matter cycles between spheres while energy (from the Sun and internal heat) drives those changes?