Geologic Time & Earth History
The method of determining the age of rocks and fossils relative to one another, not in absolute terms.
What is relative dating?
This type of weathering involves the physical breaking of rocks into smaller pieces.
What is mechanical (or physical) weathering?
The gas making up about 78% of Earth's atmosphere
What is nitrogen?
The deepest parts of the ocean floor, often found at subduction zones.
What are oceanic trenches?
This theory explains the formation of the solar system from a rotating cloud of gas and dust.
What is the nebular hypothesis (or nebular theory)?
The Cenozoic Era is often referred to as the Age of these dominant animal groups.
What are mammals?
The chemical reaction between water and minerals in rocks, like feldspar, can lead to the formation of clay minerals.
What is hydrolysis?
This layer contains the ozone layer, which protects Earth from harmful UV radiation.
What is the stratosphere?
The measure of dissolved salts in water.
What is salinity?
This force governs the motion of planets, moons, and other celestial bodies in the solar system.
What is gravity?
Index fossils, used for correlating rock layers, must meet these criteria: widespread geographical distribution and these other two characteristics.
What are a short time range and easy identification?
The formation of caves and sinkholes is primarily due to this type of chemical weathering dissolving limestone.
What is carbonation?
Lines on a weather map connecting points of equal atmospheric pressure.
What are isobars?
The deepest point in all the world's oceans, located in the Mariana Trench.
What is Challenger Deep?
The Kuiper Belt is located beyond the orbit of this planet.
What is Neptune?
This largest division of geologic time encompasses eons, eras, periods, and epochs.
What is an eon?
This type of erosion, often caused by poor agricultural practices, removes topsoil in thin layers across a field.
What is sheet erosion?
This global ocean current system is driven by differences in water density (temperature and salinity), significantly influencing global climate patterns.
What is thermohaline circulation (or the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt)?
The process of removing salt from seawater to make it potable.
What is desalination?
This Oort Cloud is hypothesized to be the source of these types of comets.
What are long-period comets?
The relative ages of rock strata are determined by these three principles: superposition, original horizontality, and lateral continuity.
What are the principles of relative dating?
The process of soil formation involves the interaction of weathering, decomposition of organic matter, and these other factors.
What are climate, parent material, topography, and time?
The process of converting atmospheric nitrogen into compounds usable by living organisms.
What is nitrogen fixation?
The "Great Ocean Conveyor Belt" is driven by a combination of density differences and this other force.
What are prevailing winds (or the Coriolis effect)?
The terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) are characterized by this compositional similarity.
What is they are rocky (or have solid surfaces)?