Solid Ground (Seismology & Basics)
The concept that "the present is the key to the past."
What is Uniformitarianism?
The theory that states Earth's surface is broken into many moving pieces.
What is Plate Tectonics?
The three defining features of minerals: naturally occurring, inorganic, and...
What is a solid/definite crystal structure?
Acid rain dissolving a limestone statue is an example of this process.
What is Chemical Weathering?
The most abundant gas in Earth's current atmosphere (at 78%).
What is Nitrogen?
The instrument used to detect and record earthquake waves.
What is a Seismograph?
The ocean that is currently expanding due to divergent plate boundaries.
What is the Atlantic Ocean?
Igneous rock that forms from lava cooling quickly on the Earth's surface.
What is Extrusive igneous rock?
The specific location in a stream bend where water travels fastest and erodes the bank.
What is the Outside of the curve?
The layer of the atmosphere where the Ozone layer is located.
What is the Stratosphere?
These earthquake waves arrive first and travel through both solids and liquids.
What are P-waves (Primary waves)?
The heat-driven process in the upper mantle that moves the tectonic plates.
What are Convection Cells?
Sedimentary rock formed from the fragments of other rocks.
What is Clastic rock?
The method by which energy is transferred from the Sun to the Earth.
What is Radiation?
The effect that causes winds to bend or curve due to Earth's rotation.
What is the Coriolis Effect?
The specific point on Earth's surface directly above where an earthquake starts.
What is the Epicenter?
This type of boundary involves plates sliding past each other, causing earthquakes.
What is a Transform Boundary?
The two factors required to turn an existing rock into a metamorphic rock.
What are Heat and Pressure?
The breeze that occurs at night when air flows from the land toward the water.
What is a Land Breeze?
The process by which ancient cyanobacteria first added oxygen to the atmosphere.
What is Photosynthesis?
The atmospheric layer where the air is so thin that molecules rarely touch.
What is the Thermosphere?
The type of boundary responsible for the "shrinking" of the Pacific Ocean.
What is a Convergent Boundary?
The property determined by the color of a mineral's powder on a porcelain plate.
What is Streak?
Between warm and cold air, this type of air is less dense and tends to rise.
What is Warm Air?
The powerful storm system characterized by low pressure and warm, humid tropical air.
What is a Hurricane?