Impact Craters
The cause of impact craters.
What are meteorites?
This accounts for 99.8% of the mass in our solar system.
The Sun
A small rock (from a grain to a meter in diameter) in space.
The source of free Oxygen in Earth's atmosphere.
What are photosynthetic plants?
New Earth rocks are formed at these places
What are divergent plate boundaries or volcanoes?
The greater the size of impactor, the __________ the size of the impact crater.
What is greater?
Name the four rocky, terrestrial planets.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
What is often called a "shooting star"
What is a meteor?
Term that explains how Earth organizes from a loose collection of rocky material into a planet with four interior layers.
What is differentiation?
The number of major tectonic plates on Earth.
What is seven?
Two reasons why Earth has few impact craters.
What is plate tectonics and erosion?
Location of the asteroid belt
Between Mars and Jupiter
A rock that falls from space and lands on Earth.
What is a meteorite?
Place where the oldest zircons have been found
What is the Jack Hills, in Western Australia?
The name for material that sprays in all directions upon a meteor's impact.
What is ejecta?
Reason why the gas and ice giants are further from the Sun
The lighter gaseous and icy elements gathered further from our young sun.
This iron meteorite, which weighs 15.5 tons and was found in Oregon, is the largest ever found in the United States and the sixth-largest in the world.
What is the Willamette Meteorite?
The source of liquid water on Earth
What are meteorites?
Minerals on Earth that can survive erosion, transport, and high-grade metamorphism and have been dated as more than 4.4 billion years old.
What are zircons?
The most common type of meteorite found on Earth.
What is a chondrite?
Name 11 celestial bodies in our solar system.
The Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, comets, asteroids, Titan, Europa...
These make up 99 percent of the approximately 50 tons of space debris that falls on the Earth’s surface every day
What are micrometeorites?
Theory that explains how the movement of geologic plates causes mountain building, volcanoes, and earthquakes.
What is plate tectonics?
Method used to date Earth's oldest minerals and rocks.
What is radiometric dating?