Tectonic Plate Movement
Name all 3 plate boundaries.
Convergent, Divergent and Transform
What is Relative Dating?
This is the process of determining the order of past events compared to other events through rock layers.
What is absolute age?
Determining the actual age of an event or object in years called.
What is a fossil and what are the five different types of fossils?
A fossil the evidence or remains of a living things. 1) molds and casts, 2)petrified fossils, 3)carbon films, 4)trace fossils, and 5)preserved remains.
Random changes in DNA that can lead to new traits are called?
Mutations
What type of Plate Boundary does subduction occur on
Convergent Boundaries
This is a break in the geologic record. (when a rock layer is missing)
An unconformity
What is a half-life?
A half-life is the rate of decay of a radioactive element, or the amount of time that it takes for half of a sample of radioactive atoms to decay.
Name the time in Earth's history: Clue #1: 251 million years ago Clue #2: Age of Reptiles
What is the Mesozoic era?
A variation in an organism that helps it survive is known as what?
Adaptation
What type of Plate Boundary does not create or destroy crust.
Transfrom Boundary (slide past each other)
See figure 1. Put the layers in order, oldest to youngest.
B, E, H, G, D, F, C, A
What is the difference between a parent isotope and a daughter isotope?
The parent isotope is the radioactive "original" material that is broken down through radioactive decay. During the breakdown, a new "stable" daughter isotope is created.
Name the time in Earth's history: Clue #1: 65 million years ago to today Clue #2: fossils are in the top layer
What is the Cenozoic era?
The survival and reproduction of the organisms that are genetically best fit for their environment is known as what?
Natural Selection
What type of Plate Boundary describes the Earth being seperated where plates move apart and new crust forms.
Divergent Plate Boundary.
Explain the Three major laws of Relative Dating. What are they and how do they work?
Law of Superposition - This states that younger rocks always lie above older rocks.
Law of Cross-cutting Relationships - This states that a crack or break in rock must be younger than the rock layer it cuts through
Law of Original Horizontality - Layers of the Earth are layerd horizontaly until a disturbance (fault, intrusion, unconformity,) breaks the layer record.
A sample of radioisotope has a mass of 400 grams. After 20 days, 12.5 grams of the sample remains. What is the half-life of the isotope?
What is 4 days.
True or False? Explain your answer. Humans were dominant for most of geologic time.
False. If you tried to squeeze Earth's 4.6-billion year history into a 24-hour day, modern humans don't even appear until less than a second before midnight. We don't exist until the last portion of the Cenozoic Era.
Two different organisms are alike, they share this in their bloodline.
Common Ancestor
How many tectonic plates are there around the entire planet? (Not on the Test)
15
See figure 2. Put the layers in order, oldest to youngest.
E,G,L,C,H,M,D,J,A,N,K,B,F
Technetium-104 has a half-life of 18 minutes. How much of a 165 gram sample remains after 90 minutes?
What is 5.15625 grams or ~ 5.2 grams
What is an index fossil, and why is it helpful in determining relative age?
An index fossil is the fossil of an organism that is widely distributed (not just found in a limited area) and lived only a short period of time. Because they live only a short period of time but are found all over the place, they are helpful in telling the relative ages of the rocks in which they occur.
Extinction happens when all individuals of a species die out and no members are left. What are three ways that a species can become extinct?
Environmental Changes – Climate change, sea level rise, natural disasters.
Loss of Habitat – Deforestation, urbanization.
Competition – Other species outcompete for resources.
Predation – New predators can wipe out a species.
Disease – A deadly virus or disease can spread through a population.
Human Activity – Pollution, hunting, introduction of invasive species.