Space Systems
The spectral shift observed in light from distant galaxies that provides key evidence that the universe is expanding.
What is Red Shift
The heat-transfer mechanism in Earth's mantle that drives the movement of tectonic plates.
What is Convection (or Thermal Convection)
What is the age (Geologic period) of the rocks found near Sidney, NY?
What is the Devonian?
Canada and The Gulf of Mexico
What is the geographic source region for air masses.
The chart in the Earth & Space Science Reference Tables used to identify igneous rocks based on texture and mineral composition.
What is the Scheme for Igneous Rock Identification?
According to Kepler's Second Law, an orbiting planet moves fastest when it is at this point in its orbit (closest to the Sun).
What is Perihelion?
The process by which surface rocks are broken down into sediment, transported by wind or water, and dropped in new locations.
What are Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition?
4.6 billion years old
What is the age of the Earth and Solar System
Large volcanic eruptions drop surface temperatures globally because airborne ash particles have this effect on incoming solar radiation.
What is reflecting solar radiation back into space?
evaluating benefits against drawbacks when selecting engineering solutions is evaluating these two factors.
What are Criteria and Constraints (or Trade-offs)?
The primary process in a star’s core that fuses light elements (like hydrogen) into heavier ones (like helium), releasing massive amounts of energy.
What is Nuclear Fusion?
At a subduction zone where oceanic crust collides with continental crust, this type of crust will sink because it is denser.
What is Oceanic Crust?
The time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample of an isotope to decay into its stable daughter product.
What is a Half-Life?
As air rises over a mountain range, it expands, cools, and reaches saturation, causing this side of the mountain to be wet and cool.
What is the Windward side?
On a weather station model, a shorthand barometric pressure written as 013 translates to this actual pressure in millibars (mb).
What is 1001.3 mb?
A star with high luminosity but a low surface temperature belongs to this stellar group on the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram.
What are Supergiants (or Red Giants)?
In the slow carbon cycle, carbon stored in carbonate rocks returns to the atmosphere through this geologic event.
What is a Volcanic Eruption (or Volcanism)?
The radioactive isotope commonly used by scientists to date organic artifacts less than 50,000 to 70,000 years old.
What is carbon-14?
The state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place, versus long-term average atmospheric patterns over decades.
What is the difference between Weather and Climate?
Two stars have the exact same surface temperature of 6,000K, but Star A is 100 times more luminous than Star B. Explain why this difference in luminosity occurs, referencing the physical property of the stars.
What is Star A has a much larger surface area (or radius/size) than Star B?
Oceanic crust is constantly being recycled at subduction zones, while continental crust remains intact for billions of years. Identify the primary physical property difference that prevents continental crust from subductive recycling.
What is continental crust being less dense (and composed of granitic rock) compared to denser oceanic (basaltic) crust?