Geologic Time and Events
This eon's name means "visible life" in Greek.
What is Phanerozoic?
Footprints, burrows, and coprolites are examples of this kind of fossil that records behavior, not an organism itself.
What are trace fossils?
These lines converge at the poles and measure distance east or west of the Prime Meridian.
What are lines of longitude?
Sandstone, limestone, and shale are all examples of this type of rock.
What is a sedimentary rock?
This greenhouse gas is the main contributor to anthropogenic climate change.
What is carbon dioxide?
"The age of Reptiles" is a colliquoalism for this era.
What is the Mesozoic era?
This mode of fossilization occurs when minerals form in the pore space of organic material.
What is permineralization?
A topographic map represents elevation using these lines, which connect points of equal height.
What are contour lines?
Granite and rhyolite are compositionally the same, but differ in this physical property.
What is mineral grain size?
This is the boundary between two air masses.
What is a weather front?
This was the most devastating mass extinction event in Earth's history and marks the border between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic.
What is the Permian–Triassic extinction event?
These arthropods with three-lobed bodies were abundant in the Paleozoic.
What are trilobites?
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge bisects this country.
What is Iceland?
Quartz and glass have this kind of fracturing.
What is conchoidal fracturing?
The apparent deflection of winds and ocean currents caused by Earth’s rotation is known as this effect.
What is the Coriolis effect?
Occurring roughly 2.4 billion years ago, this event dramatically increased oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere, fundamentally changing life and the climate.
What is the Great Oxidation Event?
Archaeopteryx is the most famous transitional fossil that marks the beginning of this class of organisms.
What are birds?
This type of projection often leads people to believe Antarctica is much larger than it actually is.
What is the Mercator projection?
This sedimentary rock type forms from the precipitation of minerals from solution.
What is an evaporite?
This international agreement, signed in 2016, aims to limit the average global temperature increase to below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
What is the Paris Agreement?
This mid-Paleozoic event marks a period of major vertebrate diversification in oceans and colonization of land.
What is the Devonian Radiation?
These are areas of exceptionally well-preserved fossil deposits.
What are lagerstätten?
The formation of this feature in eastern Africa is the result of the African Plate slowly splitting apart.
What is the East African Rift?
This rock is an important ore resource and was able to form on Earth's surface before there was abundant atmospheric oxygen.
What are banded iron formations?
This process, often caused by excess nutrients from fertilizers, leads to algal blooms and oxygen depletion in aquatic environments.
What is eutrophication?