Plate Tectonics
What is the feature where new oceanic crust forms as tectonic plates move apart?
What is Mid-ocean ridge (sea-floor spreading)?
What type of weathering is caused by physical forces such as frost wedging and pressure release?
What is mechanical (physical) weathering?
Which phenomenon involves warming of surface waters in the central and eastern Pacific and alters global weather patterns?
What is El Niño?
What is the main driver (source of energy) that causes plate motions and ocean-atmosphere circulation as noted in Texas standards?
What is the uneven distribution of Earth’s thermal energy (heat)?
Which Earth sphere includes all living organisms and organic matter?
What is the biosphere?
What is the process called when an oceanic plate is forced beneath a continental plate at a convergent boundary?
What is subduction?
Which of the listed options is NOT a chemical weathering process: oxidation, hydrolysis, carbonation, or abrasion?
What is abrasion (is physical, not chemical)?
How do ocean currents influence global climate?
What is redistributing heat and influencing regional climates?
At a convergent boundary where oceanic and continental plates meet, what typically happens to the oceanic plate?
What is the oceanic plate subducting beneath the continental plate?
Which human-driven factor can increase soil erosion on a slope and thereby raise the risk of mudslides?
What is the removal of vegetation/land-use change?
Name one piece of evidence used to support the theory of plate tectonics involving fossil or continental shape.
What are matching coastlines/fossil distribution (e.g., South America and Africa)?
Describe how weathering contributes directly to soil formation.
What is weathering breaking down rocks into smaller particles that combine with organic matter to form soil?
What is coral bleaching and what is the primary environmental cause named in this unit?
What is the loss of symbiotic algae due to elevated water temperature?
Define erosion and deposition and explain their relationship in shaping landscapes.
What is erosion moving sediment and deposition placing it elsewhere?
Explain how temperature inversions can impact air quality near urban areas.
What are inversions trapping pollutants near the surface?
What geological structure commonly forms where two continental plates collide and compress?
What is a mountain range (e.g., Himalayas from continental collision)?
Identify and briefly explain two biological agents that can speed up mechanical or chemical weathering.
What are plant roots (physically break rock, produce acids) and burrowing organisms (increase exposure and breakdown); lichens produce acids that chemically weather rock?
Contrast one typical regional climate effect of El Niño with one typical effect of La Niña.
What is El Niño: warmer eastern Pacific, altered rainfall; La Niña: cooler waters, stronger trade winds
Which type of plate boundary is most likely to create a rift valley?
What is a divergent boundary?
Identify one way that human activity can exacerbate coral bleaching and one management action that can reduce stress on reefs.
What is warming from GHGs, reducing pollution, MPAs (marine protected areas), and emissions cuts?
Explain how sea-floor spreading and subduction together account for plate movement and recycling of crust.
What are sea-floor spreading creating new crust at ridges; subduction recycling older oceanic crust at trenches — together they drive plate movement?
Given a hillslope with loose rock fragments and frequent freeze-thaw cycles, predict the dominant weathering process and explain your reasoning.
What is a freeze-thaw (frost wedging) dominating because water in cracks freezes and expands repeatedly?
Explain how changes in upwelling along a coastline can affect local fisheries and nutrient availability.
What is reduced upwelling lowering nutrients and fisheries; increased upwelling boosting productivity?
Describe how a volcanic eruption demonstrates interaction between Earth spheres; name the spheres involved.
What is the lithosphere interacting with the atmosphere (and can affect biosphere/hydrosphere)?
Using the water cycle, name and explain the primary interaction between Earth spheres responsible for moving water between the surface and atmosphere.
What is the evaporation and condensation between hydrosphere and atmosphere?