Plate Tectonics
This is the large mass of land that mainstream scientists believe to have existed millions of years ago. It was the only continent on Earth at that time.
What is Pangea?
A rocky layer of Earth that is composed of mostly granite or basalt, depending on the type. It is also the outer layer, and very thin.
What is the oceanic and continental crust?
This involves using the Law of Superposition to determine the age of rock layers. The youngest are near the top and the oldest near the bottom of a sample.
What is Relative Aging?
The movement of air in convection currents within the troposphere depends mostly on this one factor that causes some air to rise and denser air to fall.
What is temperature?
This type of natural disaster is common in many areas of Earth. Minor damage can be expected, but the biggest hazard is generally lightning or flooding rather than high winds.
What is a thunderstorm?
Earthquakes can occur along these types of boundaries. An example of a location where this is common is the San Andreas fault in California.
What is a Transform Boundary?
These are the 4 major layers of Earth in order, from the outer to the inner most layer.
What is the crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core?
This process uses known/current rates of radioactive decay to determine the age of rocks. It is considered to be accurate enough to put a date on them, rather than just compare.
What is Absolute aging?
This type of weather often occurs in a Low pressure system. It can also occur during a cold front, when a cooler air mass rapidly displaces a warmer air mass.
What is a thunderstorm (accept storm)?
This type of disaster is characterized by high wind speeds. Generally, people get less than an hour's warning that this will occur. Safety procedures involve finding the most secure room indoors (often a bathroom or inner hallway) or moving underground if the facility has a basement.
What is a tornado?
Mountains often form at this type of plate boundary. Scientists currently believe this was a slow process of two plates of equal density pushing against each other.
What is a continental convergent boundary (or Continental-continental convergent boundary)?
This layer contains convection currents of molten rock. It is just outside the core, but is still very hot, with temperatures averaging around 3000F according to scientists.
What is the Mantle?
The four criteria needed to designate this type of fossil are: 1. commonly found/abundant, 2. Easy to recognize. 3. Widely distributed across Earth, 4. Restricted to a relatively short period of geologic history (not alive throughout most of history).
What is an index fossil?
These are the four interconnected systems on Earth that scientists have classified. Sometimes they add a 5th one, which separates the processes of liquid vs. frozen water.
What are atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere?
This type of natural disaster almost exclusively occurs near plate boundaries. Stong ones can create massive damage to infrastructure and result in the loss of lives if people get trapped underneath debris. There is usually no warning or only a few minutes of warning that one of these will occur.
What is an earthquake?
This type of plate boundary results in Rift Valleys. When present on the Ocean floor, it results in Oceanic Trenches. You can sometimes see magma, but it doesn't generally result in the formation of volcanos.
What is a Divergent plate boundary?
This layer of the Earth is part of one of the larger 4 layers, the mantle. It is the upper part of it where oceanic plates subduct below continental ones at converging plate boundaries.
What is the asthenosphere?
A rapid burial of an organism that is then left for a long period of time underground are the required conditions to create these. Despite the infrequency of events that cause these conditions, erosion exposes these all over the world, though generally only the harder structures (bones, teeth) are left.
What are fossils? (or How are fossils created?)
This is the 5 layers of the atmosphere in order from lowest elevation to highest. Sometimes the outer layer is incorporated into the thermosphere or considered part of outer space instead.
What are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere?
This type of natural disaster is thought to have played a role in the extinction of dinosaurs, according to many scientists. When there is warning (and there isn't always), evacuation of the area that this disaster is expected to impact is necessary, as homes will be destroyed and there is also the danger of the impact of ash and gasses being released.
What is a volcanic eruption?
The coastal land-based volcanos, in the ring of fire, are the most common type of volcano and are created by this type of plate boundary when an oceanic plate subducts below a continental plate.
What is a Continental-Oceanic convergent boundary?
This layer is part of crust and also extends into the cooler, upper part of the mantle.
What is the lithosphere?
These types of fossils are created when an organism dies and decays. Which one it is depends on whether the indent fills with minerals or not (you need to name at least one to get credit)
What are mold and cast fossils?
These are the three general climate zones that result in all the diversity we see in climate on Earth. Deserts can be present across all three zones.
What are polar, temperate, and tropical?
This type of natural disaster can be detected and prepared for days in advance. It develops in the water before moving on land. Damage and loss of life can occur due to high wind and flooding.
What are hurricanes?