Age of the Earth
how old is the Earth?
4.5 billion years old.
What are the names of Earth's layers?
The crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core.
What is the name of the machine that measures earthquakes?
A seismograph or seismometer.
What is the name of the plate boundaries that forms a ring around the Pacific Ocean?
The Ring of Fire, also referred to as the Circum-Pacific Belt.
Why is runoff bad for the environment?
Runoff picks up fertilizer, oil, pesticides, dirt, and other pollutants as it makes its way through storm drains and ditches to our, rivers, lakes and ocean.
What is the oldest found mineral on earth?
Zircons. Zircons helped age the Earth.
What is the most abundant element on Earth?
Oxygen.
What is the name of the point in which an earthquake originates from?
Focus point or hypocentre.
How fast do tectonic plates move?
1.5 centimeters a year. About the rate that human nails grow.
What type of surfaces causes the most runoff?
Water impermeable surfaces such as concrete.
What types of elements are commonly used for radiometric dating?
Elements that have radiative decay such as Uranium-235 or decay products such as
Lead-207.
How did Earth get its water?
Through asteroids and comets containing water crashing into Earth.
Name one type of seismic waves.
P waves, S waves, Love waves, and Rayleigh waves.
Where is new crust being created?
As old crust is melted into magma, new oceanic crust in the form of igneous rock is formed at mid-ocean ridges.
How do reeds help with water health?
They directly take-up nutrients, pump oxygen into the substrate and provide a food source for the micro-organisms responsible for breaking down pollutants such as heavy metals.
Name three of the laws of relative rock dating?
Superposition, Lateral continuity, Original horizontality, Cross-Cutting relationships and inclusions.
Clouds of gasses and dusts came together by gravity to form early Earth. What is this process called?
Accretion.
What type of seismic waves travel the fastest?
P waves.
What is it called when one tectonic plate goes under another?
subduction.
Why is having high amounts of nutrients in water systems bad for the environment?
High amounts of nutrients in water cause severe blue / green algal blooms which rapidly consumes oxygen in the water killing aquatic species, blocks sunlight for underwater plants and can be toxic.
What is the difference between relative and absolute dating?
Relative dating tells how old something is in relation to other objects but does not provide a specific date.
Absolute dating gives a specific date of how old something is.
What was early Earth's atmosphere made of?
Gases spewed from volcanoes. It included hydrogen sulfide, methane and carbon dioxide.
What happens to S & P waves when they hit the outer core?
S waves cannot pass through the liquid outer core, but P waves can. However P waves do refract downwards.
What type of plate boundary is under the Himalayan mountain range?
Convergent continental plate boundary.
What is the cause of soil salinity?
Improper anthropogenic activities, particularly farming practices such as poor irrigation management and untreated runoff.