Continental Drift & Plate Tectonics
How did Alfred Wegener explain why there were the same mountains on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean?
What is he proposed that the continents were once together and the mountains were near each other originally but have since drifted apart?
The Earth’s crust is broken up into dozens of plates, which float upon the slowly moving rock of the …?
What is mantle?
Our solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago from a cloud of gas and dust, and our Sun is a typical middle-aged star that will eventually expand into a red giant before cooling down. Which statement BEST describes the main scientific idea behind studying the life cycle and formation of our Sun and solar system?
What is studying our sun and the formation of our solar system enables us to see patterns in nature that help us understand the formation of the universe?
Kepler’s laws describe the motions of …? The pathways of these motions are …?
What is orbiting objects / elliptical?
The Moon's surface is covered with thousands of visible impact craters, while Earth's surface shows very few preserved ones, even though both bodies experienced similar bombardment from asteroids and comets early in the solar system's history — especially during a period of intense impacts around 4 billion years ago. Earth's craters have mostly been erased over time by active geological processes like weathering, erosion, plate tectonics, and volcanism, which the Moon lacks.
Which of the following best describes what this difference in crater preservation reveals about both the Moon and Earth during that early period?
What is they went through a period of intense bombardment?
What is the term scientists use to describe the movement of continents (related to Pangaea)?
What is continental drift?
Mt. St. Helens is located above a subduction zone. Which of the following best describes the interaction between the Juan de Fuca Plate and the North American Plate at this location?
What is one plate is pulled (or forced) under the other plate? (Or more fully: What is one tectonic plate is subducted beneath the other?)
This nuclear process powers the Sun by smashing hydrogen nuclei together to form helium, releasing tremendous energy as some mass is converted directly into light and heat.
What is nuclear fusion?
Kepler's second law calculates that an orbiting object sweeps out …? area in an equal amount of time
What is an equal?
The Cascadia subduction zone, off the Pacific Northwest coast, has produced great megathrust earthquakes in the past, with the most recent major event occurring on January 26, 1700. This earthquake is known from evidence like drowned "ghost forests" along the coast (dated by tree rings), sand layers from tsunamis, Native American oral histories of shaking and flooding, and records of an "orphan tsunami" that reached Japan hours later. Scientists estimate its size based on the extent of rupture, tsunami modeling, and geologic proxies.
What is the estimated magnitude range for this greatest known earthquake in the Cascadia region's history?
What is between 9.0 and 9.5 magnitude?
Identical rock types, identical fossils, and very similar mountain ranges are found on different continents separated by a wide ocean. Which best explains these observations?
What is these continents were joined together at one time in the past?
Which piece of information is MOST useful for creating a model that shows where Earth's material is most actively surfacing?
What is thermal imaging, which indicates areas where more heat is being released at Earth's surface, indicating the presence of rising magma?
Predict the most likely events when our sun reaches the end of the proton-proton fusion process
What is the chemical composition of the sun's core will begin to change / the circumference of the sun will change / the sun will continue to produce heavier elements?
According to Kepler's 1st Law of Planetary Motion, a planet moves faster when it is .....? to the Sun.
What is closer?
This type of volcano, often found at subduction zones like the Ring of Fire, forms steep-sided cones from explosive eruptions of viscous lava and ash, and is responsible for events like the 1980 Mount St. Helens blast.
What is a composite (or stratovolcano)?
The Earth’s tectonic plates move at about the same rate as...?
What is your fingernails grow?
How are earthquakes, plate tectonics, and volcanoes connected?
What is volcanoes and earthquakes both result from the movement of tectonic plates?
True or False: Based on the position of the spectral lines, it can be concluded that the distant star is moving away from the Earth.
What is True?
According to Kepler's second law (the law of equal areas), a planet in its elliptical orbit around the Sun must move faster when it is closer to the Sun (at perihelion) than when it is farther away (at aphelion). This happens because the gravitational pull from the Sun is stronger at closer distances, and the planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times regardless of its position.
Complete the idea: In a given equal time interval, the planet moves faster when closer to the Sun than when farther away. This occurs because gravity from the star (or the Sun) is ___ when the planet is closer.
What is stronger?
Meteorite impacts on Earth, such as the one that formed the Chicxulub crater, provide evidence for mass extinctions by altering global climate through dust clouds blocking sunlight — a key example of how cosmic events shape life's history.
What is the asteroid impact hypothesis (or KT/K-Pg extinction event)?
What natural phenomena can be explained by the process of convection currents in the Earth’s mantle?
What is movement of tectonic plates?
Can transform faults cause destruction even after an earthquake is over?
What is the offset that the fault caused can destroy roads, train tracks, and rivers resulting in accidents, derailing, and flooding respectively?
The composition of Earth's core is mostly …?
What is iron & nickel?
Kepler's laws, along with observations of our solar system, show that all eight planets follow predictable elliptical orbits around the Sun. In addition to moving in the same plane (the ecliptic), they all travel around the Sun in the same consistent ......? — counterclockwise when viewed from above the Sun's north pole — a pattern inherited from the original rotation of the solar nebula.
What is direction?
Earthquakes occur when stress builds along faults due to convection-driven plate motion in the mantle; this sudden release of energy as seismic waves can cause tsunamis if underwater, as seen in the 2004 Indian Ocean event.
What is elastic rebound (theory)?