The Abyss of Time
Arranged from largest to smallest, these are the four primary divisions of geological time.
Eon, Era, Period, and Epoch
Subduction occurs at convergent boundaries where one denser crustal plate moves underneath another plate. What is the molten layer that allows these plates to move?
Asthenosphere
Rocks formed directly from the cooling and solidification of molten rock (magma or lava) fall under this category.
Igneous rock
The minimum number of seismograph stations required to triangulate and locate the exact epicenter of an earthquake.
3
The process where chunks of ice break off the edge of a coastal glacier and float away into the ocean.
Calving
These trace fossils formed by cyanobacteria were responsible for producing much of Earth's early oxygen supply.
Stromatolites
This sphere of Earth's biosphere includes the oceanic and continental crust
Lithosphere
A rock layer that normally exists underground but has been exposed at the surface (such as a canyon wall or river cliff) is called what?
Outcrop or outcropping
Unlike S-waves and P-waves which travel through the interior, these waves travel along Earth's surface and cause significant side-to-side damage near the epicenter.
Surface waves
Large, thick glaciers that cover vast polar areas (such as Greenland and Antarctica) exceeding 1 km in depth are called this.
Ice Sheet
Which law states that in undisturbed rock layers, older layers are found at the bottom and younger layers are at the top?
Law of Superposition
These currents in Earth's mantle drive the movement of tectonic plates by causing hot material to rise and cooler material to sink.
Convection currents
This occurs when younger molten magma forces its way into cracks within existing rock layers without reaching the surface.
An Intrusion
These waves are the fastest to arrive, move longitudinally, and can travel through solids, liquids, and gases.
P waves
Famous large glacial erratic rock located near Calgary/Okotoks left behind by retreating ice sheets.
Big Rock in Okotoks
This famous Rocky Mountain fossil site contains rich Cambrian marine fossils, proving Alberta was once submerged under a shallow tropical sea.
Burgess Shale
At this type of plate boundary, plates slide past one another horizontally without creating or destroying plates.
Transform boundary
A large concentration of oil or gas trapped underneath impermeable layers of rock (such as shale) is known as this.
Petroleum Trap
Because the Richter scale is logarithmic (base-10), a magnitude 8.0 earthquake releases this many times more ground displacement/amplitude than a magnitude 6.0 earthquake.
100 times
During the Cenozoic Era shift following the Cretaceous extinction, Southern Alberta's warm, humid environment closely resembled this modern US state.
Louisianna
Carbon-14 decays into Nitrogen-14 with this specific half-life duration, limiting its use to organic materials under 40,000 years old. What is Carbon-14's half-life age?
5,730 years
Each continent consists of a large, stable shield of ancient igneous rock formed through heat upwelling called this.
Craton
This phenomenon, recorded in seafloor rocks spreading at mid-ocean ridges, provides evidence that Earth's magnetic field periodically flips direction over millions of years.
Paleomagnitism
In petroleum exploration, geologists create artificial seismic shockwaves using explosions and measure their reflection using these specialized surface detectors to map underground rock layers.
Geophones
The theory that geological processes operating today have acted in the exact same manner throughout Earth's history.
Uniformitarianism