Download Senior final study guide 2014 2015

Name _________________________ Hour ______
Senior Final Study Guide
1. Name and describe four evidences Wegner used to support his
theory of continental Drift.
2. How did the discovery of magnetic symmetry on the rock of the
ocean floor provide evidence that the ocean floor was spreading
away from mid-ocean ridges?
3. How did the discovery of absolute age symmetry of the rocks on
the ocean floor provide evidence that the ocean floor was
spreading away from mid-ocean ridges?
4. What causes continents to drift?
5. Describe the theory of plate tectonics.
6. Why does continental crust rise above oceanic crust?
7. What are cratons?
8. Compare the ages of oceanic crust and continental crust.
9. What two processes cause younger rock formations to form
farther from the craton?
10.
How are the edges of tectonic plates identified?
11.
How do earthquakes form?
12.
How are the focus and the epicenter of an earthquake
different?
13.
Why do shallow focus earthquakes typically do more
damage?
14.
Compare and contrast p waves and s waves.
15.
How can studying refraction patterns of seismic waves help
scientists determine the diameter of the liquid layer of Earth’s
outer core?
16.
Compare and contrast love waves and Raleigh waves.
17.
How are seismic waves detected, and how is the
information used to locate earthquakes?
18.
How are the moment magnitude scale and the modified
Mercalli scale different?
19.
Describe the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
Describe the differences between the three types of volcanoes.
20.
Why do felsic magma chambers usually erupt more
violently?
21.
How are tephra and pyroclastic material different?
22.
What is the ring of fire, and what is causing it?
23.
How do hot spot volcanic island chains form?
24.
Why do supercontinents form, and why do they break
apart?
25.
Describe three effects of continental drift.
26.
Describe the three types of plate boundaries as creative,
destructive, or conservative.
27.
How are the terms subduction and trenches related?
28.
What are triple junctions and how can they be described?
29.
What type of stress occurs at divergent boundaries, and
what geologic features does this stress lead to?
30.
How are the tectonic forces of ridge push and slab pull
developed, and what effect do they have on oceanic crust?
31.
How are rifts and trenches different?
32.
What geologic features form between divergent
boundaries, and why do these features form?
33.
How are transform faults and fracture zones different?
34.
How are the three types of convergent boundaries
different?
35.
How do the processes of sediment deposition and accretion
cause younger sediments to build up along continental margins?
36.
What is orogeny and how are large mountain ranges
formed from collisions between two continental plates?
37.
What is isostasy?
38.
How do isostatic adjustments affect the Earth’s crust?
39.
What types of stress are associated with each of the three
types of plate boundaries?
40.
How are brittle strain and ductile strain different?
41.
What four factors determine whether a rock formation
responds to stress with brittle or ductile strain?
42.
What are the features of folds?
43.
How are anticlines and synclines different?
44.
How are normal faults and reverse faults different?
45.
Describe strike-slip faults.
46.
How much of the crust is igneous rock, and what is
igneous rock composed of?
47.
What three main factors cause rocks, like ocean crust, to
melt?
48.
How are clast size and distance from the parent rock
formation related?
49.
What is the law of superposition? Make sure you can use
this law in context when looking at a stratigraphic column.
50.
You should be able to look at a stratigraphic column and
determine the relative age of geologic features like beds, faults,
and intrusions, using the laws of inclusions, crosscutting, and
superposition.
51.
Know and apply the rules for index fossils. You should be
able to look at a stratigraphic column and determine which
pictures indicate index fossils.
52.
Know the processes and reservoirs of the carbon cycle.
53.
Know how fossil fuels emissions affect the carbon cycle
and the influence this has on climate.
54.
Know how volcanic eruptions affect the carbon cycle and
the influence this has on climate.
55.
Know how to calculate absolute age, given number of halflives and the length of half-lives. Be able to read a decay curve
for an element and determine its half-life, and calculate decay
times and percentages.
56.
Know why Uranium is used to radiometrically date rocks,
while carbon dating is used for fossils.
57.
Describe the following extinctions with regards to how they
occurred as well as their most important outcomes: the
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the Permian–Triassic
extinction event, and the Great Oxygenation Event.
58.
Describe two kinds of feedback mechanisms, and give two
detailed examples.
59.
Name and describe the parts of the Earth system?
60.
Describe co-evolution.
61.
Describe what the Cambrian explosion was, how it is
thought to have been triggered, and two main outcomes.
62.
Name four evidences which support the scientific
understanding of the Earth’s layered interior.
63.
How can changes in the convection of magma cause
changes to Earth’s crust and its magnetosphere?
64.
How could the atmosphere be affected by a weakening of
Earth’s magnetic field?
65.
Explain why the Earth’s interior is still very hot. What
energy source heats the core generate magma currents? What
causes the magma to rise to the surface?
66.
What is the CHZ and how would Earth be affected when
the Sun begins to swell?
67.
How did the process of outgassing affect the Earth?
68.
How did the “Big Splash” affect the Earth?
69.
How is Earth’s magnetosphere believed to be generated?
What effect does Earth’s solid inner core have on the
magnetosphere?