Download unit 2 earth history - possible test questions

UNIT 4 EARTH HISTORY - POSSIBLE TEST QUESTIONS
EARTH AND SCIENCE
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Measurements of Earth and Sun
1. What is the diameter of the Earth?
2. What is the diameter of the Sun?
3. What is Earth’s circumference?
Simple Compositional Model of Earth
4. Describe Earth’s three distinct, concentric layers.
5. What two types of crust does the Earth have?
Origin of Earth’s Three Concentric Layers
6. Describe the three sources of Earth’s residual heat?
7. Heat from within the Earth is continually generated by ______?
8 About how long did it take for Earth to create its first scattered pieces of continental crust?
Physical Properties of Earth’s Layers
9. What is a lithosphere?
10. What is the asthenosphere?
11. Describe the lower mantle.
12. Describe the components of Earth’s core.
Origin of Earth’s Atmosphere
13. At what “time” did Earth collect ices and frozen gases?
14. What happened to most of the hydrogen and helium that accumulated with Earth’s mass?
Outgassing
15. What is outgassing?
16. What are some of the components of Earth’s original atmosphere?
17. How much free oxygen was available very early in Earth’s history?
Earth’s Atmosphere
18. What does the presence of pyrite grains in early sedimentary rocks imply?
19. Describe the occurrence of “banded iron formations” during early Earth times (2.5-2.0 billion
years).
20. Which ancient life forms were present at least 3.5 billion years ago that began creating Earth’s free
oxygen??
21. What is the approximate percentage composition of Earth’s atmosphere today?
22. What happened to most of the CO2 that was present in early Earth’s atmosphere?
Earth’s Hydrosphere
23. From where was most of Earth’s water derived after the formation of the Earth?
24. How long did it take Earth’s oceans to reach its current salinity levels?
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PLATE TECTONICS AND CONTINENTAL DRIFT
Tectonics and Continental Drift
25. Alfred Wegener was famous for proposing which scientific theory?
26. Describe “Pangaea”.
Wegener’s Theory
27. Which puzzle-like fit of continents did Wegener use to discuss continental drift?
28. Why was the Theory of Continental Drift rejected?
Earth’s Core and Magnetism
29. What is the current theory about the creation of Earth’s magnetic field?
30. Which “polarity or poles” does Earth’s magnetic field create?
31. What evidence do we have for Earth’s magnetic shield?
Magnetite and Magnetism in Rocks
32. Describes what happens to a magnetite grain when it cools within a basaltic magma.
33. Define paleomagnetism and why is it an important geologic tool.
Seafloor Spreading
34. Who proposed the theory of seafloor spreading?
Describing the Seafloor
35. “Magnetic polarity stripes” (magnetic reversals) are ______ on both sides of the mid-oceanic ridge.
36. Where are the deep sea trenches located?
37. What is the name of the deepest submarine trench?
38. Compare the age of basalt at the oceanic ridge to its age at the edge far from the ridge.
39. What is the significance of the oldest ocean sediments being younger than many surface rocks?
Tectonic Plates
40. What is a tectonic plate?
41. What does the “plastic asthenosphere” allow in regards to plate tectonics?
Plate Boundaries
42. Describe a divergent plate boundary, including the movement of neighboring plates.
43. Describe a transform plate boundary, including the movement of neighboring plates.
44. Describe a convergent plate boundary, including the movement of neighboring plates.
45. Which tectonic zone can create an ocean basin?
46. What do we call hot springs along undersea divergent zones?
47. What do we call a divergent zone on land?
48. What are the three types of convergent zones?
49. Define a subduction zone.
Driving Mechanisms of Plates
50. What is the most favored mechanism today for plate tectonic movements?
Colliding Terrains
51. What is an accreted terrain?
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Hot Spots and Super-continents
52. Give an example of a mantle plume or hotspot?
53. Describe a super-continent cycle.
54. What is the ultimate driving force for plate tectonics?
SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES
55. How is science different from other fields of human endeavor?
56. Why is it that many aspects of being human are not amenable to scientific description?
57. Which subjective “sciences” are not normally addressed by normal science?
58. Questions that science can address are limited by____?
59. What are the first three steps of a scientific method?
60. How absolute is scientific knowledge?
61. With many publicized articles about global warming, should they also give reasons that do not fit
the model?
Weekly Quiz # 6
A. (Page 31) What name did Edward Suess propose for a southern super-continent in 1885? _____
B. The picture on page 33 (Figure 2.5b) show “lines” of glacial movement. What are these lines?
____
C. (Page 36) The temperature at which magnetite can gain magnetism? ____
D. (Page 38) As a group, how many geologists accept that plates are created at oceanic ridges and
destroyed at deep sea trenches? ______
E. (Page 53) Who is attributed with the idea of a supercontinent cycle? _____
Weekly Quiz # 7
Page 494 What happened during the Eoarchean?
A) The Eoarchean Era ended __________ ago.
Page 497 Figure 19.4
B) This figure is illustrating the origin of ________
Page 494 Figure 19.1 Archean Earth History
C) The Archean Eon alone accounts for ________ of all geologic time.
Page 496
D) The approximate age of the oldest detrital zircons in Australia: ______
Page 500 Figure 19.8a
E) How many named greenstone belts are in figure 19.8 (a): ________
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