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Study Guide for Earth Science Final
METRICS & SCIENTIFIC METHOD
1. What are the 4 main areas of Earth Science?
Geology, oceanography, meteorology, astronomy
2. Be able to determine what metric units would be used to measure distances,
weights, and volume.
Distance – kilometers (km), meters (m) or centimeters (cm)
Weights – kilograms (kg) or grams (g)
Volume – milliliters (mL) or liters (L) or cubic centimeters (cc) [1mL = 1cc]
3. What is a control?
The thing you don’t change in an experiment so you know what normal looks like.
4. What is a variable?
Anything that changes in an experiment
5. What is the difference between an independent and dependent variable?
Independent – “I” change the Independent variable
Dependent – Depends on how the independent variable affects it.
6. What is a hypothesis?
An educated guess
GEOLOGY
7. What is a rock? What are they made of?
A rock is a collection of minerals bound together
8. What are the 3 different types of rocks and how does each form?
Igneous – magma/lave cooling
Sedimentary – compaction and cementation
Metamorphic – heat and pressure
9. What is the difference between an intrusive and extrusive rock?
Intrusive forms below the Earth’s surface
Extrusive forms on the Earth’s surface
10. Draw the rock cycle diagram.
11. What is porphyritic texture?
Mixed fine- and coarse-textured minerals bound together
12. Why are soil erosion rates faster today than in the past?
Rising sea levels result in more erosion.
13. What are the major components of soil?
Mineral matter, organic matter, water and air
14. What is the difference between mechanical/physical and chemical weathering?
Physical/mechanical weathering is a breakdown of rock into smaller and smaller pieces
without changing the chemical composition of the rock.
Chemical weathering is a change in the chemical composition of the rock.
15. In a soil profile, what is found in the following layers:
a. A horizon - topsoil
b. B horizon - subsoil
c. C horizon – partially weathered parent material
d. Below A, B, C – parent material/bedrock
16. Using the soil texture triangle in 5.2 (page 134), determine the following:
a. What are the percentages of clay, silt and sand for point A?
b. What type of soil exists with 10% clay, 20% silt, and 70% sand?
PLATE TECTONICS & VOLCANOES & EARTHQUAKES
17. Describe how Pangaea and Continental Drift are related.
Alfred Wegener theorized that the continents once all were part on one large landmass. As
time went on, the continents moved away from each other by the process of Continental
Drift.
18. What are the 4 pieces of evidence supporting Continental Drift?
Similar fossils on different continents, ancient climates, similar rock forms and types, and
puzzle piece shapes of the continents
19. Describe the theory of plate tectonics.
Plate tectonics says that the crust and upper mantle are broken into plates which “float” on
top of the molten layer of the lower mantle called the asthenosphere. Convection currents
in the asthenosphere cause the plates to move around.
20. What are the 3 main layers of Earth?
Crust, mantle and core
21. Define Lithosphere and Asthenosphere.
See #19.
22. What are the different types of plate boundaries and what processes occur at each boundary?
Convergent – oceanic/continental – subduction
Divergent – oceanic/oceanic or continental/continental – seafloor spreading, rift valleys
Transform – continental/continental - faults
23. Define Subduction. At what type(s) of plate boundaries does subduction occur?
Subduction is when an oceanic plate meets and dives down under a continental plate. The
oceanic plate melts and is recycled. The continental plate forms volcanic arcs.
24. Where does sea-floor spreading occur?
Mid-Atlantic Ridge
25. What layer of the Earth are the plates composed of?
Lithosphere (crust and upper mantle)
26. What can paleomagnetic rocks tell us? What does the magnetic striping along ocean
floor indicate?
Can tell us how old rocks are. We know approximately when the magnetic poles reversed.
Use the magnetic “stripes” to count how old the soil is.
27. What is a seismograph? Seismogram? Richter Scale?
Seismograph is the machine which records info on earthquakes. Seismogram is the record
of an actual earthquake. The Richter scale is a method of classifying earthquakes bases on
the total amount of damage done by the event.
28. Define epicenter, focus, and fault.
Epicenter – underground center of the earthquake
Focus – pl. foci: area underground where the center of the earthquake is located.
29. How are earthquakes related to plate tectonics?
Caused by plate movement
30. How does a Tsunami form?
An earthquake at sea causes a small wave to start which when it hits shallow water builds
up height.
31. List and Describe the 3 types of volcanoes. Give an example of each type of volcano
Composite – most explosive, make of various substances
Cinder Cone – small round pile of ash
Shield – long flat profile - Hawaii
32. Explosive volcanoes have _high_ gas, high silica, and high viscosity.
33. What is a contour (topographic) map and what does it show?
Shows elevation
34. Contour lines that are close together show an area that is steep_.
35. Label A-D on the diagram to the right.
A. lava flow
B. pipe or conduit
C. dike
D. magma chamber
RENEWABLE & NONRENEWABLE ENERGY
36. What are the two sources of energy that all natural processes derive their energy
from?
The Sun and Earth’s interior
37. What is the difference between renewable and non-renewable resources? Examples?
Renewable resources can be replaced within a relatively short span of time (a lifetime)
while nonrenewable resources can take hundred, thousands or millions of years to
replenish.
38. How did industrialization affect our environment?
Answers will vary. They may include increased burning of fossil fuels which led to air
pollution and ozone and greenhouse gas problems.
39. What are some advantages and disadvantages of the following types of power?
a. wind power – ADV – cheap DIS – noisy, takes a lot of land
b. hydroelectric power – ADV – little pollution, free energy source
DIS – dams can
get sediment deposits and not work after 50 or so years
c. nuclear power – ADV – clean, lots of power
DIS – if accident, BIG problems
d. solar power – ADV – free energy/cheap once set up
DIS – expensive to set up
BIODIVERSITY, BIOMES, and POPULATIONS
40. What is a biome?
An area with similar climate, vegetation and wildlife
41. Why is biodiversity important?
All life depends on other life for survival. If you remove just one species, it can have a
ripple effect on others.
42. How do the following threaten biodiversity?
a. Pollution – kills birds and other animals by breathing toxins
b. Habitat destruction – with no place to shelter, animals will leave an area
c. Invasive species – species with no natural predators in an area can upset the
balance of life in an area
43. Define species.
Two animals which can breed and produce fertile offspring
44. What is the difference between biotic and abiotic factors? Give an example of each.
Biotic is life – what kind of plants and animals are in an area
Abiotic is nonliving – climate, water supply
45. What are examples of limiting factors on a population?
Amount of resources (food, water and shelter) available
46. Complete the chart below regarding biomes.
Biome
Location
Average Temp
Average
Rainfall
Animals and
Plants
Deciduous
Forest
Desert
Grassland
Taiga
Tropical
Rainforest
Tundra
47. What are examples of countries that are still developing? Sketch and age-structure diagram
for a country that is developing.
48. What are examples of countries that are developed? Sketch and age-structure diagram for a
country that is developed.
49. What is exponential growth? Make a sketch of the graph. What is an example of a
population that exhibits this type of growth?
50. What is logistic growth? Make a sketch of the graph. What is an example of a population
that exhibits this type of growth?
51. In logistic growth, why does the curve go up and down after it has reach carrying capacity?
52. What is carrying capacity?
The maximum number of organisms that and environment can sustain before natural
resources begin to be depleted and the population suffers.
FRESHWATER
53. In what zone is groundwater located? What is the top of this zone called? What is
the zone of aeration?
Groundwater is locate in the zone of saturation. The top of this zone is called the water
table. The zone of aeration is the area above the water table where the soil is not saturated.
54. Be able to determine whether a well would be able to get water by looking at a diagram.
55. Define Eutrophication.
56. What are some sources of groundwater pollution?
Illegal dumping, industrial waste
57. What is the difference between point and non-point source pollution? examples?
In point-source pollution, you know the source of the pollution. In non-point source
pollution, toxin runoff across fields and the source of the toxins cannot be identified.
58. List some stream characteristics that could contribute to higher erosion rates and material
transport.
Speed/velocity of a stream
59. What is the Clean Water Act?
In the 1970’s, mandated companies not dump waste into the local groundwater supply
60. How does velocity change as water flows around a curve? How does this affect erosion and
deposition?
OCEANOGRAPHY & BEACHES
61. What are characteristics of ocean waves?
Wave height, wavelength, amplitude, frequency
62. Define Salinity. What units are used to express it?
Amount of dissolved solids in ocean water expressed in parts per thousand
63. List and Describe some features of the ocean floor.
64. What are examples of landforms created by wave erosion?
Wave-cut cliffs, sea arches
65. What is a longshore current?
Current that runs parallel to and close to the shore
66. What can be done to try to limit beach erosion and its effects?
Groins, breakwaters, beach renourishment
67. What is upwelling in the ocean?
Deep cold waters rise up to the surface and are warmed
68. What causes tides?
Gravitation pull of the Sun and moon
69. What are the three types of tides? Describe their motion.
70. Define spring and neap tides. Which one has the greatest tidal range?
Spring tides occur when the Earth, Sun and moon are lined up. They result in the largest
tidal ranges. Neap tides occur when the Sun, moon and Earth are at right angles to each
other.
71. What is the difference between a surface current, a density current, and a turbidity current?
ATMOSPHERE & WEATHER
72. What are the 4 layers of the atmosphere?
Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere
73. Where is the Ozone Layer?
stratosphere
74. What is the Coriolis Effect? In what direction does it affect fluids in the northern
hemisphere? How does a pressure gradient affect winds?
Apparent deflection to the right in the Northern hemisphere due to the rotation of the Earth
75. What are the origins for winds?
Unequal heating of the Earth’s atmosphere
76. What is the difference between radiation, conduction, and convection?
All are method of transferring heat energy. Radiation doesn’t require a medium to pass
through (ex. Radiation from the Sun can pass through space), Conduction is when heat is
transferred directly from one object to another (ex. Touch a hot pot on the stove),
Convection is when heat rises, cools, sinks, warms and rises again (ex. Convection currents
in the mantle, atmosphere and in a convection oven)
77. Define sublimation, deposition, evaporation, and condensation.
Sublimation – solid to a gas (dry ice)
Evaporation – liquid to a gas
Deposition – gas to a solid (ice crystal on cold window)
Condensation – gas to a liquid
78. Warm air can hold __more___ water vapor than cold air.
79. What is a jet stream?
80. Compare and Contrast High and Low Pressure systems.
High – usually good weather – clockwise – called anti-cyclone
Low – usually bad weather – counterclockwise – called cyclone (NOT the same as a
tornado!!)
81. How does a tornado form? How does it die?
Large differences in air pressure cause winds to move quickly and can begin to rotate. They
die when they lose their energy (pressure begins to equalize)
82. How does a hurricane form? How does it die?
Low pressure systems pick up large amounts of moisture from the warm equatorial waters
which provides more energy for the storm. Must have winds >74mph. They die when they
hit land and slow due to friction with land and lack of moisture
83. What is the relationship between elevation and climate?
The higher the elevation the cooler the climate
84. List the characteristics of the 4 different air masses. (cP, mP, cT, mT)
Continental polar – come in over land – cold dry air
Continental tropical – come in over land – warm moist air
Maritime tropical – come in over water – warm moist air
Maritime polar – come in over water – cold dry air
85. What is the term for the boundary where two air masses meet?
A front
86. Draw the diagrams for the 4 types of fronts, showing how the air masses move &
the resulting precipitation.
See your handout
87. What is the ultimate energy source that creates wind and waves?
The sun and unequal heating of the Earth’s atmosphere
88. What instrument measures…
a. wind speed: anemometer
b. atmospheric pressure: barometer
c. humidity: hygrometer or sling psychrometer
89. Be able to interpret a weather map.
90. What are isobars? How can you tell where the wind speeds will be the highest?
Lines of equal air pressure on a map. Wind speeds will be the highest where there is the
greatest difference in pressure
CLIMATE CHANGE & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
91. What is climate change? What trend does it try to explain?
Climate change tries to explain global warming
92. What are greenhouse gases? Why are they important?
Greenhouse gases trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere and allow life to survive
93. List some things that humans can do to keep our society sustainable.
94. What are chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s)? In what products have they been used?
Hair spray
95. How does the ozone layer protect humans?
Blocks harmful UV rays from the Sun
96. Be able to label a diagram of the greenhouse effect.
ASTRONOMY
97. What is difference between the geocentric and heliocentric model of the universe?
Sun centered and Earth centered
98. What is retrograde motion?
Apparent backwards motion of the planets
99. Describe contributions to astronomy of the following astronomers:
a. Ptolemy – explained retrograde motion with epicycles
b. Copernicus – father of modern astronomy, heliocentric
c. Kepler – 3 Laws of Planetary Motion
d. Galileo – telescope, moons of Jupiter, phases of Venus
e. Newton – Law of Universal Gravitation
100. What is the shape of the planets orbits?
elipse
101. What are the different forms of electromagnetic radiation?
UV, IR, Visible light, x-ray, …
102. What is the function of a prism?
The separate light
103. What information can a star’s spectrum provide?
104. What is the Doppler Effect? And what can it tell astronomers?
The change in relative frequency of an object moving towards and away from you. It tells
astronomers that the universe is expanding
105. Know how to interpret an HR diagram. What are the 3 regions of the diagram,
and where are they located?
106. As a star’s brightness increases on the diagram, what happens to its magnitude?
(Does the number become larger or more negative?)
107. What are the different layers of the sun?
Corona, Chromosphere, Photosphere, Interior
108. What is the composition of the sun?
Hydrogen and helium
109. What are the characteristics of sunspots?
Cooler than surface
110. What is the source of the sun’s energy?
Nuclear fusion
111. Describe the relationship of color and temperature of stars.
112. What do light-years measure?
distance
113. What characteristic of a star does magnitude describe?
114. Describe the difference between absolute and apparent magnitude.
115. Describe the Nebular Theory.
After the Big Bang there was matter scattered in the universe and over time gravity caused
it to come together to form the planets and other celestial objects
116. Describe the stellar evolution of both sizes of stars.
117. What force is needed to form a star?
118. What happens when a star dies?
119. Describe black hole characteristics.
120. Provide evidence for an expanding universe.
Red shift
121. What is the “Big Bang” theory? What does it try to explain? What are two
pieces of evidence for it?
Everything in the universe started from a single point and expanded outward. Tries to
explain the origin of the universe.