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Fact Sheet
What are the layers of the earth?
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Inner Core.
Outer Core.
Lower Mantle.
Upper Mantle.
Crust.
What is Sonar?
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Sonar -SOund Navigation And Ranging is a technology that will rebound off sound waves
from different objects to conclude the distance from the cause of the waves.
What is Sea Floor Spreading?
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It’s a Process that will occur at mid-ocean ridges, where the new oceanic crust would be
found, it’s formed by volcanic activity and slowly moves away from the ridge.
What is meant by Plate Tectonics? Also describe convection currents and subduction zones.
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It’s a theory about earth’s crust being made up of very large pieces called plates which
are moving very slowly on earth’s mantle.
Convection Currents: It’s a constant flow of a fluid (either liquid or gas) in which thermal
energy is transferred from hotter, less dense fluid to colder, denser fluid.
Subduction Zones: A position on earth’s crust where high force pushes one very hefty
piece of rock beneath another.
Describe Weagner’s theory of continental drift and explain the evidence that supports it.
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Weagner’s theory is that the continents had once been joined and over thousands or
millions of years later it slowly drifted apart.
Did people believe the theory at the time? What technology later helped to verify his ideas?
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They didn’t believe him because he was missing a plausible drive force, and he wasn’t a
geologist.
Advanced Technology.
Resources: Wikipedia-Science Focus Textbook.
The moving crust
Definitions:
Litophere: The outer part of the earth, the crust and upper mantle, about 100 km thick
Questions: 1 What are the layers of the earth?
Answer: Crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core, inner core.
Question: 2 Describe Wegener’s theory of continental drift and explain the evidence that
supports it?
Answer: His theory was that forces might be causing the movement, advances in technology and
work of a Canadian scientist led to a new theory that explained Wegener’s observations.
Question: 3 Did people believe Wegener’s theory at the time? what technology later helped to
verify his idea.
Answer: No, no one believed him at the time because Wegener could not satisfactorily show the
origin of the force that was moving the contents.
Question:4 What is sonar?
Answer: Technology that bounces sound waves off an object to define its distance from the
sources of the waves.
Question: 5 What is sea floor spreading?
Answers: Sea floor spreading is the movement of the ocean floor spreading when two plates
move apart.
Question: 6 What is meant by plate tectonics? Also describe convention currents and seduction
zones.\
Answer: Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that shows the large scale motion of earth’s
litophere the theory builds on a concepts of continent drift.
Topic 8-Fossils
Key terms
Petrified- It’s a type of fossil that is like a rock that
preserves bones of dead animals, using silica.
Carbonaceous film-Is a organism outline or impression
which is from the carbon residue on the rocks surface and
that can make carbonaceous film.
Original remains- You may find this in the substances tar,
amber, and peat bogs.
Trace fossils-Is observing any evidence of animal activity,
for example worm holes, footprints or burrows.
Topic 8 – Fossils (pgs. 418-422)
Fossils are traces of animals which once used to live. Fossils help us
identify where the organism used to live and how they lived and
interacted with animals thousands of years ago. We can study fossils to
learn when an organism or animal grew and disappeared.
Types of Fossils
There are several types of Fossils.
Petrified – Fossils are preserved by the bones of the dead animals by
using silica. They are rock – like.
Carbonaceous film – If there is an impression or outline on carbon
residue from a rock’s surface that can provide a carbonaceous film.
Original Remains – may be preserved in amber, peat bogs or tar.
Trace Fossils – are animal activity fossils like burrows, worm holes and
footprint.
Mould and Cast Fossils – sometimes an animal falls into soft sediment
like mud. As more sediment falls the original sediment turns into a rock.
Water and Air pass through the rock reaching the dead animal. The
skeleton slowly dissolves leaving a mould in the rock. Other minerals
and sediments like mud may fill the hole handing the rock and making a
cast of the bones of the animal.
Formation of Fossils
When plants or animals die, their remains are decomposed or eatened.
On occasion, with the right conditions and they get buried by sediment
or mud the animal or plant hardens into a fossil.
Key Terms
 Vents: A gap in the earth’s crust in which magma can escape to form
boiling lava.
 Magma: Melted rock, constructed under the high temperature and
pressures in the earth’s crust.
 Dormant: Stages were no eruption is experienced.
What is the ring of fire?
 The rings of fire are the volcanoes around the pacific ocean that form the
ring of fire. The ring of fire has 452 volcanoes. The Ring of Fire is has over
75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes.
 The ring of fire is positioned along the margins of the pacific plates and
other tectonic plates.
 The majority volcanoes of the ring of fire take place in subduction zones.
Describe a Volcano:
 The subduction zone is the procedure where one tectonic plate moves
under another tectonic plate, sinking into the earth’s mantle. The mantle
is a thick shell of compressed and heated rock below the Earth's crust.
 The magma is molted rock, it’s so burning that the rock has melted to
become thick and sticky liquid. The magma is located under the earth’s
surface.
 The descending rock moves deeper and deeper until it melts into
magma, then the magma rises up until the volcano erupts.
Why is Mount St. Helen’s so Significant?
In 1980 Mount St. Helens erupted. It is so significant because the disaster had
caused 57 deaths, and 1.1 billion dollars worth of property damage. Mount St.
Helens was a significant geologic event in Washington State on May 18, 1980.
It had sideways and vertical eruptions. We learn about the Mount St. Helens
because of its significance, from learning and examining the origin of rocks
and geologic features we can know the procedure it takes to form them.
Interesting facts:
 Volcanoes have dangerous effects to it; the major effect is a tsunami.
 Until an eruption occurs it is called dormant.
 There are three types of volcanoes; shield volcanoes, Stratovolcanoes, and
cinder cone volcanoes.
 Studies have shown that the causes of eruptions are due to the magma
escaping beneath the earth’s crust.
 Volcanoes can be active, dormant, or extinct.
 Many volcanoes can take 1000 years to form but many can also grow
overnight.
 Evaluating the amount of volcanoes erupting, scientists can tell that 20
volcanoes are active as you read this.
 The tallest volcano is 10 203 meters tall, that’s bigger than Mount Everest.
 The biggest volcano in the world is Mauna Loa in Hawaii.
 Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanic place in our solar system.
 The name volcano comes from the roman god Vulcan.
 Scientists currently know 80 volcanoes or more under the ocean.
 Lava can reach up to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.
 The eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 had killed about 100 000 people.
 Most volcanoes occur on the edges of the tectonic plates.
 The volume of ash carried by after the Mount St. Helen’s eruption was 540
000 000 tons.
EARTHQUAKES!!
What is an earthquake?
An earthquake is a shaking of the ground caused by the sudden
movement of large area or outer crust. The edges of the tectonic plates
are marked by fractures. Most earthquakes occur along the fault lines
when plates slide past each other.
How it is measured?
Seismograph is to measure earthquakes but must be attached to
bedrock. A marking pen hangs over a rotating drum just touching it the
drum is covered with paper to record the vibrations marked by the pen.
Different types of waves?
Primary waves, secondary waves and surfaces waves.
Different ways rocks can move?
Normal faults, reveres faults and strike-strip of transform faults.
Other effects?
Under sea, tsunamis, avalanches, and quicksand. Websites we used
google.com and text book
Fact sheet
Important Words
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Sonar-is an abbreviation for SOund Navigation And Ranging. Sonar is sound wave technology
based on the navigation technique used by bats called echolocation. How Sonar works is that a
device mounted on a boat or submarine sends out a sound wave in the ocean and the sonar
device reports back how long it takes to bounce back. This technology has many applications for
example: A common use of Sonar is anti-submarine warfare. How this works is that a sonar
device is placed on a ship usually a submarine and sound waves are sent out in the ocean. Since
the ocean is so long and wide the sound wave should take some time to bounce back but if that
sound wave returns in a short period of time it is most likely means an enemy submarine is in
that direction. Beside from military purposes Sonar has also been used for scientific purposes
such as find out the distance to the ocean floor. The way this would work is that the scientists
would use the sonar device to send out a sound wave to the ocean floor and see how long it
takes to come back. By knowing the speed of sound scientists can calculate the distance to the
ocean floor.
Tectonic Plates- Tectonic plates are the 2 sub layers of the Earth’s crust also known as the
lithosphere. The tectonic plates move float and might even fracture and when they interact with
each other in any way it could cause continental drift, earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains and
oceanic trenches. There are about a dozen plates that make up the surface of the Earth.
Magnetometer-Is an electric instrument used for measuring the direction and the intensity of a
magnetic field and is usually used for the earth’s magnetic field.
Lithosphere- is the combination of the upper mantle and the crust.
Actual Questions
1. What are the Layers of Earth
The layers of the Earth Are:
a) The Crust: The crust includes the layers you can walk on, and is also home to plants, animals
and soil. It includes the deeper area where minerals are mined and oil and gas are formed.
The crust is very thin under the ocean. In some places it extends only 5 km deeper but under
some parts of the continents, it reaches the depths of 60 km.
b) The mantle: The mantle is found under the crust and it is made of rock material. The upper
mantle is solid and together with the crust forms the lithosphere.The lower mantle is melted
and it has the consistency of molasses. The rock material is in the mantle can flow very
slowly to very fast.
c) The outer core: The outer core is composed of iron and nickel. The temperature here is over
5500 Celsius that is as hot as the photosphere of the sun. It is so hot that iron a nickel turn
into their liquid form.
d) The inner core: The inner core has intense pressure of all the layers combined force. It is
very compact and turns into solid ball. The inner core has temperature over 6000 degrees
Celsius, that is as hot as the suns surface.
2. Describe Wegener’s theory of continental drift and explain the evidence that supports it?
What is Wegener’s theory: Wegener’s theory was a theory made by Anthony Wegner after
studying fossil evidence and the connecting shapes of the different continent. This process
explained how the continents got to their current location. According to Wegener’s theory all
the continents used to be joined into one big continent or “super continent” called Pangaea
millions and maybe even billions of years ago. Then over a span of a thousand to even millions
of years ago, the continents gradually moved to their current position. Wegner called this theory
the continental drift.
Evidence to Prove Wegener’s theory: Wegner continued his research and examined
observations of other scientist to see if there was more evidence to support his theory. Some
evidence Wegener found was:
 Rock Evidence- Geologist had found a great amount of similarities in rocks on both sides
of the Atlantic Ocean. The Appalachians mountain range found in eastern North
America was made up of the same kind and ages as the mountain range that ran
through Britain and Norway.
 Fossil Evidence- Fossils of dinosaurs called trilobites were found high up on the
Himalayan Mountains located in India. This was highly unusual as not only are the
Himalayan Mountains one of the tallest places in the entire world. But the Trilobites
were Dinosaurs that lived in the seas. One explanation for this is that India was a
separate piece of land and that millions of years ago it drifted into Eurasia (Eurasia is a
super continent that still exists today and it compromises of Asia and Europe) causing a
collision. This process pushed rocks containing many fossils from the bottom of the sea
to the top of the Himalayan Mountains.
 Geological/Climate Evidence- Coal provided important information on Earths history
because in order for coal to form there has to be rich and luxurious plant life in a
tropical and swampy climate. The coal beds that exist in North America, Antarctica and
Europe exist in a mild to extremely cold climate. Scientists were dumbfounded as they
didn’t know how the climate could change so drastically
 Glacier evidence- Wegener found more evidence of climate change in places that
probably had been covered with glaciers. Ancient Glacial deposits that were
approximately 200 to 300 million years old were found spread out in places with very
hot climates like Africa, South America, India and Australia. In some places under the
glacial deposits were narrow paths in the bedrock showing that the direction the glacier
had moved and what was really unusual was that those narrow paths indicated that the
glaciers had moved to places with very hot climate, places way too hot to have glaciers.
Scientists were puzzled as they didn’t know if the whole world was cold or had these
land masses moved to there present warm location from a place nearer to the south
pole.
3. Did People Believe Wegener’s theory at the time? What technology helped to verify his ideas?
Wegner published his theory of the world being one super continent called Pangaea millions of
year ago in a book written in German called The Origin of Continents and Oceans. In the book it
stated that Pangaea started breaking up about 200 million years ago and the pieces began
moving into their current location. The big reason that people didn’t believe this theory was
because there because Wegner had no evidence to prove what force caused the continents to
move and Wegner did try to find possible forces and he proposed the moon might be the cause
but with not enough evidence he was rejected by the scientific community.
Technology that Helped to verify Wegener’s ideas:
 Sonar: Scientists conducted many tests and discovered that there were mountains on
the sea floor and that there were long mountain ranges or ridges in some places on the
sea floor, which were very similar to the ones that existed on land. Scientists identified a
mountain ridge that stretched from north to south along the middle of the ocean ad
they called this ridge the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Ridge.
 Magnetometers: The Magnetometer helped because a magnetometer is not only used
to find the intensity of a magnetic field but also the direction. The Magnetic field usually
points north as it is lined up with the Earth’s magnetic field. However something strange
occurred when ships carried the magnetometer across the Atlantic ocean, scientists
discovered a pattern of reversal of magnetic field direction occurring parallel to the MidAtlantic Ridge because sometimes the Magnetometer would show rocks with magnetic
fields that pointed south and other times North. Scientists concluded this was because
of igneous rock. The magma that forms Igneous Rock contains Magnetometer an iron
bearing mineral called magnetite and magnetite lines itself up with the Earth magnetic
field and when the molten rock hardens above the Earth’s surface the mineral particles
stay in line with the magnetic field of that time period. So rocks that’s magnetic field
pointed south must have formed at a different time and then the Earth had experienced
a reversal of its magnetic field.
4. What is sea floor spreading?
Seafloor spreading is the expansion of the underwater lithosphere this occurs where two oceanic
plates are moving apart. Oceanic plates in the central ridge are either being pushed or pulled apart,
most likely a combination of both. Rock from the mantle rise up and a process of melting begins. If
this should occur it will fill up and separate the plates. Then the lava will turn into rock and become
a new addition to the ocean floor. The ocean floor grows roughly equally on either side of the ridge,
so it doesn’t get unbalanced.
6. What is meant by Plate Tectonics? Also describe convection currents and subduction
zones?
Plate tectonics are the study f the Earths crust. The study of Plate tectonics is based on the theory
about plate tectonics. The theory about Plate tectonics states that the Lithosphere is divided into 7
large and firm pieces known as plates. There is the African, North American, South American,
Eurasian, Australian, Antarctic and Pacific plates and then there are also a couple of minor plates.
Plate tectonic theory tries to explain for the movement of the crust in geological time. Motion of the
crust is that of a firm body, which explains for the type of changes we see. Plate tectonic theory is
based on several assumptions about the tectonic process. First, the new material is producing by
sea-floor spreading at the mid-ocean ridges, which once formed become part of a plate, second the
surface area is protected, therefore plate material must be destroyed through another process, and
last of all motion of plates are used only along plate boundaries.
Convection Currents
Convection current is a cycle of in which heat energy inside a liquid, rises. It rises to the top and
becomes dense. This happens because it is farther away from the heat source at the bottom
(this process would not work otherwise). Then the heat energy sinks all the way to the bottom
then heats up again. The cycle will keep repeating.
Subduction Zones
Subduction zones are when two oceanic plates collide. The younger of the two plates, because it
is less dense, will ride over top of the edge of the older plate. The process is not a smooth one:
the tectonic plates grate against each other, which often causes earthquakes this process,
makes the earthunstable. The plate that slips under does not stay that way: heat generates
because of the friction between the two plates rubbing. This triggers the natural heat of the
mantle and the plate melts and turns into magma.
EARTHQUAKEs
Key Terms:
Earthquake- Question 1
Seismograph- Question 2
Richter Scale- A scale to used to measure the total amount of energy
produced by a earthquake.
P Waves- Question 3
S Waves- Question 3
Surface Waves- Question 3
Normal Faults- Question 4
Reverse Faults- Question 4
Strike-Slip or Transform Faults- Question 4
Focus- Other Facts
Epicenter- Other Facts
1. What is an earthquake?
An earthquake is a sudden release of energy in the earth. Vibrations in the
earth cause the earth to shake. This happens when two plates in the earth
crash against each other.
2. How are earthquakes measured?
Earthquakes are measured with a seismograph. Scientists attach this
device to the bedrock (the solid rock that lies beneath the earth) to feel the
vibrations. Inside the seismograph, a pen is hanged over a rotating drum.
When the earth shakes, the bedrock shakes, and as the drum shakes, the
pen also shakes. The pen will then make marks on the drum. (In our
textbook, there is a picture of this device on page 395).
3. Describe different types of earthquake waves?
There are 3 different types of earthquake waves.
P Waves – the fastest wave can pass through solids, liquids and gasses.
This wave is called the Primary wave or P wave. They cause a slight
vibration that would move a few dishes on some shelves. These waves are
warnings for the earthquake.
S Waves – This wave can travel through only solids, and are a little slower
than P Waves.
Surface Waves – These are the slowest of all three waves, but they cause
the most damage. Their rolling motions can break roads and damage
buildings.
4. What are some of the different ways rocks can move?
There are three different ways rocks can move. One ways is called Normal
Faults. The tension in this one is the force that causes the stretching. It
forces the lower rock down. Another way is called Reverse Faults, they
compress (squeeze) so that the rock above is forced upwards. The last
way is called Strike-Slip or Transform Faults. They do something called
Shear which means slipping, this causes the rocks to go forwards or
backwards.
5. What are some different effects that earthquakes can have?
- If an earthquake occurs underwater, a large amount of water is displaced,
and the result is a tsunami
- Tsunamis travel across oceans and can cause great waves
- If an earthquake hits a mountain, it could trigger an avalanche.
Other Facts:
An earthquake starts from a certain place. When two plates in the earth
crash, an earthquake starts. The point where this happens is called the
focus of the earthquake. Often, however, the focus can be underground.
To help find the location, sometimes, scientists will locate the surface point
of the earthquake. That point is called the epicenter.
Topic 9 : Geological Time
Definition
Principle of superposition- it is a geographical theory and according to the
theory, in undisturbed layers of rock, the oldest layers will be on the bottom,
and the youngest layers will be on top of the rock
Strata- starta are the layers of sedimentary rock
Relative dating- it is determining the order in which geological events happened
and the approximate age of rocks by their position in rock layers.
Index fossils- Index fossil is a type of fossil that we are able to0 use to
determine the age of the artifact.
Radiometric dating- Radiometric dating is the process of finding the age of a
geological sample by measuring the amounts of radiation in them.
Radio carbon dating - is a method used to find the age of natural leftovers by
measuring the amount of radioactive carbon found in the remains.
Geologic Time Scale- it is a part of Earth’s history into smaller elements based
on the look of different life forms.
Eons are the largest division of the geologic scale. Eons are divided into eras and
eras are divided into periods of time.
Type of Eras:
Precambrian: 4500 million years ago when Bacteria-like organism were present.
First life formed. Little fossil evidence.
Paleozoic: around 500 million years ago when first amphibian, land plants,
reptiles, seed plants and other simple animals without backbone were present.
Mesozoic: 100- 250 million years ago when the first birds, mammals, flowering
plants and dinosaurs were present.
Cenozoic: 5 - 65 million years ago when First human-like organisms and
placental mammals were present.
How do geologists find out how old fossil is?
The geologist uses the principle of superposition. Superposition is that we will
find the older fossil beneath the recent one, so the deeper we dig the older fossil.
Superposition cab also is described as that the oldest layers of fossil will be on
the bottom of the youngest layers of fossil. They also use radiometric dating;
radiometric dating is the process of finding the age of a geological sample by
measuring the amounts of radiation in them.
What is geological times scale and how is it arranged?
The geologic time scale is the time division of the earth and is divided into
eons, era, and periods. Four types of eras are Precambrian, Paleozoic, and
Mesozoic. It describes the time of major life events.