Ch 20 Solar System Terms – Flashcards
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Hotspot volcanoes on the Earth tend to?
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Shrink by erosion.
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If the Earth lacked plate tectonics, its volcanoes would be expected to be?
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Larger and fewer in number.
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If Mars had plate tectonics, its volcanoes would be expected to be:
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Smaller and more numerous than they are now.
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From an earthquake across the globe from a seismograph station, only P waves register. Why?
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S waves don't propagate through the liquid core.
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For which planet is the temperature of its atmosphere coldest at 100 km from the surface?
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Uranus
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For which planet does the temperature of its atmosphere consistently rise as the altitude decreases?
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Venus
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Methane is seen in the atmospheres of Saturn and Uranus, but not in the planets closer to the Sun. What could explain this?
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The planets closer to the Sun are too warm to retain it.
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Rank each atmospheric composition in order of when it occurred on Earth, oldest first: carbon dioxide, and oxygen.
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Oldest: Carbon Dioxide Youngest: Oxygen
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Rank the following atmospheric gases in order of their abundance in Earth's current atmosphere: carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen.
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Most: Nitrogen Oxygen Least: Carbon Dioxide
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Rank the stages of Earth's evolution in the order that they occurred: cratering, differentiation, flooding by lava and water, slow surface erosion.
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First: Differentiation Cratering Flooding by Lava Last: Slow Surface Erosion
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Rank the layers of Earth in order from the outside in: crust, liquid core, mantle, solid core.
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Farthest Out: Crust Mantle Liquid Core Closest In: Solid Core
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What are the terrestrial planets?
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Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. This includes Earth's moon too.
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What makes Earth peculiar among the terrestrial planets?
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Oceans A nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere Life
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What is true for Earth's core?
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It is solid on the inside, and liquid on the outside.
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What evidence can be cited for the answer to the previous question?
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Shear waves cannot travel through Earth's center.
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Why doesn't the material in Earth's core vaporize?
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The tremendous pressure from the weight of Earth's outer layers keeps the outer core liquid and the inner core solid.
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What must be true about Earth's core to generate Earth's magnetic field?
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The material must be conductive. The core must be rotating. The material must convecting.
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What conducting material is not found in the Earth's core?
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Copper
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What must be true for a large portion of Earth's core in order for convection to occur?
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It must be liquid.
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What produced the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere?
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Plants
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What is not true about global warming?
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It is just another name for the greenhouse effect.
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Which is true about ozone?
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It is a gas in the stratosphere. It absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun. It is a pollutant produced by automobile emissions.
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What is true about the decreasing density of the stratospheric ozone layer?
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There is evidence of an actual hole in the ozone layer. It was caused by chemicals released into the atmosphere by industrial processes. It could cause public health problems like increased rates of skin cancer.
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What do we call the study of planets through contrast and comparison?
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Comparative Planetology
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When Earth formed, it melted and differentiated. What was the source of heat that melted Earth?
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The infall of matter that formed Earth and the decay of radioactive elements.
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What evidence do we have that Earth differentiated?
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The curved paths of seismic waves indicate that the interior density of Earth is greater than can be explained by compression alone.
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How do P waves and S waves differ?
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P waves oscillate parallel to their direction of travel, whereas S waves oscillate perpendicular to their direction of travel and P waves can pass through liquids, whereas S waves cannot.
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How do temperature and pressure vary with depth deep inside Earth?
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Temperature and pressure both increase with depth.
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What erases the impact craters on Earth and is responsible for most of the landforms that we see?
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plate tectonics and water and ice erosion
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What drives the moving plates of Earth's crust?
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convection in Earth's rocky mantle
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What happened to the majority of the carbon dioxide that was formerly in Earth's atmosphere?
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Most of it dissolved into the oceans and now is in the form of limestone rocks of Earth's crust.
