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BJU Space/Earth 13

BJU - Space and Earth Science - Chapter 13

Question	Answer
Accelerated Mass Spectrometer (AMS)	An instrument that combines a mass spectrometer and an accelerator and can be used to measure the very small amounts of elements and their different isotopes in a sample
Anomalous Sample	A sample tested by the radiocarbon dating method that gives a sample age different from an age that has been determined by other means.
Asthenosphere	That portion of the upper mantle extending from the rigid lithosphere down to about 300 km or deeper beneath the continents, which is believed to be plastic enough that the rock can flow.
Calibration Curve	A graph that is used to correct the age of a sample of organic material obtained by radiocarbon decay to a calendar date. This is necessary because carbon-14 concentration in the earth's atmosphere has varied throughout its history.
Carbon-14	A radioactive form of carbon used in the radioactive dating method determining the age of organic matter.
Core	The central region of the interior of a celestial object. In the earth, it is the extremely dense metallic center surrounded by the rocklike mantle.
Crust	The relatively solid outermost layer of the earth.
Decay	A nuclear change in which the nucleus of an atom spontaneously emits a subatomic particle or an energetic electromagnetic ray.
Deep Time	A concept underlying nearly all naturalistic historic science that refers to the unobservable distant past in terms of millions or billions of years ago.
Dendrochronology	The determination of a radiocarbon calibration curve by using a series of overlapping tree ring records from a population of ancient, dead tree trunks.
Discontinuity	In general, a sharp change in a measured quantity as one crosses a boundary between two materials. In seismology, it is the boundary between two layers of the earth below the crust, where earthquake waves abruptly change speed.
Geology	The study of the structures, materials, and processes of the solid part of the earth.
Historical Geology	That branch of geology that deals with the origin and history of the earth's structures, materials, and processes.
Liquid Scintillation Counting (LSC)	A method of determining the rate of radioactive decay in a sample by mixing it with a liquefied chemical that glows momentarily each time a carbon-14 atom decays. A special instrument that counts and records the number of flashes per unit of time.
Lithosphere	The rigid, rocky outer layer of the earth consisting of the crust and the outer mantle that act together as a unit. It averages 77 km thick under the oceans to nearly 300 km thick under the continents.
Mantle	The portion of the earth's interior between the crust and the core.
Mohorovicic Discontinuity	The boundary between the earth's crust and mantle. It varies from about 7 km under oceans to about 50 km under continental mountain chains.
Organic	In mineralogy, describes materials that are obtained from living or once-living organisms.
Potassium-Argon Method	A radioactive dating method still in use by naturalistic geologist that is based on the amount of argon-40 in a sample compared to its content of potassium-40, from which it is assumed to have decayed. (method discredited by creationary geologists.)
Radioactive	The rate at which nuclear particles and rays are emitted by a radioactive substance.
Sediment	Earthy matter suspended in or deposited by water, wind, or ice.
Seismologist	A scientist who studies earthquakes.
strata	In general, a flat, horizontal, well-defined layer. Typically a layer of sedimentary rock, usually horizontal but often tilted to various angles or folded by movements within the earth's crust.
Uranium-Lead Method	A method of radioactive dating based on the amount of lead isotopes in the sample compared to its content of uranium isotopes, from which the lead is assumed to have decayed.

Created by: heidio on 2010-02-18

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BJU Space/Earth 13

BJU - Space and Earth Science - Chapter 13