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earthscience12
vocabulary
Question | Answer |
---|---|
continental drift | hypothesis stating the continents slowly drift parallel to earths surface |
uniforitarianism | the idea that earths process at work today were also at work in earths past |
superpostion | the theory that undesterbed layers or rock have the oldest layers on the bottom and the youngest on the top |
pangaea | ancient super continent that began breaking about 200 millions years ago |
plate tectonics | theory that explains how lithospheric plates move and ineract causing major geologic features and events |
fossil records | the history of all known fossil and their placements in formation of rock and position in time |
absolute dating | calculating by using half life of certain isotopes |
estimation | am eproxmate calculation of quantity |
radioactive decay | when an unstable atomic nucleus changes to another nucleus by emitting particles and energy |
igneous rock | rock that forms from magma or lava |
sedimentary rock | rock that is broken down into smaller pieces or dissolved in water |
relative age | age based on objects found at the same time |
half life | the time it takes a given amount of a radioactive isotope to decay to half its original amount |
atoms | smallest unit of matter a nucleous surrounded by protons and electrons |
index fossils | the fossilized remaines of an organism that existed over vast areas for a short period of time |