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Riley Oerkfitz ESPS
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Crater | A large, bowl-shaped cavity in the ground or on the surface of a planet or the moon. |
Lithosphere | The rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle. |
Mantle | In between the crust and the core |
Crust | The outer part of the Earth. |
Asthenosphere | the upper layer of the earth's mantle. |
Mesosphere | the region of the earth's atmosphere above the stratosphere and below the thermosphere. |
Core | The center of the Earth. |
Ejecta | material that is forced or thrown out. |
Law of Superposition | the youngest layer is on top and the oldest on bottom |
Meteoroids | a small body moving in the solar system that would become a meteor if it entered the earth's atmosphere. |
Meteorites | a meteor that survives its passage through the earth's atmosphere such that part of it strikes the ground. |
Comet | a celestial object consisting of a nucleus of ice and dust and, when near the sun, a “tail” of gas and dust particles pointing away from the sun. |
Asteroid | a small rocky body orbiting the sun. |
Uniformitarianism | the theory that changes in the earth's crust during geological history have resulted from the action of continuous and uniform processes. |
Relative Age | The geologic age of a fossil organism that is guessed. |
Strata | a layer or a series of layers of rock in the ground. |
Absolute Age | The absoulute age of a rock layer. |
Radiometric Dating | a method of dating geological or archeological specimens by determining the relative proportions of particular radioactive isotopes present in a sample. |
Carbon Dating | the determination of the age or date of organic matter from the relative proportions of the carbon isotopes carbon-12 and carbon-14 that it contains |
Geologic Time scale | The geologic time scale is a system of chronological dating that relates geological strata to time. |
Half life | the time taken for the radioactivity of a specified isotope to fall to half its original value. |
Isotope | each of two or more forms of the same element that contain equal numbers of protons but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. |
Plate tectonics | a theory explaining the structure of the earth's crust and many associated phenomena as resulting from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates that move slowly over the underlying mantle. |
Convergent Boundaries | A tectonic boundary where two plates are moving toward each other. |
Divergent Boundaries | A tectonic boundary where two plates are moving away from each other. |
Transform Boundaries | Places where plates slide sideways past each other. |
Subduction | The sideways and downward movement of the edge of a plate of the earth's crust into the mantle beneath another plate. |
Trench | When one tectonic plate slides beneath another plate at a subduction zone. |
Volcano | a mountain or hill having a crater or vent through which lava, rock fragments, and gas are being or have been erupted from the earth's crust. |
Erosion | the gradual destruction or diminution of something. |
Plate boundary | A tectonic boundary where two plates are moving away from each other and new crust is forming. |
Mid-ocean ridge | a long, seismically active submarine ridge system. |
Convection | the movement caused within a hotter liqud and less dense material to rise, and colder, denser material to sink. |
Sea- floor spreading | the formation of new areas of oceanic crust. |
Volcanic Arc | a curving chain of active volcanoes formed above a subduction zone. |
Hot Spot | a small area or region with a relatively hot temperature in comparison to its surroundings. |
Ridge push | sliding plate force is a proposed driving force for plate motion. |
Slab pull | the portion of motion of a tectonic plate. |
Carbonate | typically formed by reaction of carbon dioxide with bases. |
Cellular Respiration | a set of metabolic reactions and processes that take place in the cells of organisms |
Ecology | the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms. |
Homeostasis | the tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements. |