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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 |