Question | Answer |
The part of Earth which is composed mostly of rock; the crust and outer mantle | Lithospheric |
A type of rock that forms when melted rock cools and hardens | Igneous rock |
A type of rock formed by gravity pressing fragments of other rocks and minerals together as they settle on land or under the ocean over a long preriod of time | Sedimentary rock |
One of the major types of rock that is created from previously existing rock | Metamorphic rock |
Hardened remains or imprint of a plant or animal | Fossil |
The ordering of sedimentary layers of rock with the oldest on the bottom and the youngest on top | Law of superposition |
A crack in a body of rock that the rock can move along | Fault |
Fossils of widely distributed organisms that lived during only one short period | Index fossils |
The age of a rock given as the number of yeArs since the rock formed | Absolute dating |
The age of a rock compared to the ages of rock layers | Relative age |
The process of determining the age of an object using the half life of one or more radioactive elements | Radioactive dating |
Sample of ice usually removed from the polar ice caps which gives evidence of the atmosphere in the past | Ice cores |
The theory that the earths lithosphere id divided into a number of large, plate like sections that move | Plate tectonic theory |
Process by which species of organisms undergo changed over a long period of time through genetic variation and natural selection | Evolution |
Fossils that have characteristics of organisms that existed both prior to and after it | Transitional fossil |
A coastal body of water where fresh water from a river mixes wth salt water | Estuaries |
The movement of cold water upward from the deep ocean that is caused by wind | Upwelling |
Measures how acidic or basic a liquid is | pH |
Is the cloudiness of a fluid caused by individual particles suspended in the fluid | Turbidity |
Are species that can be used to monitor the health of an environment or ecosystem | Bio-indicators |
All of the water on,under, and above the Earth | Hydrosphere |
Saltiness of a body of water | Salinity |
Living things | Biotic |
All of the non living parts of an ecosystem | Abiotic |
The continual movement of water between the land, ocean , and the air | Water cycle |