Earth Science Lecture Notes

Flashcards for reviewing Earth Science lecture notes.

Atmosphere

Gas surrounding Earth's surface.

Geosphere

The solid Earth from surface to center

Hydrosphere & Cryosphere

Water and ice in all other realms.

Biosphere

All types of living organisms.

Earth's Magnetic Field

Helps block solar wind and sun particles.

Weather

Short term atmospheric conditions.

Climate

Long term atmospheric conditions.

Groundwater

Water that fills pores within rocks and sediment.

Topography

Shape of the land.

Bathymetry

Shape of the ocean floor (seafloor).

Nebula

A cloud of gas and dust in outer space, the initial stage of a solar system.

Protoplanet

A celestial object that is a precursor to a planet.

Mineral

Naturally occurring, generally inorganic, homogenous, crystalline solid with a definable composition.

Rock

Coherent, naturally occurring aggregate of minerals.

Igneous Rock

Rock that solidifies from lava.

Sedimentary Rock

Rock formed by depositing and accumulating clasts or chemical precipitation.

Lithification

The process by which clasts are compacted and cemented together into layers.

Metamorphic Rock

Rock formed by added heat and pressure.

Protolith

Pre-existing rock that is metamorphosed.

Foliated

Layered metamorphic rock.

Moho (Mohorovicic discontinuity)

Seismic discontinuity differentiating crust from the mantle.

Peridotite

Mostly silica-poor igneous rock found in the Earth's mantle.

Lithosphere

Relatively rigid outer layer of Earth that cannot flow.

Asthenosphere

Soft, flowing layer beneath the lithosphere.

Trench

A deep depression in the sea floor caused by the subduction of one plate beneath another.

Subduction

The process of an oceanic plate slipping beneath an overriding plate.

Accretionary prism

A mass of sediment scraped off a subducting oceanic plate at a convergent plate boundary.

Island Arc

A chain of volcanic islands formed at an ocean plate + ocean plate convergence.

Continental Arc

A chain of volcanic mountains formed at a continental plate + ocean plate convergence.

Suture

The zone where two continents have been welded together.

Transform Boundaries

Plates that move horizontally past each other.

Compression

Stress that squeezes rock.

Tension

Stress that stretches rock.

Shear

Stress where adjacent rock moves parallel to a plate boundary.

Deformation

Breaking or changing shape of rock due to stress.

Rifting

The process by which Earth's crust breaks apart; can occur within continental crust or oceanic crust

Brittle Deformation

When rock cracks and breaks under low temperature.

Plastic Deformation

Rocks change shape without breaking.

Jointing

Cracks along zones of weakness in rock.

Faults

Cracks in rocks due to shearing.

Fold

A bend in a rock layer.

Foliation

When metamorphic rock becomes layered.

Uniformitarianism

The way we can use what we see now to tell the past. The present is the key to the past.

Rock Cycle

Cyclical system of processes by which rocks are formed, altered, destroyed, and reformed.

Supercontinent Cycle

The cyclical process of continents moving and colliding.

Anthropocene

The current geological epoch in which humans have a significant impact on the planet.