Correlations 1 (Intro to Geology & Planetary Geol)

Hypothesis

a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

Model

hypothesis expressed as a visual or statistical simulation or as a description by analogy of phenomena or processes that are difficult to observe and describe directly.

Theory

the widely accepted explanation for a group of known facts.

Serendipity

finding something of a value purely by chance.

PHYSICAL GEOLOGY

examines Earth's composition and processes occurring on Branches of geology and beneath its surface

HISTORICAL GEOLOGY

examines origin of the Earth origin of life and changes in Earth, life, Earth and life through time; deals with the layered rock record and fossils

Theophrastus

Interpretation of fossils (372-287 BC)

Shen Kua

Land Formation: Erosion of the mountains by deposition of silt (1031-1095)

Georg Agricola

First systematic treatise about mining and smelting work (De Re Metallica Libri XII, 1556)

Jean-Etienne Guettard and Nicolas Desmarest

first Geologic maps; first observation of the volcanic origins of parts of France

George Cuvier and Alexandre Brongniart

Stratigraphic succession of earth layers

Alfred Wegener and Arthur Holmes

Continental Drift Theory

Harry Hess

Theory of seafloor spreading

William Morris Davis

Davisian geomorphology or Davis' Theory. Cycle of Erosion Model.

Law of Original Horizontality

Beds were deposited nearly horizontal due to gravitational pull.

Law of Superposition

The younger strata lies at the top of older strata.

Law of Lateral Continuity

Strata is deposited laterally until the sediment supply last or encounter any geologic barrier

Law of Cross-cutting relationship

it was first established by Nicolas Steno, then later formulated by James Hutton and embelisshed upon by Charles Lyell.

Law of Inclusion

Proposed by Charles Lyell: the rocks that was included is relatively older than the body that includes it.

Law of Faunal Succession

William Smith: Ordering strata by examining the fossils contained in them

Nicolas Steno

Three defining principles of stratigraphy

James Hutton

Scottish medical man, farmer, geologist, the "father of modern geology"

Plutonism (James Hutton)

rocks were formed by emplacement and solidification of lava from volcanoes

Neptunism (Abraham Werner)

rocks had settled out of a large ocean whose level gradually dropped over

Actualism

is the idea that the facts of geology can and should be explained by in terms of the sort of physical processes that actually happen.

Catastrophism (coined by William Whewell, proposed by Baron Georges Cuvier)

the Earth has been affected in the past by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope

Uniformitarianism (coined by William Whewell, formulated by James Hutton, and popularized by Sir Charles Lyell)

assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now, have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe: "The present is the key to the past."

Big Bang Theory

contends that the Universe originated from a cosmic explosion (origin unknown) that hurled matter in all directions 15 and 20 billion years ago at incredible speeds began to cool and condense into the first stars and galaxies.

Edwin Hubble

justified Lemaître's theory through observations that the Universe is continuously expanding; galaxies are moving away from each other

Nebular Theory

an explanation for the formation of solar systems.

nebula

is Latin for "cloud," and according to the explanation, stars are born from clouds of interstellar gas and dust.

Planetesimal Theory

explains planet formation in the early solar system from accretion of small bodies, growing in size as gravity attracted more and more objects.

1 km in size

Growth to approximately _________ allowed the gravity of planetesimals to attract objects to them, increasing their size to seeds for planetary formation.

The Universe

The totality of space and time - past, present, and future

Galaxies

An enormous collection of heavenly bodies held together by gravitational attraction. Each galaxies is light year apart from each other.

Light year

the distance traveled by light in one year

3x10^5 km/sec

Speed of Light

9.4x10^12 km

1 light year

spectroscope

The light signal from a galaxy is separated into its component wavelengths by passing through a prism device called a __________.

spectrum

The result is a broad play of colors called a ___________.

red shift

This is evidence that galaxies are moving apart

Sun

The largest object in the solar system (99.8%)

photosphere

The surface of the Sun, called the _____________, is at a temperature of about 5800 K.

Sunspots

are "cool" regions, only 3800 K (they look dark only by comparison with the surrounding regions).

chromosphere

A small region known as the ___________ lies above the photosphere.

Corona

The highly rarefied region above the chromosphere, called the ____________, extends millions of kilometers into space but is visible only during a total solar eclipse.

Asteroids

Are rocky, airless worlds that orbit our sun, but are too small to be called planets.

asteroid belt

a vast doughnut-shaped ring between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Stars

A luminous sphere of plasma held together by its own gravity.

Super Nova

an astronomical event that occurs during the last stellar evolutionary stages of a massive star's life, whose dramatic and catastrophic destruction is marked by one final titanic explosion.

Sirius, "Dog Star"

What is the Brightest star you see in the sky?

VY Canis Majoris

What is The largest star?

Rigel Star

A blue supergiant that is the brightest star in the constellation Orion.

Betelgeuse

Bright red star in the Orion which is nearing to its end.

Planets

a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star.

Terrestrial planets

relatively small, dense, rocky planets closest to the Sun .

Jovian planets

large, low density planets farthest from the Sun (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and their satellites) whose outer layers are composed mainly of frozen or liquid hydrogen, helium, ammonia and methane.

Comets

Jan Oort, a Dutch astronomer, showed in 1950 that comets form a diffuse spherical cloud located in the far reaches of the Solar System.

Criteria of a planet

-is in orbit around the Sun

-has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape

-has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

-not massive enough to induce thermonuclear fusion, thereby, making it a star.

Moon

is any celestial body in space that orbits around a larger body

Mercury

The fastest planet, zipping around the Sun every 88 Earth days.

59 Earth days

Mercury spins slowly on its axis and completes one rotation every ____________.

thin exosphere

Instead of an atmosphere, Mercury possesses a __________ made up of atoms blasted off the surface by the solar wind and striking meteoroids.

Oxygen, sodium, hydrogen, helium and potassium

Mercury's exosphere is composed mostly of ?

Venus

The hottest planet in our solar system with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead due to its thick atmosphere, traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect.

Maxwell Montes

The highest mountain on Venus and is 20,000 feet high.

Alta Regio

a complex dome of shield volcanoes.

Thetis Regio

a highland plateau created by crustal compression.

Chasmata

prominent canyons in Venus

Mars

is one of the most explored bodies in our solar system, and it's the only planet where we've sent rovers to roam the alien landscape.

Her Desher

The Egyptians called it _________, meaning "the red one."

Valles Marineris

A large canyon system called __________ is long enough to stretch from California to New York—more than 4,800 km. This Martian canyon is 320 km at its widest and 7 km at its deepest. That's about 10 times the size of Earth's Grand Canyon.

Olympus Mons

Mars is home to the tallest shield volcano in the solar system called ___________

Alba Patera

is the largest volcano in terms of base diameter.

Ceres

is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the only dwarf planet located in the inner solar system.

Jupiter

The largest planet in the solar system - more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined.

Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in our solar system.

Hydrogen and helium

Like fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of what?

Uranus

is very cold and windy. The ice giant is surrounded by 13 faint rings and 27 small moons as it rotates at a nearly 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit.

Uranus

first planet found with the aid of a telescope

William Herschel

Uranus was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel, although he originally thought it was either a comet or a star.

Methane gas

Uranus gets its blue-green color from ________ in the atmosphere.

Neptune

Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, ice giant ____________ is the eighth and most distant planet in our solar system.

248

Pluto's highly eccentric, oval-shaped orbit brings it inside Neptune's orbit for a 20-year period every _____________Earth years.

Windiest world

Neptune is our solar system's____________.

Charon

Largest moon of Pluto

2377 km

Diameter of Pluto

double planet

Pluto and Charon are often referred to as "double planet".

planet density of Mercury

5.4 g/cm3

planet density of Venus

5.2 g/cm3

planet density Earth

5.5 g/cm3

planet density of Mars

3.9 g/cm3

planet density of Jupiter

1.3 g/cm3

planet density of Saturn

0.7 g/cm3

planet density of Uranus

1.3 g/cm3

planet density of Neptune

1.7 g/cm3

Oort Clouds

is believed to be a thick bubble of icy debris that surrounds our solar system.

Jan Oort

In 1950, Dutch astronomer Jan Oort first proposed the idea of this sphere of icy bodies to explain the origins of comets with that take thousands of years to orbit the Sun.

Black hole

A concentration of mass so dense that nothing — not even light — can escape its gravitational pull once swallowed up. Many galaxies (including ours) have supermassive black holes at their centers.

Eclipse

An event that occurs when the shadow of a planet or moon falls upon a second body.