Earth Formation, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, and Biosphere

Flashcards on Earth's formation, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere

Earth

A giant of mass and water flying in space that supports life.

Molecular clouds

Regions of dust and gas where stars are formed.

Gravity

The force that drives the creation of stars and planets by pulling molecular clouds together.

Interstellar cloud

Large molecular cloud with a small rotation that shrinks and speeds up, eventually spreading out into a vast disk of dust and gas.

March 2003 Discovery

Experiment conducted by Don Pettit and Stanley Love to understand planet formation in zero gravity.

Earth's First Step

The process where clumps of particles turn into objects about half a mile in diameter, attracting material from the surrounding disk.

Violent Stage

The stage where 20 planets orbited the sun and gravity caused them to collide, eventually forming Venus, Mercury, Mars, and Earth.

Solar wind

The energetic particles released from the sun during an explosion that can be deadly.

Formation of Molten Core

The lightest elements that rose from the Earth's surface and formed a molten iron core.

Magnetosphere

The magnetic shield that surrounds the Earth and protects it from solar wind.

Aurora Borealis

The lights created when solar wind enters Earth's atmosphere at the poles.

Moon

Earth's companion formed from a collision with another planet.

Robin Canop

The scientist that proposed Earth collided with another planet creating the moon.

Earth's Axis Tilt

The tilt that gives us the seasons and annual cycle of life.

Tempo 1

A comet from which samples were taken that contains water in the form of ice.

Michael Zolensky

The scientist who found meteorites are very cold and cool quickly when they hit the ground.

Oxygen

The element inside zircon that indicates water was present on Earth 4.4 billion years ago.

Stromatolites

Primitive structures, short pillars of bacteria, that create oxygen through photosynthesis.

Banded iron formations

Product of microbial action in oceans, full of iron.

Accretion

The process where protoplanets were formed.

Differentiation

The segregation of elements within a protoplanet.

Big Bang Theory

The most accepted theory in the formation of the universe.

Nebular Hypothesis

A spinning cloud of dust made of mostly light elements that flattened into a protoplanetary disk and became a solar system.

Pacific Ocean

The largest and deepest ocean.

Plate Tectonic Theory

The theory the describes the large-scale motion of the Earth’s surface.

Alfred Wegener

Proposed the concept of continental drift in 1912.

Pangea

Supercontinent that began to break into pieces around 200 million years ago.

Crust

The outermost solid shell of the Earth, composed of various rock types, forms the continents and ocean floor.

Mantle

The thick, viscous layer of silicate rock that makes up the bulk of the Earth’s interior.

Core

Composed of molten iron & nickel, generates the planet’s magnetic field.

Divergent boundary

Plates move apart, allowing magma to rise and form new oceanic crust.

Transform boundary

Plates slide past each other, causing earthquakes but no significant creation or destruction of the Earth’s surface.

Lithosphere

Earth’s outermost layer; made up of crust and upper mantle.

Asthenosphere

A partially molten layer of rock.

Minerals

Naturally-occuring, inorganic, homogeneous solids with definite chemical composition, and ordered internal structure.

Rock

Naturally occurring aggregate of one or more minerals that may include rock fragments, organic materials & natural glass.

Mineraloids

Natural glass & organic matter.

Extrusive Igneous Rock

Magma comes out & cools on the surface

Sedimentary Rocks

Created from accumulation of contention of sediments over time

Metamorphic

Formed when rocks are transformed by heat and pressure.

Hadean Eon

Earth may have first become liquefied by asteroid bombardment.

Weather

constantly changing refers to the state of the atmosphere at any given time and place

Climate

weather that has been collected over many years

Aerosols

tiny solid and liquid particles which absorb, reflect, and scatter incoming solar radiation

Ozone

absorbs much of the potentially harmful UV radiation from the Sun

Atmospheric pressure

Weight of the air above us.

Troposphere

1st layer, closest to earth, all weather occurs here

Gyres

Differences in movements of water

Biosphere

Totality of life forms on Earth

Miller-Urey Hypothesis

The first life forms appeared in a warm, primitive ocean and these life forms are heterotrophic