earth and space

Solar wind

stream of high energy particles sent into spaces causes the light displays AURORA BOREALIS (if seen from northern hemisphere and AURORA AUSTRALIS (southern hemisphere

prominences

storms that look klike a huge arches may last several days

solar flares

much more intense than prominences: lasts only about 15 minutes

sunspots

cool black storm areas

Sun

Average size and temperature energy comes from nuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium. More than 100x larger than earth

Mercury

Rocky

Venus

Morning star,, rocky, hottest, Brightest beefore sunrise and after sunset, rotates from east to west

Moon

Same period of rotation as period of revolution, causes tides

Mars

Red panet

asteroids

minor planets

Jupiter

gaseous

Saturn

gaseous

Uranus

Icy, rotates counter clockwise

Neptune

Icy

Pluto

Coldest, tilted and elongated orbit,

Last quarter

waning gibbous

Full moon

Waxing gibbous

First quarter

Waxing cresent

new moon

waning crescent

comets

known as dirty snowballs, heads of ice and rock tails of dujst and gases forced from the head by solar radiation, tail always poijnts away from the sun

Meteoroid

chunk of rock or metal smaller than an asteroid, not entering and not still burning in the earths atmosphere

Meteor

A meteoroid as it burns up in the atmosphere “shooting star”

Meteorite

A meteoroid that does not completely burn up

Spring tides

Strongest tides; when the sun, earth and moon are in a straight line the suns and the moons gravities add up highest and lowest tides

neap tides

weakest tides; whjen the sun, earth, and moon gravities cancel out one another; moderate tides

Polaris

North star; tip of little dipperds “handle”

Sirius

Brightest star in the night sky; “dog star'‘

Ursa major

Big bear; contains the big dipper

ursa minor

Little bear; contains the little dipper

canis major

big dog; contains sirius

canis minor

Little dog

orion

The hunter

Proxima centauri

Closest star to earth but is too small to be seen in the night sky

proxima centauri

closest star to earth but is too small to be seen in the night sky

pegasus

The winged horse

Light year

The distance that light travels in one year

Milky way

The galaxy where the solar system is

Supernova

The explosion of a big star

black hole

remains of a supernova explosion with very strong gravity from which notjhing can escape

litosphere

from the crust down to the rigid upper mantle

Divergent

Plate move away from one another forming mid ocean ridges

Convergent

Plates move toward each other

oceanic - oceanic (con)

one of the two oceanic plates is subducted into the mantle, magma rises, forming volcanoes; also creates trenches

oceanic - continental (conv)

the oceanic plate is subducted into the mantle, magma rises, forming mountain ranges usually containing volcanoes

Continental - continental

Neither plate is fully subducted the plates are forced into one another, forming tall mountains

transform

plates slide past one another, causing earthquakes

Normal dip slip

a type of fault where the rock above the fault plane (hanging wall) moves down relative to the rock below the fault plane (footwall). This movement is primarily vertical and occurs due to extensional stress, where the Earth's crust is being pulled apart. 

Reverse dip slip/thrust fault

hanging wall (the block of rock above the fault) moves up and over the footwall (the block below the fault).

Strike slip

movement of the two blocks is horizontal and parallel to the strike of the fault, meaning they slide past each other.

Magnitude

“size” of an earthquake, or energy realeased

Richter scale

measures the magnite where in magnitude 2 is ten times stronger than magnitude 1

Intensity

amount of damage, measured using the marcalli scale (1 to 12)

focus

earthquakes point of origin

Epicenter

the point on the earths surface directly above the focus

igneous

from lava, granite, basalt
formed from cooled and solidified molten rock, called magma or lava. Magma is molten rock found beneath the Earth's surface, while lava is molten rock that erupts onto the surface. The cooling and solidification process results in the formation of crystals within the rock. 

metamorphic

from other rocks that were exchanged due to intense heat and preassure, marble slate

sedimentary

from sediments which were eroded to lower places; forms fossils; sandstone, shale

increasing particle size (decreasing water holding capacity)

clay-silt-sand-pebbles-gravel-

Theory of continental drift

Wegener 1912 the theory of the movement of the continents relative to each other

Evidences

Fossils in africa and south america

positions of mountain ranges

glacian striations scratches in rock caused by movement of glaciers

tillites glacial sediments buried in rock

Theory of plate tectonics

tectonic plates move explaints continentalk drift

Pangaea

Supercontinent that existed during Paleozoic and Mesozoic era; broke into Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south during Mesozoic era

Laurasia

Strated breaking up into asia, europe, and north america during the cenozoic era

Gondwanaland

started breaking upinto africa, australia, antarctica, and south america during the mesozoic era

renewable energy sources

will not run out due to continuous use

non renewable

in danger of running out

fossil fuels

energy sources that were formed by nature for hundreds of millions of years but which people are exploiting and may run out in just a few more years ( coal, natural gas, petroleum)

Global warming

the heating up of the earths surface due to a build up of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere

Melting of polar ice caps

Effect of global warming causing excessive flooding and even the loss of low lying land

Climate change

Effect of global warming increasing in the number and intensity of typhoons and a shortening of the wet season

Troposphere

Life forms, weather, densest layer

Stratosphere

ozone layer, airplanes

Mesosphere

Coldest, meteors burn up

thermosphere

Ionosphere, hottest

Exosphere

man made satellites

Summer solstice June 21

The suns direct rays fall on the northern hemisphere, marking the start of summer in the north

Fall equinox september 23

The suns direct rays fall on the equator, resulting in nearly equal day and night; marks the beginning of fall in the north

Winter solstice december 22

The suns direct rays fall on the south, marking the beginning of winter in the north

Spring equinox march 21

Sun rays fall on the equator, resulting in nearly equal day and night marks the beginning of spring in the north

Reason for seasons

Caused by the tilt of the earths axis as it orbits the sun, leading to varying direct sunlight on different parts of the earth