PHS 111 Final Exam (Vernon)

What is the most common rock type in the earth's crust?

igneous rock

What are the elements that occur most frequently in minerals found in the crust?

Silicon and Oxygen

Weathered sediments are pressed and cemented to form ___.

Sedimentary Rocks

What are the most abundant elements in the earth's crust?

Silicon and Oxygen

Most rocks are composed of minerals that are

Silicates

Igneous rocks that formed by cooling slowly from a molten magma will have ___

a course grained or phaneritic texture

About how many minerals are common in the earth's crust?

six

What makes up Earth's crustal layer?

igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks

Where are the least dense rocks in the earth found?

The Continental Crust

What is the site of San Andreas Fault?

transform boundary

What formed the Himalayan Mountains and Appalachian Mountain?

tectonic forces driving two continental plates towards each other

The core is mostly made of

iron

Name 4 features of diastrophism?

stress, strain, folding, and faulting

What is the chief difference between a joint, normal and a fault?

relative movement has occurred on either side of the fault
fault=displacement
joint=just cracked

What causes the presence of red soils of Oklahoma and Georgia?

iron oxide

What is the sequence of weathering process?

weathering, erosion, transportation

The oldest fossils are about how many years old?

3.5 billion years old

Name 3 common ways to form fossils.

preserved in amber, casts or impressions, and hard body parts

The Cenozoic is known as the age of the _

mammals

When Rocky Mountains were uplifted about the time the ____ _____ out.

dinosours died

Name the 2 dominant life forms in the Cambrian period

trilobites and brachiopods

What are the 3 major components of the atmosphere?

nitrogen, oxygen, and argon

What does wind chill factor measure?

the cooling equivalent temperature since the wind makes the air temperature seem much lower; the cooling power of wind

Longer periods of drizzle, rain or snow are usually associated with which cloud type?

Stratus

Most of the great deserts in the world are located

30 degrees north or south latitude

The largest freshwater reservoir in the world is

glaciers and ice caps

A watershed is

the region or land area drained by a stream; a stream drainage basin

The two most common ions in seawater are

chloride and sodium

Surface ocean currents are generally driven by

prevailing winds

The greatest volume of water is moved by the

gulf stream

Earth rotates

west to east

The Milky Way galaxy is

spiral

Most of the stars plotted on a H-R diagram are

main sequence stars

For the last 3 billion years the surface of the Moon has been

relatively quiet

We always see the same side of the Moon because

it's periods of rotation and revolution are the same

Evidence that Earth is rotating is provided by

the motion of a pendulum.

The fact that there are seasons on Earth is largely due to

the tilt of earth's axis

How old is the universe?

13.7 billion years old

What determines the location of stars on H-R diagram?

mass and temperature

What is difference in brightness between two stars is related to?

the amount of light and energy produced by the stars,

the relative size of the stars,

the distances between the stars

What does color of a star refer to is the hottest?

blue

Where is Stonehenge located?

England

What part of a star does nuclear fusion reactions occur?

the core

Which way does Earth rotate?

west to east (counterclockwise)

Which way do stars appear to move relative to Polaris?

counterclockwise

What is the basic unit of the universe?

galaxy

About how old is the universe?

14 billion years old

What holds the galaxy together?

gravitational attraction

What depends on the lifetime of a star?

its mass

What is the approximate diameter of the Milky Way?

100,000 lightyears

What are the 4 stages of the life of a star?

protostar, main-sequence, red giant, white dwarf

How far Polaris appears above the horizon depends on what?

your latitude

What is said about "dark matter"?

Either there is no proof the dark matter exists, or there is no way to calculate its abundance.

What would happen if the density of the universe is less than a critical value?

it might go on expanding forever

What is the approximate expected life span of a star the size of the Sun?

10 billion years

What is eventual fate of our Sun?

become a white dwarf

Red giant stars are

bright, low-temperature giants.

What is the terms distance of outer space is measured?

light years

What is the name of our galaxy?

Milky Way Galaxy

Most of the stars plotted on a H-R diagram are ___

main sequence stars

Milky Way galaxy is a ___

spiral galaxy

Compared to magnitude 1 star, a star with a magnitude of 2 is ___

less than half as bright

In which part of a newborn star does the fusion reaction occur?

the core

When does the Earth move most rapidly in its orbit?

January 3rd

Comets are thought to be dirty

snowballs

The tail of a comet consists of and _.

dust and ice

The birthplace of comets is a , dusty aggregates beyond the solar system.

cloud of icy

What is the surface of Mars like?

It is much too cold for liquid water to exist.

Which planets have no moons?

Mercury and Venus

Why is the surface temperature of Venus so high?

its proximity to the sun

Earth, other planets, and the rest of the solar system formed billions of years ago from elements created in ___

previously existing stars

Read over the length of a planet's day.

Mercury- 1,408 hours
Venus- 5,832 hours
Earth- 24 hours
Mars- 25 hours
Jupiter- 10 hours
Saturn- 11 hours
Uranus- 17 hours
Neptune- 16 hours

What is the smallest planet in the solar system?

mercury

What are the 3 dwarf planets of the solar system?

Ceres, Pluto, Eris

What is the predominant gas in the atmosphere of Venus?

carbon dioxide

How was our model of the surface features of Venus obtained?

radar mapping from the magellan probe

What is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon?

venus

For the last 3 billion years the surface of the Moon has been ___

relatively quiet

Evidence from the Apollo missions indicate that the Moon originated ___

from the impact of Earth with a planet-sized object.

Know phases of the Moon and what occurs in each.

New moon
Waxing Crescent
First Quarter
Waxing Gibbous
Full moon
Waning Gibbous
Third Quarter
Waxing Crescent

Neap tides result when the moon is ___.

in a quarter moon phase

Spring tides occur when

the Earth, Moon and Sun are all in alignment

A person standing where the Moon's penumbra touches Earth you will see __

a partial solar eclipse

If you were flying east on a jet across two times zones and your watch read 12:00 noon when you landed, you should be what time?

3:00pm

The path of a plane flying due north from a spot on the equator would appear to

curve to the east

"AM" and "PM" means

before and after the meridian

The "AM" in 9:00 AM means ___.

before the meridian

Know the difference between 3 eclipse

Total Solar Eclipse
Partial Solar Eclipse
Annular Solar Eclipse

South of the Antarctic Circle, the Sun appears above the horizon all day at least once during _

december

How many standard times zones are there?

24

The 180 degree meridian is called __

the International Date Line or the Antimeridian.

Maria are

large, dark spots on Earth's Moon.

Rocks on the surface of the Moon are primarily _.

basalt

The parallel at 66.5 degree South is called _

Antarctic Circle

The ancient Greeks believed that the shape of Earth was

a perfect sphere

sedimentary rocks

rocks formed from particles or dissolved minerals from previously existing rocks

asthenosphere

a plastic, mobile layer of the Earth's structure that extends around the Earth below the lithosphere; ranges in thickness from a depth of 130 km to 160 km

divergent boundary

boundaries that occur between two plates moving away from each other

convergent boundary

boundaries that occur between two plates moving toward each other

tensional stress

the opposite of compressional stress, occurs when one part of a plate moves away from another part that does not move