Earth and Solar System Formation Flashcards

Flashcards covering the formation of the Earth and Solar System, including the Nebular Hypothesis, planetary characteristics, Earth's composition, and seismic wave properties.

The __ Hypotheses explains how the Earth and Solar System formed.

Nebular

The nebular cloud rotates ___.

counter-clockwise

During the formation of the solar system, __ condense to form a disk-shaped nebular cloud.

primordial dust

Planetary orbits are aligned along the sun's __ plane.

equatorial

__ Planets are close to the sun, dense and small and rocky.

Terrestrial

__ Planets are far from the sun, low density and large and gaseous.

Jovian

The asteroid belt is located between the orbits of and .

Mars, Jupiter

The Earth's compositional zones, from the inside out, are: 1. Iron-Nickel Core, 2. Fe-Mg Silicate Mantle, 3. Fe-Mg-Al Silicate __, 4. Oceans, 5. Atmosphere

Crust

The Earth becomes compositionally zoned based on __.

density

The iron catastrophe is when __ sink to the core and lighter materials are displaced outwards.

dense iron-nickel

__ of the earth occurred following "iron catastrophe" and differentiation.

Degassing

__ meteorites are composed of Iron and Nickel.

Metallic

__ meteorites are Fe-Mg silicate.

Chondritic

The presence of the Earth’s __ provides evidence that the Earth likely possesses a metallic core.

magnetic field

The Earth’s crust has a density between and gm/cm3.

2.6, 3.0

__ wave studies can be used to determine the density properties and phase composition of the internal zones comprising the Earth.

Seismic

and waves are surface waves.

Love, Rayleigh

__ waves propagate through all phases of matter.

Compression (P-waves)

__ waves only propagate through solid phases of matter.

Shear (S-waves)

The P-wave shadow zone exists between and from the epicenter.

105°, 140°

The S-wave shadow zone exists at an angle greater than __ of the epicenter.

105°

The upper mantle is also known as the __.

asthenosphere

The __ "floats" on a partially melted asthenosphere.

lithosphere

The interface between the crust and the mantle is called the __.

Moho