OCE1001 ch1-4

Earth went through a series of atmospheres throughout its evolution. Listed below are descriptions of the different atmospheres Earth has experienced, along with the time at which they were present. You will fill in each sentence with these terms.

- During the Initial phase, the atmosphere was composed of leftover gases from the nebula. - During the Early phase, the atmosphere was composed of mostly water vapor (steam), small amounts of carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and other gases. - During the Presentphase, the atmosphere was composed of increased amounts of atmospheric oxygen, which caused the ozone concentration in the stratosphere to increase.

Earth scientists use the geologic time scale to describe very long periods of time. Listed below are three time periods. Using what you have learned in this section, match each period to the appropriate event that has occurred during that time.

- During the Precambrian/Proterozoic, the first organisms with shells developed. - The Paleozoic/Mesozoic is characterized by the extinction of 90% of marine life. - The Mesozoic/Cenozoic period marks the extinction of dinosaurs and many other species.

Which of the following ideas support our current scientific understanding of the development of life on Earth?

- The "prebiotic soup" of the primitive oceans provided favorable conditions for life to develop. - As life evolved it significantly changed Earth's environment. - Primitive life likely existed without the need for oxygen. - Early organisms evolved into more complex organisms over geologic time.

Which of the following contributed to the salinity of the ocean?

- creation of acid rain from volcanic outgassing - runoff caused dissolved elements to enter the ocean - chlorine gas from the atmosphere was dissolved into water

Oxygen comprises about ________ percent of the Earth's present atmosphere.

20

The flipping of Earth's magnetic field takes an average of about ________ years.

5,000

The oceans cover approximately ________ percent of the Earth's surface.

70

Rank the blocks from highest downward pressure to lowest downward pressure.

87- continential, 42- continential, 35- continental, 2900- oceanic, 7-oceanic

Which of the following statements about the Pacific Ocean is TRUE?

All of the continents could fit into the space occupied by the Pacific Ocean

The great oxidation event resulted in the massive die-off of which of the following?

Anaerobic bacteria

Rank the four principle oceans from smallest to largest, in terms of size

Arctic, Indian, Atlantic, Pacific

Which layer of the Earth behaves in a plastic manner?

Asthenosphere

Consider an interdisciplinary study that is aimed at understanding how ocean currents affect the distribution of coral larvae. What two disciplines of oceanography would the researchers be focused on?

Biological and physical oceanography

Who of the following is thought to be the first Viking to have seen what is now called Newfoundland?

Bjarni Herjolfsson

Earth has three compositionally distinct layers—the crust, mantle, and core. The core has separate inner and outer sections that are physically different. For the following physical and compositional properties, sort each item into the bins for the layer of Earth that they best characterize.

CRUST: earth stiff, rigid,rocky shell part of this layer has relative.... MANTLE: contains weak layer below.. contains rock rich in magnesium CORE: contains liquid oute layer and solid inner layer contains iron and nickel

Who is credited with being the first person to accurately determine Earth's circumference?

Eratosthenes

Where are the only two places in the world where continental ice sheets occur today?

Greenland and Antarctica

The explorer who advanced oceanography by introducing systematic soundings, or depth measurements, was

James Cook

How did the view of the ocean by early Mediterranean cultures influence the naming of planet Earth?

Mediterranean cultures believed Earth was composed of large land masses surrounded by marginal bodies of water

Which of the following fossils was used as data to help reconstruct Pangea because it was a reptile found in South America and Africa?

Mesosauras

What piece of evidence supports Wegener's hypothesis of continental drift?

Modern-day species that evolved in isolation share a common ancestor.

What does NOAA stand for?

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

What are the major steps involved in the process of science?

Observation, hypothesis, testing, and theory

In which period did the first fishes appear?

Ordovician

Over the last 186 years, how has the location of Earth's magnetic north pole changed?

Over the last 186 years, the location of Earth's magnetic north pole has moved in a northwesterly direction.

Which of the following was not used as evidence for continental drift?

Paleomagnetic reversals

The first recorded circumnavigation of Africa was made by the _

Phoenicians

Which of the following was true about the Protoearth?

Protoearth's deep structure was homogeneous.

The method of determining latitude in the Northern Hemisphere by measuring the angle between an observer's line of site to the North Star and line of site to the northern horizon was developed by:

Pytheas

Prior to 1768, which of the following claimed the most human lives at sea?

Scurvy

What is the difference between an ocean and a sea?

Seas are smaller and shallower bodies of salt water that are somewhat enclosed by land, but they are directly connected to the world ocean.

What did Stanley Miller's experiment demonstrate?

Stanley Miller's experiment demonstrated that vast amounts of simple organic molecules could have been produced in Earth's early oceans (a "prebiotic soup").

Plate tectonics and evolution, which are held with a high degree of confidence because of rigorous testing and verification, are examples of:

THEORIES

What is the difference between the geographic North Pole and the magnetic North Pole?

The Earth's axis runs through the geographic North Pole. The magnetic North Pole is the point at which Earth's magnetic field points directly downward.

Which of the following statements comparing ocean to land is correct?

The Pacific Ocean covers more of Earth's surface than all the land combined.

Which ocean is actually a part of three other oceans?

The Southern ocean

How do the physical properties of the asthenosphere differ from the lithosphere?

The athenosphere is plastic or malleable and capable of slow flow. The lithosphere is a brittle and rigid solid region comprised mosly of basalt and granite.

Which of the following statements about the average depths of the four principle oceans is correct?

The average depths of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans are very similar, while the depth of the Arctic Ocean is much shallower than the other three.

How are the materials that make up Earth's interior stratified in relation to their densities?

The highest-density materials are concentrated at Earth's core, whereas lower-density materials are located closer to Earth's surface.

Which of the following statements is true of the lithosphere?

The lithosphere is composed of the crust and the uppermost portion of the mantle.

What was the one line of evidence that Alfred Wegner could not explain with continental drift?

The mechanism for the movement of the plates

Alfred Wegener's continental drift hypothesis received much hostile criticism and ridicule from the scientific community because of which of the following?

The mechanism he proposed for the movement of the continents.

Which of the following is the most convincing piece of evidence set forth to support the concept of sea floor spreading?

The oceanic pattern of alternating reversals of Earth's magnetic field

How would the alignment of a particle of magnetite differ with respect to the Earth's surface, if it solidified at the magnetic Equator, the Tropic of Cancer, or the magnetic North Pole?

The particle of magnetite would be aligned parallel with Earth's surface at the magnetic Equator, it would be aligned at a diagonal with respect to Earth's surface at the Tropic of Cancer, and it would be pointed directly downward (perpendicular to Earth's surface) at the magnetic North Pole.

Which statement best describes the origin of Earth's oceans?

The water that fills our oceans was mostly derived from outgassing, with a minor component coming from ice comets.

Which of the following would best describe the principal goal of science? Select only one answer.

To explain the causes and effects of observable natural phenomena

According to the geological time scale, which selection lists the correct order of coexistence, from earliest to latest?

Trilobites and amphibians, insects and dinosaurs, dinosaurs and birds, flowering plants and fishes, humans and reptiles

Most of the explorations by northern and western Europeans during the Middle (Dark) Ages were undertaken by:

Vikings od Scandinavia

What is scurvy?

Vitamin C deficiency

In science, which one of the following would be considered an observation? Select only one answer.

Waves approach the beach at an angle.

Evidence shows that periodic reversals of Earth's magnetic field have resulted in __________.

a symmetrical pattern of normal and reverse magnetization in ocean crustal rocks along ridges and rises.

An organism's response to environmental changes are called ________.

adaptations

Radioactive materials can sometimes be used to determine the:

age of rocks

The nebular hypothesis suggests that ________.

all bodies in the solar system formed from an enormous gas cloud

According to the fossil record on Earth, the earliest-known life-forms were primitive ________.

bacteria

Evidence suggests that the Sun and the rest of the solar system formed about five ________ years ago.

billion

Rank from deepest to shallowest.

c,d,b,a

Trilobites were dominant during which geologic period?

cambrian

One of the reasons that free oxygen in our atmosphere is important to the development and maintenance of life on Earth is because oxygen:

can form ozone and block some UV radiation.

What part of the continent(s) create the best fit when trying to piece them back together like a puzzle into the supercontinent Pangaea?

continental margin

The separation of the Earth into layers while it was molten was the result of the:

differing densities of the elements that make up the Earth

Based on physical properties, Earth consists of ________ layers

five

The study of the structure of the sea floor and how the sea floor has changed through time is an example of ________ oceanography.

geological

A cometary model of the formation of Earth's ocean must include the chemical difference between the ________ in comet ice and that in Earth's water.

hydrogen

A tentative, testable statement about the general nature of a phenomenon is called a(n) _

hypothesis

Moving from an oceanic ridge to an oceanic trench, the thickness of the lithosphere:

increases in proportion to the distance.

Who left Spain in September 1519 and became the first person to complete a circumnavigation of the globe when he returned to Spain three years later?

juan Sebastian del Caño

Climate distribution on Earth is primarily controlled by:

latitude

Which of the following is Earth's rigid layer that includes the crust plus the topmost portion of the mantle?

lithosphere

Which of the following represents Earth's plates that are involved in plate tectonic motion?

lithosphere

Tectonic plates are pieces of the ________ that float on the more fluid ________ below.

lithosphere; asthenosphere

In the ocean, where are the youngest rocks found?

mid-ocean ridges

The mechanism by which populations evolve and new species develop is called:

natural selection

The Kuiper Belt is located beyond the orbit of which planet?

neptune

_ are events and phenomena that we can detect with our senses.

observation

The most likely place for the basic building blocks for the development of life to interact and produce life is in Earth's __

oceans

Stanley Miller's famous experiment demonstrated that __________.

organic molecules could be produced from the mixture of gases comprising Earth's early atmosphere

Which layer of the Earth is composed of a liquid?

outer core

Which of the following was not abundant in the early atmosphere?

oxygen

Which is the largest tectonic plate?

pacific

The largest of the ocean basins, which currently covers more than half of the ocean surface, is the:

pacific ocean

What was the name for the supercontinent about 200 million years ago?

pangaea

The oldest fossilized remains of organisms are primitive ________ bacteria recovered from rocks formed on the sea floor about 3.5 billion years ago.

photosynthetic

The study of the transmission of light and sound in the oceans is an example of ________ oceanography.

physcial

Fossils of ancient tropical plants are currently found near the poles because the:

plants lived in the tropics, but landmasses have drifted to current locations.

Our world ocean can be divided into four principal oceans plus an additional ocean, based on the ________ of the ocean basins and the ________ of the continents.

shape; position

Based on definition, it is more appropriate to consider which ocean as a sea?

the arctic ocean

Frederick Vine and Drummond Matthews determined that new ocean floor was being produced at ocean ridges by examining:

the magnetic pattern of rocks on the seafloor.

Based on chemical composition, Earth consists of ________ layers

three

crust to subside or uplift.

uplifting: stress in, erosion subsiding; rift valley, white one

Current scientific knowledge indicates that the most likely origin of most of Earth's oceans was due to

water vapor released from volcanic outgassing

Which of the following is NOT a sea

yellow sea

Tectonic plates move about as fast as ________.

your fingernails grow