Physical Science Test 4
Life Cycle of a Star
cloud of gas and dust, protostar (brown dwarf if die here), main sequence, red giant, medium mass stars (planetary nebula, white dwarf, black dwarf) or high mass stars (supernova --> black hole or neutron (pulsar) star)
P waves
compresses and expands the ground
Types of boundaries:
continent-continent, continent-ocean, ocean-ocean
Evidence for continental drift is found in
continental shape and structure, fossils, paleomagnetic evidence, seafloor spreading
Lithosphere
crust and part of upper mantle (completely solid)
Chemical layers of the Earth:
crust, mantle, core
What best describes the chemical composition of Earth's crust and core?
crust: granite and basalt, core:iron and nickel
Dark energy vs. Dark matter
dark energy: force dark matter: mass
What is the makeup of the Earth?
digging, meteorites, seismic waves, magnetic fields
Ocean-ocean divergent boundaries cause...
earthquakes, volcanoes, mid-ocean ridges
Continent-ocean convergent boundaries cause...
earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains, trenches
Continent-continent divergent boundaries cause...
earthquakes, volcanoes, rift valleys
Ocean-ocean convergent boundaries cause...
earthquakes, volcanoes, trenches, island arcs, tsunamis
4 effects of the hydrological cycle
erosion, transportation of sediment, deposition of sediment, moraines
Which do you NOT find IN the Milky Way?
globular clusters
Characteristics of Igneous Rocks:
glossy smooth surface, gas bubble holes, random arrangement of materials
Protostars give off infra-red light. The ultimate source of light energy emitted by a protostar is
gravitational potential energy
Which principles govern the life of a star?
gravity (mass attracts mass), electromagnetism (radiation), nuclear forces (fusion)
What do we call a gas which transmits higher energy visible photons but absorbs a large fraction of infrared photons?
greenhouse gas
According to the big bang model, how do the temperature, density and structures found very early in the universe compare to those now? The earliest stages have
higher temperatures, higher densities, fundamental particles (quarks and electrons)
Most stars spend the greater part of their active life as a
hydrogen/proton-fusing star
Faunal Succession
if you look at rock somewhere, it will look the same somewhere else in the world (trash heaps)
Physical weathering
Any process that breaks rock down into smaller pieces without changing the chemistry of the rock; typically wind and water.
Why is helium harder to fuse than hydrogen?
Because Helium contains 2 protons.
What would be the best method to determine the distance to Mars?
Bounce a radio wave off of it and time how long it takes to make the round trip.
If you wanted to measure the distance to a distant galaxy, which of the following distance measurement techniques could you use?
Brightness-distance relationships using type IA supernova
A sinkhole can form in limestone when water dissolves the limestone. Which of the following best describes this type of weathering?
chemical weathering
Surface Wave
circular, doing the wave on the Earth's surface
How does the plate tectonic model account for the movement of continents?
The continents rest on rigid plates. The plates sit on a "mushy" layer which allows them to slide and move.
When you date a rock using radiometric dating, what does the number actually mean?
The date when the minerals within the rock cooled and solidified.
Evidence for the Big Bang (microwave background, abundance of elements, red shift (Doppler effect))
1) everything is moving away with the farthest galaxies moving the fastest 2) the universe is full of low energy microwaves left over from the big bang 3) the ratio of the light elements that make up the interstellar gases (hydrogen, helium, and lithium) is consistent with the fusion happening for a very short period of time
Evidence for the Nebular Hypothesis
1) rocky planets close to sun, icy planets far from sun 2) planets close to sun are small, planets far from sun are large 3) all planets orbit in the same direction 4) all planets orbit in the same plane 5) everything in the solar system is the same age
The speed of plate motion in the tectonic system is approximately
1-10 centimeters per year
How far away is a distant galaxy in the observable universe?
10 billion light years
How old is the universe?
13.8-14 billion years old
How old is the Solar System?
4-5 billion years old
Which isotope is not particularly useful for dating geological events?
Carbon-14
Which of the following is one piece of the evidence for an iron-nickel core in the center of the earth?
Earth has a magnetic field.
Which of the following features are most commonly associated with converging plate boundaries between two continental plates?
Fold mountain belts
In spiral galaxies, the stars orbit around the center faster than predicted. What explains this?
Galaxies contain more mass than we can account for. It's called dark matter
Global temperatures have increased over the last 100 years. What evidence is there that human activities are at least partially responsible for this increase?
Ice cores show a correlation between global temperature and CO2, and humans have released a lot of CO2 in the last 100 years.
Absolute dating in the three types of rocks are:
Igneous: when it last cooled Sedimentary: when the sediment was last deposited Metamorphic: when it was last altered by heat and pressure
Igneous intrusive vs. extrusive
Intrusive: larger crystals Extrusive: air bubbles
How can you determine the mass of a planet you haven't been to?
Measure the motion of something that orbits the planet.
How can you determine the chemical composition of the atomsphere of a planet you haven't been to?
Measure the spectra of light it emits.
Of the following, which are compression waves?
P waves
The outer planets are much more massive and much lower density than the inner planets. Why did they form that way?
Planets form from solids. Near the sun, only rock and metal were solid. Further away, low density material solidified.
Which of the following tends to offset and slow the collapse of a protostar?
Pressure from the motion of hot hydrogen
Primary evidence for a liquid outer core is based on the fact that...
S waves do not travel through fluids
Which of the following provides evidence for a liquid core in the earth?
Shadow zone for S waves
Spiral galaxies typically contain large numbers of blue stars and bright nebulae, while elliptical galaxies typically contain mostly yellow and red stars. What can you conclude based on this information?
Spiral galaxies are actively forming new stars, while elliptical galaxies have little or no star formation going on.
What would be the best method to determine the distance to Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to our sun, at a distance of 4.3 light years away?
Take pictures of Proxima Centauri 6 months apart and measure how far it has traveled though the sky in that time relative to the background stars.
Which is not associated with a plate boundary?
The Grand Canyon
Which of the following are true of the Jovian planets?
The Jovian planets are larger (both in volume and mass) than the terrestrial planets.
Which of the following factors that impacts climate is wholly a natural factor rather one that is influenced by human activity?
The amount of energy the sun outputs.
The rock that makes up the ocean floor has alternating bands where the magnetic field points north, then south. What is the significance of these bands.
The bands occur symmetrically to each side of the ridge where new ocean crust is slowly being made. The Earth's magnetic field flips, and the field in the basalt points the same direction as the Earth's field when the rock formed.
Two main sequence stars, one red and one blue, are located the same distance from the Earth. If these stars are observed, what will you see?
The blue star is brighter.
Which of the following correctly describes how energy from the sun drives the hydrologic cycle on Earth?
The energy from the sun is transferred by radiation through the atmosphere to the oceans. This radiation is strongest near the equator, and most evaporation occurs there.
Lines shifted toward red end of spectrum means...
The galaxy is getting farther away from earth
When the absorption spectrum of light from distant galaxies is measured, what is found?
The lines in the absorption spectrum are shifted towards the red end of the spectrum, with light from the most distant galaxies being shifted by the largest amount.
Which statement about the lithosphere and asthenosphere is true?
Velocities of earthquake waves decrease as they cross from lithosphere to asthenosphere
A divergent plate margin runs between Antartica and South America. What will happen as a result?
The ocean seperating them will grow wider.
Which of the following provides proxy data that can be used to estimate temperatures in ancient climates?
The thickness of tree rings in ancient wood
Which of the following is true about our galaxy in relation to the rest of the universe?
There are a few dozen close galaxies that are moving towards the Milky Way or orbiting around it. But the rest of the galaxies are moving away.
What is the defining feature of a greenhouse gas?
They absorb IR photons at frequencies that are radiated by the Earth.
Which of the following is a main function of a transform boundary?
To connect segments of a spreading center ridge
True or False: Streams carry more sediment when moving quickly since the stream has more kinetic energy which is used to carry more sediment.
True
True or False: Waves refract and go faster in more solid layers than liquid.
True
Streams cut deep valleys as they travel through mountains, but the same streams deposit large amounts of material to form deltas when they reach the ocean. Why?
When streams are traveling down steep slopes the water has more kinetic energy. When the water is near the ocean, it slows down and moves slower.
The sun will eventually become a...
White dwarf
The shadow zone for P waves provides evidence for
abrupt density changes at Earth's mantle-core boundary
The greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
absorb mostly IR light
Which of the following type of star will our sun never have been during its life-cycle?
brown dwarf
Which of the following forces apply to the movement of a magma body?
buoyant force and gravity
Elements heavier than iron found on the Earth are produced
in supernova explosions
Intrusive vs. Extrusive Igneous Rocks
intrusive: solidified under the Earth (crystals) extrusive: solidified above the surface of the Earth (air bubbles)
What happens when water subducted during plate tectonics chemically combines with the surrounding rock?
it makes it melt easier
Transform boundaries cause...
just earthquakes
Outer Core
liquid iron
Mechanical layers of the Earth:
lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere, outer core, inner core
Mesosphere
lower mantle, plastic but solid/rigid
Crust
made mostly of silicates
Mantle
made mostly of silicates and oxides
Core
made of iron
Continent-continent convergent boundaries cause...
mountains and earthquakes
S wave
moves the ground up and down (shear wave), can only travel through solid
The cosmological red shift seems to indicate that other galaxies are
moving away from the Milky Way galaxy with those farthest away moving the fastest.
Superposition
oldest rocks are on the bottom (parfait)
The major source of all surface water on the continents is
precipitation
Evidence for plate tectonics moving:
puzzle shapes of continents, glaciers, magnetite, fossils
The most important erosional agent of the hydrologic system is
running water
The most important erosional agent of the hydrological system is which of the following?
running water
Characteristics of Sedimentary Rocks:
sand grains or pebbles, fossil imprints visible
Sandstone, shale, and limestone are all examples of
sedimentary rocks
Inner Core
solid iron
Characteristics of Metamorphic Rocks:
sparkly crystals, ribbonlike layers or stripes
What type of galaxy is the Milky Way?
spiral galaxy
Original Horizontality
starts straight, but shifts over time (leaning tower of Pisa)
Principle of Inclusion
the background is younger than the top thing (cookie dough is younger than chocolate chips)
The primary source of evidence that the earth is a differentiated planet comes from the study of
the behavior of seismic waves
The distance to galaxies very far from our own can best be estimated using
the cosmological redshift
The forces opposing the expansion of the universe are due to
the gravitational interaction
When measuring the positions of the lines in the absorption spectrum of a certain star, the lines are all shifted toward the red end of the spectrum. This means:
the star is getting farther away from the earth
The fact that the warm season (summer) occurs in June-July-August in the northern hemisphere is due to the fact that
the tilt of the Earth is such that more radiation hits the Northern hemisphere during those months
What method of distance measurement discussed in this chapter makes use of the motion of the Earth around the Sun?
triangulation
Information about Earth's interior comes from all the following except...
tunnels through the center of the Earth
Athenosphere
upper mantle, solid but more like plastic (play dough), plate tectonics
How does water affect melting point?
water lowers the melting point of rocks
The sun will eventually become a
white dwarf
