Quiz 1 -Geology Lecture

What are the basic differences between the disciplines of physical and historical geology?

Historical geology involves the study of rock strata, fossils, and geologic events, utilizing the geologic time scale as a reference; physical geology includes the study of how rocks form and of how erosion shapes the land surface

________ rocks form by crystallization and consolidation of molten magma.

Igneous

Compared to the age of Earth accepted as correct today, how did 17th and 18th century proponents of catastrophism envision the Earth's age?

They believed Earth to be much younger than current estimates.

________ is often paraphrased as "the present is the key to the past.

Uniformitarianism

In sedimentary rocks, lithification includes ________.

compaction and cementation

The ________ is the thinnest layer of the Earth.

crust

The asthenosphere is actually a part of the ________ of the Earth.

mantle

The most prominent features on the ocean floor are the ________.

oceanic ridges

The composition of the core of Earth is thought to be ________.

solid iron-nickel alloy

________ was an important 18th-century English geologist and proponent of uniformitarianism.

James Hutton

The ________ proposes that the bodies of our solar system formed at essentially the same time from a rotating cloud of gases and dust.

Nebular hypothesis

In correct order from the center outward, Earth includes which units?

inner core, outer core, mantle, crust

The ________ forms the relatively cool, brittle plates of plate tectonics.

lithosphere

A ________ is a well-tested and widely accepted view that best explains certain scientific

theory