Exam three quiz questions

The person who came up with the continental drift theory that led to our modern understanding of plate tectonics was

Alfred Wegener

The largest impact basin on Mercury ( located on that part of the planet which is closest to the Sun at noon ) is called :

Caloris

Which of the following statements about the rocks brought back from the Earth's Moon by the astronauts is TRUE ?

The Moon rocks were puzzling , because they resemble rocks from the Earth's crust in many ways , but also have subtle differences

Which of the eight planets has a smaller mass than Mercury ?

You can't fool me , Mercury has the smallest mass of the eight planets

What relatively recent event shows that impacts continue to happen in our solar system even today ?

a comet ( which broke into more than 20 pieces ) hit the planet Jupiter in 1994

The Van Allen belt is

a region of trapped charged particles in the Earth's magnetosphere

According to the fossil record , how old is the oldest evidence of life forms on the surface of the Earth ?

about 3.5 billion years

One way in which the ozone layer is useful for life forms on the Earth's surface is that it

absorbs ultra - violet light , preventing much of it from reaching the surface

The mountains on the Moon

are the result of giant impacts during the Moon's long history of being hit

Why are the largest craters we find on the Moon and Mercury so much larger than the largest craters we find on the Earth ?

because the largest craters were made early in each world's history , and geologic activity has erased all traces of this early period on the Earth's surface

Why are almost all the craters we see on the Moon circular ?

because the rocks and icebergs that hit the Moon are moving so fast , they explode on impact , making a circular hole

If no one has ever visited the core of the Earth , how do we know that it is made of metals ?

circulating liquid metals in the core set up a large ( measurable ) magnetic field

Which part of the Earth has the greatest density ?

core

Which of the following is NOT something that was accomplished by the Apollo missions to the Moon ?

discovering that the Moon has a great deal of water under its surface

Of the people who landed on the Moon , how many were trained scientists ?

exactly one

What theory of Mercury's origin can best explain the fact that its core is made of such dense materials ?

giant impacts in its early history may have torn away much of its original crust and mantle

The type of rock we find predominant in the crust of the Earth's continents is called :

granite

Which of the following is a way that the planet Mercury is similar to the Moon ?

its surface is heavily cratered

The largest part of the Earth is its

mantle

The large , roughly circular , dark , and somewhat younger regions on the Moon are called :

maria

The most likely models of the planet Mercury indicate that more than half the planet may be composed of :

metals

In terms of numbers , the most common life - forms on Earth are

microscopic creatures , too small to see with our eyes

The most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere is

nitrogen

Which of the following statements about our Moon is FALSE ?

on Earth , we can see all its sides in the course of a month as it goes around us

Earthquake producing faults are much more likely to be found

on the boundaries of continental plates , where they meet other plates

Regions where the continents or the sea floor are pulling apart are called

rift zones

The lunar highlands made mostly of rocks that

rose to the top as the Moon cooled from a molten state early in its history

According to the theory of plate tectonics ,

slow motions within the mantle of the Earth move large sections of the crust around

In its overall composition , the Moon roughly resembles :

the Earth's crust and mantle

Mercury is a small planet and therefore has trouble holding on to an atmosphere . How then do scientist account for the extremely thin atmosphere that was found around the planet in 1985 ?

the Sun's " wind " of particles is chipping atoms off the surface of Mercury

For scientists , one bar is

the average height of the ozone layer above the Earth ( before we began to deplete it )

In 1980 , scientists suggested that the great mass extinction of 65 million years ago ( which ended the reign of dinosaurs ) may have been caused by a large impact from space . What discovery gives a big boost to this idea ?

the discovery of a buried crater ( about 200 km across ) near Chicxulub , Mexico

Which theory of the Moon's origin do astronomers ( and the evidence ) favor :

the giant impact theory

What formation or formations are evidence that the planet Mercury may have shrunk ( gotten a bit smaller ) as it cooled ?

the lone scarps or cliffs

For scientists , one bar is An increase in the Earth's temperature by several degrees Celsius would result in :

the melting of many glaciers , a rise in sea levels , and more flooding of towns near the coasts of the continents

Which of these did the June 1908 impact event in Siberia and the 2013 event in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk have in common ?

they both exploded high in the atmosphere and produced a shock wave that reached the ground

What is one important way in which both the Moon and Mercury are different from Earth

they do not have an atmosphere

What is one important way in which both the Moon and Mercury are different from Earth ?

they do not have an atmosphere

In the future , a pair of astronauts are sent on a mission to the planet Mercury . They watch the Sun set one mercurian evening and decide they will go exploring in opposite directions and meet again the NEXT time the Sun is setting in the spot where they started . How long will they have to wait for the next sunset at that spot ?

two Mercury years , 176 Earth days

A spot where magma rises to the surface can be seen as a

volcano

Today , a significant amount of new gas is joining the atmosphere of the Earth from what source :

volcanoes release gas that was trapped within the Earth