Chapter 8 & 9

Earth's diameter:

12,760 km

moon

4.5 billion years old created from giant impact

crust

55% oceanic and 45% continental

geological processes:

Impact cratering Tectonics Erosion Volcanism

Greenhouse effect

Natural situation in which heat is retained in Earth's atmosphere by carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other gases

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

The average temperature on planet Earth is higher than you would expect just from the heating of sunlight alone. What is the explanation for this?

carbon dioxide (and other gases) in the atmosphere cause a greenhouse effect

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

earths layers

crust, mantle, outer core, inner core

maria

darker volcanic plains

giant impact

earth clashed with mars-sized projectile, debris condensed and created the moon

convection

hot material expands and rises while cooler material contracts and falls

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

its surface is heavily cratered

mantle

largest part of the earth Density increases toward the core due to compression Silicon oxygen and other elements

mercury's interior:

metallic core similar to size of moon Closest to the sun Fastest moving Heavily cratered surface No atmosphere Large metal core

core

metallic, liquid

Earthquake producing faults are much more likely to be found

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

According to the theory of plate tectonics

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

inner core

solid

In its overall composition, the Moon roughly resembles:

the Earth's crust and mantle

Scientists now understand that the Earth consists of layers, with the densest materials in the core. What allowed the differentiation of the Earth's layers to happen?

the early Earth must have been so hot it was like a liquid and heavier things sank to the middle

What makes astronomers think that impact rates for the Moon must have been higher earlier than 3.8 billion years ago?

there are ten times more craters on the older highlands than the younger maria

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

they do not have an atmosphere