GLY 2010 Exam Latest Update
Asthenosphere - Answer Upper layer of the earth's mantle, below the lithosphere. This
is where rocks become plastic and are easily deformed.
Climate - Answer The weather condition prevailing in an area in general or over a long
period of time
Climate System - Answer Complex, interactive system consisting of the atmosphere,
land surface, snow and ice, oceans and other bodies of water and living things
Convection - Answer The process in liquids and gases by which hot, less dense
materials rise upward, being replaced by cold, downward flowing fluids to create a
convection current
Core - Answer The spherical mass, largely of metallic iron, with admixtures of nickel,
sulfur, silicon, and other elements at the center of the earth
Crust - Answer The outermost and thinnest of the Earth's layers, which consists of rocky
matter that is less dense the rocks of the mantle below
Earth system - Answer An open system, which involves all part of our planet and all of
the interactions of those parts (climate system, plate tectonic system and geodynamo
system)
Fossil - Answer The naturally preserved remains of traces of an animal or plant
Geodesy - Answer study of Earth's shape and surface
Geodynamo - Answer Rapid motion of the liquid outer core stirs up electrical flow in the
solid inner core, causing Earth's magnetic field
Geological record - Answer Powerpoint
Geology - Answer The science of Earth
Geosystem - Answer The study of the natural features of the earth's surface, especially
in its current aspects, such as land formations, climate, etc
Inner core - Answer Earth's innermost part of a core, so a solid sphere in the middle of
the fluid core
Lithosphere - Answer The outer 100km of the solid Earth, where rocks are harder more
rigid than those in the plastic asthenosphere
Magnetic field - Answer Magnetic lines of force surrounding the Earth
,Mantle - Answer The thick shell of dense, rocky matter that surrounds the core
Outer Core - Answer A liquid layer about 2300 km thick and composed of iron and nickle
that lies above Earth's solid inner core and below it's mantle
Plate tectonic system - Answer Hot matter from mantle rises causing plates to form and
diverge. So wherever that plate converges a cooled plate is dragged underneath it. It
then sinks, warms and rises again
Principle of uniformitarianism - Answer The same external and internal processes we
recognize in action today have been operating unchanged, though at different rates,
throughout most of the Earth's history
Scientific method - Answer Question or Observe, Hypothesis, Experiment, Analyze Data,
and create conclusion
Goal for GLY2010: Explain how the universe works
Seismic wave - Answer An elastic wave in the earth produced by an earthquake or other
earth vibrations that travel through earth's SA.
Topography - Answer The relief and form of the land , Earth is about 20 km from highest
to lowest
Earth's layers: - Answer
Continental drift - Answer The slow, lateral movements of continents across the surface
of earth
"jig-saw puzzle" fit of continents(Alfred Wagner)
Examples: South Africa
Convergent boundary - Answer The destructive plate boundary because two plates are
moving towards each other and collide
3 TYPES:
Ocean-ocean: oceanic trench, volcanic island arc and deep earthquakes(created
Mariana Islands&Trench)
Ocean-continent:Volcanic mountain chain, folded mountains and deep
earthquakes(Andes mountains)
Continent-Continent:crustal thickening, folded mountains and earthquakes(Himalayan
mountains)
Divergent boundary - Answer Plates move away from each other and new crust is
forming from magma that rises to the Earth's surface between the two plates
2 TYPES:
, Oceanic plate separation:rifting, volcanoes, and earthquakes(Mid-Atlantic Ridge)
Continental plate separation:rift valleys, volcanoes, and earthquakes(East African Rift
Valley)
Island arc - Answer An arcuate chain of stratovolcanoes parallel to a sea-floor trench
and separated from it by a distance of 150 to 300 km
Isochron - Answer A line on a diagram or map connecting points relating to the same
time or equal times
Magnetic anomaly - Answer Seafloor areas of high and low magnetic values, as well as,
the symmetry around mid-ocean ridges
Magnetic time scale - Answer N/A
Mantle plume - Answer A large column of hot rock rising through the mantle, so the
rocks in the lithosphere melt
Mid-ocean ridge - Answer Continuous rocky ridges on the ocean floor, caused by
seafloor spreading
Pangaea - Answer The name given to a super-continent that formed by collision of all the
continental crust during the late Paleozoic (240 Ma formation began - then break up
started at 200Ma ago at the opening of the Atlantic ocean)
Plate tectonics - Answer The special branch of tectonics that deals with the processes
by which the lithosphere is moved laterally over the athenosphere
Relative plate velocity - Answer The motion of one lithospheric plate relative to another
(d/t)
EXAMPLES:
San Andreas Fault, western US-50mm/yr
South Atlantic(Mid-Atlantic Ridge)-34 to 35mm/yr
East Pacific Rise(Pacific and Nazca plates)-138 to 150mm/yr
Rodinia - Answer The supercontinent that formed and broke up in the
Neoproterozoic(1100 to 75Ma), which contained almost all of Earth's landmass
Seafloor spreading - Answer A process in which new ocean floor is created as molten
material from the earth's mantle rises in margins b/w plates or ridges and spreads out
Spreading center - Answer A linear zone in the sea floor along which magma rises and
from which adjacent plates are moving apart
Subduction - Answer The process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which
one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate and sinks into the mantle as the