Planet Earth Course (GEOL 110) - Chapter 3

The average weather conditions over a long period of time. This includes temperature, precipitation, humidity, and wind patterns.

Significant variations in Earth's climate over long periods, driven by natural factors like changes in Earth's orbit or volcanic activity.

Factors that influence climate change over long time scales. These include continental movement, ocean formation, mountain building, and volcanic eruptions.

Processes that break down rocks into smaller pieces.

The physical breakdown of rocks into smaller pieces without changing their chemical composition.

The breakdown of rocks by chemical reactions that change their composition.

Mechanical weathering where water freezes in cracks of rocks, expanding and breaking the rock apart.

Periods of Earth's history with widespread glaciation, causing lower sea levels.

Periods of warmer temperatures with higher sea levels due to the melting of glaciers.

Fluctuations in the average height of the ocean surface, influenced by climate change and glacial cycles.

Rocks crack due to rapid temperature changes, creating thermal stresses.

Chemical weathering process where minerals containing iron react with oxygen, forming iron oxides (like rust).

Chemical weathering process where minerals dissolve in acidic rainwater, particularly affecting carbonates like calcite in limestone.

The transportation of weathered material from its original location to a lower elevation by agents like water or wind.

Thicker and less dense than oceanic crust, composed mainly of granite.

Thinner and denser than continental crust, composed mainly of basalt.

Theory explaining the movement of the Earth's crust, composed of large, shifting plates.

The edges of tectonic plates where they interact, causing geological events like earthquakes and volcanoes.

Areas where tectonic plates move apart, creating new oceanic crust.

A line of volcanic activity where magma rises from the Earth's mantle, creating new oceanic crust at divergent plate boundaries.

A dark-colored, fine-grained, volcanic rock that is the primary component of the oceanic crust.

A type of plate boundary where new crust is created, like at divergent boundaries.

Areas where tectonic plates collide, resulting in mountain building, earthquakes, and volcanic activity.

A type of convergent boundary where two continental plates collide, resulting in the formation of mountain ranges.

A type of convergent boundary where an oceanic plate collides with a continental plate, leading to volcanic arcs on land.

A type of convergent boundary where two oceanic plates collide, resulting in the formation of island arcs.

Areas where tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally, creating earthquakes.

A chain of volcanoes formed above a subducting plate at a convergent boundary.

When a denser oceanic plate slides beneath a continental plate, causing the oceanic plate to melt and create volcanic arcs on the continent.

The area where one tectonic plate slides beneath another, causing the denser plate to melt.

A deep, narrow depression in the ocean floor formed at the point where two plates collide.

When two oceanic plates collide, the older, denser one subducts beneath the other, leading to the formation of volcanic islands.

A chain of islands formed by the eruption of volcanoes created by the subduction of an oceanic plate.

A plate boundary where neither crust is created nor destroyed, often associated with transform plate boundaries.

A mountain range formed by the collision of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate.

A supercontinent that existed millions of years ago, containing all the Earth's landmasses.