Earth Science Reviewer PDF
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This document provides a review of Earth science topics, including exogenic and endogenic processes, weathering, erosion, and folding.
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Earth Science Reviewer Hydrolysis - acidic water breakdown rocks into clay and soluble salts Exogenic And Endogenic Process Oxidation - reaction of a substance with...
Earth Science Reviewer Hydrolysis - acidic water breakdown rocks into clay and soluble salts Exogenic And Endogenic Process Oxidation - reaction of a substance with oxygen Exogenic Process - happens at / near the Earth’s surface Biological Weathering - animals, plants, - driven by gravitational and/or atmospheric microorganisms, and humans help in forces weathering through mechanical process Weathering - process where rocks, soil, and Biological Activity minerals are broken down into pieces Plant roots - Grow into rocks as they search for dissolved minerals Types of weathering: Burrowing animals - dig tunnels, moving Physical / mechanical weathering: fresh materials to the surface process that breaks rocks apart without changing their chemical composition. Decayed animals and plants produce acid Frost Wedging / Freeze-Thaw - repeated that wear down the rock freezing and melting of water within small narrow crack or space in the rock Agents of Weathering surface Water - break rocks in different ways Salt crystal growth - formed from water Wind - It carries sand or small rock evaporation from pore spaces or cracks particles that scratch rocks’ surface in rocks can cause the rock to fall apart Temperature - repeated expansion and contraction of rocks due to temperature Abrasion - wearing away of rocks by result changes constant collision of loose particles Plants - grow on rocks causing them to Thermal Expansion - due to variation in break into pieces the temperature , it is broken into pieces Animals - causes rocks to break into as a result of gradual contraction and pieces As they dig expansion Human - Subdivision developers flatten Pressure - rock breaks when the layer hills and mountains to build houses above it is removed due to decreased of mining companies, dig into the ground pressure to get rocks and stones Chemical Weathering: Factors Affecting Weathering - Changes the molecular structure of Climate - Mechanical and chemical rocks and soil. weathering is more effective and rapid - Rocks are either dissolved or in regions with high temperature decomposes Rock type - rocks have different degree Solution or dissolution of resistance - when acidic rainwater dissolves Slope - Weathering is faster in steeper minerals in rock. slope - Sometimes called carboniation Rock Structure - Rock cracks make it - Bicarbonate: dominant ion in surface easier for weathering to happen runoff, formed when co2 released from soil mixes with water Mass Wasting - Movement of large Fold - formed when the earth’s crust is fragment of rocks down the slope due to pushed up from its sides gravity Types Of Fold: Erosion - soil and rock 1. Anticline - tectonic plate is compressed particles are worn and moved away by the by movement of other plates wind, water, or ice. 2. Syncline - the plate bends in a Deposition - process where sediments are downward motion dropped off by agents of erosion 3. Tight fold - a sharp peaked anticline or syncline Agents of Erosion 4. Overfold - folding rock becomes bent or Water - wear away rocks the the force of warped the flow and chemicals in it 5. Recumbent fold - tightly compressed Wind - Loose rock and soil particles are that it's no longer vertical carried away by wind 6. Nappe Folding - similar to recumbent Glaciers - Large mass of ice and snow fold, this becomes overturned that rock shapes the landscape as they move layer become fractured Gravity - a major force that drives erosion and deposition Stress - force that acts on rock to change its shape or volume Endogenic Process - occur beneath the surface of the earth Compression - Stress that squeezes rock - associated with the energy originating in until its folds or breaks the interior of the solid earth Tension - Stress that stretches rocks so that Fault - crack/fracture in the earth’s crust it becomes thinner in the middle Types Of Fault: Shearing - Stress that pushes a mass of Reverse - hanging wall move upward rock in opposite, horizontal directions Normal - hanging wall move downward Strike-slip - slide past each other Metamorphism - internal process of the earth and occurs as a result of changes in Earthquake - shaking/trembling of the Earth temperature and/or pressure that often causes great damage Continental Drift Theory And Seafloor Spreading 7 Continents 1. North America 2. South America 3. Europe 4. Asia 5. Africa 6. Australia 7. Antarctica 5 major Ocean Pangaea - was surrounded by a global 1. Pacific ocean ocean called Panthalassa 2. Atlantic ocean 3. Indian Ocean Evidences of Continental Drift Theory: 4. Arctic Ocean 1. The apparent fit of the continents 5. Southern Ocean - The continental Jigsaw Puzzle - The coastlines of continents seem Plate Tectonic Theory to fit together like puzzle pieces - a theory explaining the structure of the - The fit is even better when earth’s crust and; submerged coastlines are examined. - that earth's lithospheric plates move 2. Fossil Correlation slowly over the underlying mantle causing 3. Rock and Mountain Correlation various geologic phenomena 4. Paleoclimate Data/Past Climate Data - Coal beds formed from the Reasons why plates move: compaction and decay of ancient - Earth's plate move along convection swamp plants are found in various currents in the mantle continents, including South America, Ridge Push Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and even - result of the gravitational force that Antarctica affects young, raised oceanic lithosphere - Glaciations were found in Africa, at mid-ocean ridges and causing it to South America, India and Australia slide downhill, pushing weaker asthenosphere away Wegener’s problem - as new seafloor is formed at mid-ocean - could not find the force that was ridge, old seafloor is destroyed at the causing the continents to drift subduction zone. - can't convince anyone that continents could move Subduction zones - places where plates - he died in Greenland on an expedition, collide and no one believed his hypothesis at the Mid ocean range - Earth’s longest mountain time range underwater Supercontinent cycle Sonar - device that bounces sound waves - quasi-periodic process where Earth's off underwater objects to map underwater continental crust aggregates into a single features like ocean-ridges landmass and then disperses Submersibles - a complete cycle takes 300-500 million - small underwater craft used for deep- years sea research. Seafloor Spreading - continuous process - equipped with instruments to collect where tension forces the plates to move data and record videos and photos of apart previously unknown deep-sea creatures Seafloor Spreading Theory Continental Drift theory - states that all - Proposed by Harry Hess and Robert continents were once connected as a single Dietz in the early 1960's landmass and have drifted apart since. - Hot, less dense material from the earth’s crust rises towards the surface at Wegener named this supercontinent the mid-ocean ridge Pangaea - Material flows sideways carrying the Ocean basin - form as ocean crust seafloor away from the ridge, and creates stretches and splits, allowing mantle a crack in the crust material and magma to rise and create new - Magma flows out of the crack, cools oceanic lithosphere. down and becomes the new seafloor Structure of Ocean Basin: Seafloor spreading also pulls the continents 1. Continental Margins - include of Australia, South America, and antarctica continental rise, continental shelf and away from each other in the East Pacific continental slope Rise 2. Deep Sea floor - include abyssal hill, abyssal plain, seamount, guyots, East Pacific Rise - one of the most active trenches, volcanic island and sites of seafloor spreading, with more than submarine ridge 14 centimeters every year 3. Mid-Oceanic Ridge Systems - include Additional information: mountain chains called oceanic ridges - The rate of new seafloor formation and and rift valley destruction of the old seafloor is not constant Evolution of Ocean basins - If subduction is faster than the seafloor Wilson Cycle spreading, the ocean shrinks, - Proposed by John Tuzo Wilson - if the seafloor spreading is greater than - The cyclical opening and closing of the subduction, the ocean gets wider ocean - This explains why the basins caused by movement of Earth’s Pacific ocean is getting smaller and why plates the atlantic ocean is getting wider Embryonic - Rift valley forms as continent begins to split Structure And Evolution Example: African Rift Lakes Of Ocean Basin Juvenile/Young - Sea-floor basalts begin forming and continents diverge Evolution of ocean basin through plate Example: Red Sea movement Mature - Broad ocean basins, when trenches develop, subductions begins Example: Atlantic ocean Declining - Subduction eliminates much of sea-floor and oceanic ridge Example: Pacific ocean Terminal - last of sea-floor is eliminated, continents collide formation mountain chain Example: Mediterranean sea Suturing - Convergence of continental plates and plates to form mountain rage Example: Himalayas Abraham Gottlob Werner: the Father of German Geology - proposed Neptunism: the idea that all Earth's rocks formed from a all- encompassing ocean. - He applied the Principle of Superposition and was able to subdivide rock record into time units (primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary) William 'Strata' Smith - while working in a coal mine, he observed that different rock layers contain distinct fossil assemblages, which can be used to correlate rock units over long distances. Introduction To Earth's History - He also noted that these fossils occur in a specific vertical order. Geologic Time Scale - chronology of events from the past shown in the Earth’s timeline Charles Lyell a British lawyer and geologist: - used fossils to subdivide geologic time. Radioisotopic | Radiometric dating: - Lyell subdivided the Tertiary period by determines the age of fossils and rocks by analyzing the ratio of living to extinct measuring the ratio of radioactive isotopes fossils in rock layers. to their decay products, taking half-life values into consideration Geologic time scale: Half-life - time required for an isotope to Pre-cambrian time lose half of its radioactivity - also called Cryptozoic Era sometimes called the eon of hidden Time intervals: - photosynthetic microorganisms helped Eon — Era — Period — Epoch build up oxygen forming the protective ozone layer Significant Personalities To The Development Of GTS: 3 Eons Under Pre-cambrian: Nicholas Steno 1. Hadean eon (4.5 - 4.0 billion years ago) - One of the first to recognized the - chaotic time due to asteroid and connection between rocks and time and meteorite bombardment proposed the Steno principles: - start of the hydrologic cycle and the superposition, original horizontality, formation of the world oceans lateral continuity, and cross-cutting - life emerged relationships. 2. Archean eon (4.0 - 2.5 billion years ago) - These principles are fundamental to - meteorite impact slowed down, earth stratigraphy cooled , clouds formed and the crust began to harden - anaerobic (lack oxygen) - no ozone - photosynthetic bacteria called I.5 Carboniferous period stromatolites (blue green algae) emerged -climate was tropical and humid. and started releasing oxygen - Rapid evolution and diversification of - life forms are still limited to prokaryotes insects begun leading to the appearance until 2.7 Ga when Eukaryotes emerged of giant cockroaches and dragonflies I.6 Permian period 3. Proterozoic eon - two groups of reptiles dominated the - Oxygen level reaches ~3% of the earth: atmosphere diapsids (reptiles that gave rise to - Rise of multicellular organisms dinosaurs) represented by the Vendian fauna synapsids (reptiles that gave rise to - protective ozone layer forms mammals) Phanerozoic eon II. Mesozoic era "Middle Life" Era (538 million rears ago to the present) (252 - 66 million years ago) - current and the latest eons in the GTS - life diversified rapidly and giant reptiles - Eon of “visible life” like dinosaurs roamed the Earth. - Diversification of life - known as the age of reptiles or the age - Many life forms are represented in fossil of dinosaurs. records - divided into three major periods; I. Paleozoic era “age of the ancient life” Jurassic, Triassic and Cretaceous. - lasted about 300 million years. - pine trees and redwoods flourished, and - flourishing of marine life begun. flowering plants began to appear which I.1 Cambrian period helped hasten diversity of insects. - marine organisms appeared - major development was the ability of Other significant events during this organisms to create protective shells mesozoic: Pangaea starts to break-apart by 200 I.2 Ordovician period MA - known for its marine invertebrates. Early mammals (220 Ma) - marks the earliest appearance of the First birds (150 Ma) agnatha, jawless fish. First flowering plants (130 Ma) - marked by the appearance of first Mass extinction at the end of the vertebrates. Cretaceous (65 Ma) I.3 Silurian period - terrestrial life emerged III. Cenozoic era - known for the development of plants (65 million years ago - present) with well-structured vascular system - Known as: age of mammals, age of -common organisms are the air-breathing recent life, age of flowering plants scorpions and millipedes. - divided into 2 periods and 7 epochs I.4 Devonian period “age of fishes” - temperature dropped leading to ice age - Cartilaginous fish such as sharks and - sea level lowered forming land bridges rays were common by the late Devonian. that enables human migration - Amphibians made their appearance during this period. Other significant events during cenozoic: These rocks often contains fossils, and can Radiation of modern birds be exposed on land due to changes in sea Early primates (60 Ma) level and tectonic activity. Continents near present-day positions (40 Ma) Rocks And Layers First hominids (5.2 Ma) Modern humans (0.2 Ma) Sedimentary rocks - form from particles like Global ice ages begin (2 Ma) sand, mud, and organic matter. These particles settle and harden over time: Gravel becomes conglomerate; sand becomes sandstone; mud becomes mudstone or shale; plant and animal remains can become fossils Importance: each layer of rocks could represent a slice of time Dating methods Dating - used to identify the age of materials such as rocks Relative dating - method that determines the age of an object or event compared to others - not specific/exact Law of Superposition - younger rocks lie above older rocks if Stratified Rock Formation the layers have not been disturbed. Strata - layers of sedimentary rock - younger on top, older on bottom Nicholas Steno - proposed superposition - Sediments particles end up in the water and begin to settle | Sedimentation Fossil - remains / traces of an organism that lived long ago, preserved in - This sediment particles may bury plants sedimentary rocks. and animals Relative age - With time, more layers pile up and presses down the lower layers | Compaction Principle Of Original Horizontality - states that sediment usually accumulates in - More layers (Strata) and further horizontal layers. Tectonic forces tilted or compaction forces out water of the layers folded rocks into an angle after it was formed. - Salt crystals glue the layers together forming is sedimentary rocks | Cementation Principle Of Superposition - states that sedimentary rocks oldest layer is at the bottom and the youngest layer is at the top, because younger layers of sediment always accumulates on top of older ones Principle Of Crosscutting Relationships - based on the fact that rocks must exist before anything else happened like intrusions or dike-cutting across rocks. - this means that rock layers that cuts across another is younger than the lauer it cuts The Principle Of Faunal Succession - states that species succeeded one another through time in a specific order. - this means that geologists can determine a rock layer's relative age, by identifying the fossils in that layer Principle Of Lateral Continuity - explained that layers of sediment are continuous. - this means that similar rock layers, even if separated by a valley or erosion, were once continuous. Absolute dating - measure the age of an event or object in years. Radiometric Dating - process of determining the age of rocks from the decay of their radioactive elements Isotope - an atom that has different number of neurons than other atoms of the similar elements Radioactive Decay - unstable isotope break down, trying to become stable Unstable isotopes (radioactive) - called parent isotope stable isotopes it produced are called daughter isotope