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74 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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The earthquakes and volcanoes of the Pacific "Ring of Fire" are associated with what type of plate boundaries? |
Convergent |
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What is the name of the large supercontinent that existed about 225 million years ago when all the continents were together? |
Pangea |
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The process by which plates separate and oceanic crust is created is called:
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Seafloor spreading |
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New oceanic lithosphere forms at ____________ plate boundaries.
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Divergent |
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The chain of volcanoes that forms at an ocean-ocean convergent plate boundary is referred to as a(n) ___________ arc.
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Island |
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The Red Sea represents a ______________ plate boundary.
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Divergent |
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At a transform boundary, plates _____________ one another.
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Slide past |
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What mountain range did not form as a result of continent-continent collision?
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Andes Mountains |
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Earthquakes are associated with what types of plate boundaries?
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Convergent, divergent, and transform |
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What feature is NOT associated with a divergent plate boundary?
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Deep-sea trenches |
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What type of plate boundary is the San Andreas fault?
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Transform |
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The oldest oceanic rocks are about___ million years old, which records about ___ of Earth history.
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200; 4% |
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Which of the following statements is true?
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Most of the continental crust is older than the oceanic crust.
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What is the name of the ancient ocean that surrounded Pangaea?
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Panthalassa |
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Eduard Seuss proposed that the present-day southern continents once formed a single giant continent that he called:
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Gondwanaland |
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Seafloor spreading refers to:
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Older ocean floor moving away from a mid-ocean ridge with new seafloor forming in the resulting gap.
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What is a not convincing evidence that South America and Africa were once joined as one continent?
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Both continents today have tropical rainforests in some areas and deserts in other areas.
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Three basic types of plate boundaries:
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Divergent, convergent, and transform
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Seafloor spreading occurs along:
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Mid-ocean ridges |
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All plates are bounded by:
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Some combination of divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries.
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Iceland sits atop which type of plate boundary?
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Divergent |
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Where does slip initiate during an earthquake?
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Hypocenter |
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For two earthquakes located the same distance away, the ground shaking produced by a Richter magnitude 4 earthquake would be ___ times greater than the ground shaking produced by a magnitude 3 earthquake.
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10 |
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What type of machine records the seismic waves generated by earthquakes?
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Seismograph |
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At a seismograph station, what types of seismic waves arrive before the surface waves?
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P and S waves |
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What types of seismic waves are compressional waves, like sound waves?
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P waves |
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The time interval between the arrival of the P and S waves can be used to determine the:
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Distance to the earthquake |
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What type of information can be gained by examining the first motion (push or pull) of P waves arriving at different seismograph stations?
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Type of faulting
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About how often do magnitude 8 earthquakes occur?
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Twice a year |
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What major earthquake did NOT occur at a plate boundary?
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1811 New Madrid, Missouri
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Earthquakes that occur along oceanic and continental rift valleys are associated with movement along ___ faults.
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Normal |
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What types of seismic waves are slowest?
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S waves |
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The average time between magnitude 9 earthquakes along the Cascadia subduction zone is approximately every ___ years.
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500-600 |
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The recurrence interval for a seismically active fault is the:
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Number of years required to accumulate the strain necessary to produce an earthquake.
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What is the force per unit area that causes rock to deform?
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Stress |
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The term for the distortion of rock is:
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Strain |
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The geographic point on Earth’s surface directly above where the earthquake slip begins is the:
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Epicenter |
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The type of seismic wave with the highest velocity:
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P wave |
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___________ waves travel through solid, liquid, and gas, whereas ________ waves travel only through solids.
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P; S |
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The most destructive earthquake waves are:
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surface waves traveling through soft sediment |
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The energy released by an earthquake increases ____________ times with each unit of magnitude increase.
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31.5 |
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Determining _______________ requires measuring both amplitude of the greatest wave and distance to the epicenter using the seismograph.
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Richter magnitude
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Why use earthquake moment magnitude rather than Richter magnitude?
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Earthquake moment magnitude can be measured more accurately.
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It would take about ________ magnitude 4 earthquakes to equal the movement of a single magnitude 8 earthquake.
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10,000 |
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The modified Mercalli intensity scale measures:
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seriousness of damage caused by an earthquake.
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First motion at seismographs can be used to determine:
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Fault mechanism |
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Within the San Andreas Fault system the San Gabriel Mountains are uplifted at a strong bend where ____________ movement takes place.
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Thrust |
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Tsunamis are particularly destructive:
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to gently sloping coastal regions. |
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Brick and concrete block buildings are especially susceptible to earthquake damage because these materials:
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are brittle and break apart when shaken.
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Which of the following phrases is NOT part of the definition of a mineral?
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human-made |
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The center of an atom is called a(n):
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nucleus |
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Each element has a unique number of:
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protons |
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The atomic number for oxygen is 8, which means all oxygen atoms have:
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8 protons |
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The atomic mass number of an element is:
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the combined mass of its protons and neutrons
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Saying carbon-12 is a specific isotope of carbon means:
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it is a carbon atom with a mass of 12.
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What is the name for atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons?
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isotopes |
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Solid materials that do not possess an orderly arrangement of atoms are called:
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mineraloids |
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Each element has a unique number of:
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protons |
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The atomic number for iron (Fe) is 26, meaning that iron atoms have ____.
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26 protons |
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Potassium-40 (40K) is a radioactive isotope of Potassium (atomic number 19). How many neutrons are located in the nucleus of Potassium-40?
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21 |
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Thorium-232 (232Th) is a radioactive isotope of Thorium (atomic number 90). How many neutrons are located in the nucleus ofThorium-232?
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90 |
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The atomic number of an element is equal to __________.
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the number protons |
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A break in the Earth's lithosphere along which movement has occurred is known as a ___________.
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fault |
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Extensional faults are also called _______________. |
normal faults |
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Who developed the procedure used to measure the size of an earthquake?
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Charles Richter |
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An earthquake's Richter magnitude is based on ________________________________. |
the amount of ground movement caused by seismic waves. |
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_______________ are the slowest seismic waves. |
Surface waves |
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The energy released during a magnitude 8 earthquake is approximately _______ times larger than the energy released during a magnitude 6. |
1000 |
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What is meant by dip-slip and strike-slip motion? |
Dip slip: motion along the fault is largely VERTICAL
Strike slip: motion along the fault is largely HORIZONTAL |
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What is a hanging wall? |
Block of lithosphere that is ABOVE the fault |
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What is a footwall? |
Block of lithosphere that is BELOW the fault |
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What is the “elastic rebound theory of earthquakes”? |
As two plates try to move past each other pressure or strain energy will build along the fault. |
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What are the different types of seismic waves? |
Body and surface waves |
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How each seismic waves do they differ? |
Body: p- |
