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109 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
The heat that transformed the Earth early in its history came primarily from all but which of the following? |
magnetic energy |
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Which of the following is NOT a basic tenet of plate tectonics? |
-Melted asthenosphere flows upward as magma and cools to form new ocean floor lithosphere. -The new lithosphere slowly moves laterally away from the zones of oceanic crust formation on top of the underlying asthenosphere (seafloor spreading). -When the leading edge of a moving slab of oceanic lithosphere collides with another slab, the older, colder, denser slab turns downward and is pulled by gravity back into the asthenosphere (subduction), while the less-dense, more buoyant slab overrides it. The slab pulled into the asthenosphere begins the process of melting and moves into the liquid core. -The slab pulled into the asthenosphere begins the process of reabsorption into the mantle. |
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The return period of a disaster is the average number of years ________________. |
between same-sized events |
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Most of the more-developed countries have _________________. |
low death rates and low birth rates |
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During the last half of the 20th century, earthquakes, tsunami, and ______________ account for the majority of deaths from natural disasters. |
typhoon |
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Easter Island is _________________. |
an isolated volcanic island located in the Pacific Ocean |
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As radioactive atoms decay, energy is _________. |
released |
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The growth rate of the world population equals ______________. |
the birth rate minus the death rate |
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Using the rule of 70, a population growth rate of 2% annually will result in doubling a population in __________ years. |
35 |
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At present, the world population of humans grows by over ______ million per year. |
80 |
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The slide-past motions of long transform faults occur in all but which of the following? |
-In the northeastern Pacific as the Queen Charlotte fault, located near a sparsely populated region of Canada. -Along the San Andreas Fault in California with its famous earthquakes. -At the southwestern edge of the Pacific Ocean where the Alpine fault cuts across the South Island of New Zealand. Where the Indian subcontinent touches Asia. |
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Which of the following disasters has the highest probability of causing a "1,000-fatality event" each year? |
a hurricane |
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The present human population of the world is a little more than ____________. |
6 billion |
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During prosperous times, the Easter Islanders' diet was based on _______________. |
chicken and yams |
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Based on insurance industry records of economic loss from natural disasters, 32 of the 40 most expensive disasters between 1970 and 2012 were __________________ and floods. |
storms |
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The _________ explains that sediments (such as sands, gravels, and muds) are originally deposited or settled out of water in horizontal layers. |
law of original horizontality |
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_________ waves travel only through solids; on reaching liquid or gas, the _______ wave energy is reflected back into rock or is converted to another form. |
S- |
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Tsunami wavelengths can be as great as ____________. |
840km |
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A ____________ is an oscillating wave that sloshes back and forth within an enclosed body of waters such as a sea, bay, lake, or swimming pool. |
seiche |
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Tsunami are typically about _____ high in the open ocean, and 6-15 m high on reaching shallow water. |
1m |
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Geologists have shown that the east coast of the United States faces a serious tsunami threat from ________. |
volcanic flank collapse in the Canary Islands |
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________ faults are commonly found at areas of plate convergence where subduction or continental collision occurs. |
reverse |
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Detailed mapping of the ocean bottom around the Hawaiian Islands revealed a previously unrecognized tsunami source. What did geologists discover on the seafloor in this area? |
slumps and debris avalanches formed by volcanic flank collapse |
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The reduction of ______ waves at the core-mantle boundary indicates that the outer core is mostly liquid. |
S- |
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The Richter Scale is set up so that for every _______ increase in the amplitude of the recorded seismic wave, the Richter magnitude increases one number, e.g., from 4 to 5. |
ten-fold |
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Earthquake-related tsunami are created by sub-sea fault movements with pronounced vertical offsets of the sea floor. Such movements occur most commonly along __________________. |
subduction zones |
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The intensity of an earthquake is influenced by all but which one of the following? |
the presence of people to record their innermost feelings |
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The deadly 1992 tsunami in Papua New Guinea was caused by ________. |
an undersea landslide triggered by an earthquake |
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The _____ wave travels fastest and moves in a push-pull fashion of alternating pulses of compression (push) and extension (pull). |
P- |
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The captain of a ship tells you that he once experienced a huge tsunami while sailing in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles from any landmass. You decide that this sounds a little farfetched because __________________. |
tsunami are rarely felt in deep water because they have long wavelengths and low heights |
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Which state accounts for the greatest percentage of all U.S. earthquakes of magnitude 3.5 and above? |
Alaska |
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Prehistoric earthquakes may be interpreted using faulted pond sediments. The amount of offset of sediment layers from one earthquake is proportional to the ________________. |
earthquake magnitude |
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When is the best time for an earthquake to occur in California to minimize loss of life? |
during the night, when most people are home and asleep |
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The Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee __________________. |
are pull-apart basins and the result of strike-slip motion |
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Which of the following is NOT a divergent margin? |
Aleutian Island Arc |
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Paleoseismologic analysis of trenches cut across faults and folds in the New Madrid, Missouri, area has led the U.S. Geological Survey to forecast a 25-40% chance of a magnitude ______ earthquake here within the next 50 years. |
6 to 7 |
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The New Madrid earthquakes are apparently related to ______________. |
an old buried rift zone |
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Earthquakes in Hawaii are mostly related to ________________. |
movement of volcanic magma beneath the ground |
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The Pacific plate subducts along _________ edges and creates enormous earthquakes, such as the 1923 Tokyo seism. |
its northern and western |
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Another class of active faults is created by southern California pushing into the "Big Bend" of the San Andreas fault. These faults are __________________. |
mostly east-west-oriented thrust faults (reverse faults) |
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When the part of California west of the San Andreas fault plows into Alaska it _______________. |
will become part of Alaska's southern margin |
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Shallow subduction zone earthquakes occur __________________. |
-In the upper portion of the down-going plate -At the bend in the subducting plate -In the overriding plate All of these are correct. |
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Recent work has shown that the last major earthquake in the Cascadia subduction zone occurred about 9 p.m. on 26 January 1700 and was about magnitude 9. This is known by __________________. |
analysis of annual growth rings in trees of downed forests along the Oregon-Washington-British Columbia coast showing no rings after 1699 and Tsunami of 2-m (7-ft) height that hit Japan from midnight to dawn pointing to a 9 p.m. earthquake along the Washington-Oregon coast on 26 January 1700 are correct |
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If Alaska and California are ignored, the list of 10 largest U.S. earthquakes shows ____________. |
10 events affecting at least 10 different states |
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We know that the part of California on the Pacific plate will not break off in a giant earthquake and sink into the Pacific Ocean because ______________________. |
of isostasy |
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The Houston-Galveston, Texas, area has been sinking. This is related to the _______________. |
withdrawal of groundwater by pumping |
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The most famous of all volcanoes probably is Vesuvius, and the most famous of its eruptions are those of 79 C.E., which buried the cities of ____________. |
Pompeii and Herculaneum |
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Silicon and oxygen link up to form the silicon-oxygen ______________. |
tetrahedron |
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Catastrophic subsidence into sinkholes tends to occur more often in areas underlain by ________________. |
acidic freshwater flowing through limestone |
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The typical trend in a rising plume of subduction-zone magma is to increase ____________. |
-the percentage of SiO2 -the viscosity -the explosive potential of the magma by holding in the gases more tightly All of the choices are correct. |
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In August 1986, a gigantic volume of gas belched forth from Lake Nyos in Cameroon and swept down the adjacent valleys asphyxiating 1700 people. The gas was _____________. |
carbon dioxide |
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In 1883, this volcano exploded and the resulting tsunami killed 36,000 people on Java and Sumatra. |
Krakatau |
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If basaltic lava reaches the sea or a lake, it cools rapidly into ____________. |
pillow lava |
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____________ in the Aegean Sea underwent an explosive series of eruptions around 1628 B.C.E. that buried the Bronze Age city of Akrotiri on Thera to depths of 70 meters. |
Santorini |
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Areas of geyser activity include _______. |
-Iceland -Yellowstone Park in the United States -North Island of New Zealand -Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia All of these are correct. |
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In ________________, masses move down and out by sliding on planes of weakness, such as faults, bedding, or clay rich layers. |
translational slides |
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The energy behind the 1902 pyroclastic flow that destroyed St. Pierre came from _________________. |
-the blast of the volcano -gravity -gas escaping from pieces of airborne pyroclastic material, creating a "popcorn" effect All of the choices are correct. |
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On 20 February 1943, a new volcano, a scoria cone, was born when an eruption rose up through a farm field near a village in Mexico. The volcano is ________________. |
Paricutin |
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In 1985, this volcano produced a minor eruption that melted part of a glacier near its summit, sending a lahar down its slopes and killing at least 22,000 people: |
Nevado Del Ruiz, Colombia |
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Some of Earth's most beautiful mountains are ________, including Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mt. Shasta in California, Mt. Rainier in Washington, and Mt. Fuji in Japan. |
stratovolcanoes |
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The inside of a tornado funnel has ____________________. |
low atmospheric pressure |
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The Little Ice Age that affected Europe from about ___________ lowered average annual temperature by only about 1?C but was enough to reduce crop yields, cause mountain glaciers to advance, and produce winters much more severe than in the twentieth century. |
1400 to 1900 C.E. |
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Conditions necessary to turn an ordinary thunderstorm into a tornado-spinning monster include _______________. |
-a low-altitude, northerly flow of warm, humid, tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico -a cold, dry air mass moving down from Canada or out of the Rocky Mountains at > 50 mph -jet-stream winds racing east at speeds in excess of 150 mph All of the choices are correct. -a low-altitude, northerly flow of warm, humid, tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico and a cold, dry air mass moving down from Canada or out of the Rocky Mountains at > 50 mph only |
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During the 20th century, the average global surface temperature rose ______. |
0.6?C |
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One of the greatest weather disasters in U.S. history occurred during the ______, when several years of drought turned grain-growing areas in the center of the nation into the "Dust Bowl." |
1930s |
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The polar jet stream flows from west to east, under the influence of the Earth's rotation, in ____________________. |
both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres |
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In the United States, total deaths from lightning per decade have _________________ since the 1940s. |
been decreasing steadily |
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Ascending air at the equator and descending air around 30?N and S latitudes create semicircular air circulation routes known as ___________________. |
Hadley cells |
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Which of the following types of severe weather results in the highest average annual death toll in the United States? |
Heat |
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The basic sequence within a lightning flash includes all but which of the following? |
Static electricity builds up within the lower thundercloud and induces identical-polarity charges on the ground. |
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The fraction of solar energy reflected back to space due to Earth's cloudiness or snow and ice cover is known as ______________. |
albedo |
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The greenhouse effect results in ________________. |
global warming |
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Many of the United States' and world record rainfalls in the 1- to 24-hour range were established during thunderstorms in ______________. |
Texas |
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The "White Hurricane" of 1993 was an immense winter cyclone that covered the eastern United States, causing $800 million in damage and 238 deaths. The hardest hit area was |
Florida |
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The major factors in glacial periods lasting tens of millions of years appear to be ____________________. |
Both having one or more large continental masses near the poles and oceanic circulation that is more longitudinal (north-south) than latitudinal (east-west) are correct. |
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The air in the eye of a hurricane ______________________. |
sinks, warms, and absorbs moisture, leaving the core clear and cloud-free |
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During the great flood of July 1993, the southeastern United States experienced ________________. |
persistent high atmospheric pressure and a flood. |
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When flooding occurs along a river, as you go farther downstream _________________. |
the flooding gets less severe as water spreads out in time and space |
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Most flood-related deaths in the United States are caused by __________________. |
flash floods from local thunderstorms |
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The "channeled scablands" of the state of Washington were caused by _________________. |
the failure of an ice dam during glacial melting |
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A braided stream has ____________. |
too much sediment to carry |
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A hurricane is defined as a large area of sustained winds greater than 74 miles per hour. This is the wind speed at which ______________________. |
the center of the storm develops a calm area known as the eye |
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If a stream is choked with sediment and has insufficient water to carry it away _______________. |
the water will pick its way through as a braided stream |
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Which of the following conditions led to the 1993 flood in the midcontinental United States? |
the jet stream locked in place over north-central plains for an unusually long time |
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Hydrographs from urban settings _____________________. |
Both show higher rates of runoff than rural settings, for a given precipitation event and show floods are of shorter duration than in rural settings, for a given precipitation event are correct |
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What is the probability that a 100-year flood will occur at least once in 100 years? |
63 percent |
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If a flood has a recurrence interval of ten years, it means ____________________. |
that in any given year a similar flood has a 1/10 chance of occurring |
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Which of the following is a rotating, low-pressure weather system with a warm core that generally forms over warm seawater between 5? and 20? latitude and then travels off to deliver its heat to higher latitudes? |
-hurricanes -typhoons -southern hemisphere cyclones All of the choices are correct. |
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Why are floods so common along the Red River of the North (in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota)? |
-The Red River valley is geologically young (about 9000 years old) and has not carved a deep valley. -The gradient or slope of the riverbed is very low. -River flow increases as winter snow melts and meltwater runs northward into still frozen parts of the river. All of these choices are correct. |
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Between 1960 and 2009, floods in the United States produced an average of _______ in damage per year. |
$6.76 billion |
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In the photosynthesis reaction in plants, ________ is given off as a by-product of the reaction. |
oxygen |
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Mistakes, or "how to sacrifice your house to the fire gods" include _______________. |
-locating your house on a slope -constructing your house of wood -having a roof made of flammable wood shingles -allowing tree limbs to hang over the roof All of these choices are correct. |
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Longshore drift: |
acts like an offshore river |
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The organic debris left on the ground after logging or windstorms is called _____________. |
slash |
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Chinook winds and Santa Ana winds are _____________. |
warm, dry winds |
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In effect, the solar energy stored by plants during their growth is _________________. |
returned to the atmosphere during fire |
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Pyrolysis results in emanation of all but which of the following? |
oxygen |
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Groins are: |
wave enhancers |
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Newton showed that differential tidal forces are inversely proportional to the ________ of the distance between them. |
cube |
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Fire produces _______________. |
carbon dioxide and water vapor |
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During burning, the chemical structure of solid wood breaks apart and yields ________________. |
-flammable hydrocarbon vapors -water vapor -tar -mineral residues All of these choices are correct. |
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Heat-expanded air _________________. |
is less dense than cool air |
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In Mediterranean climates such as in the Californias, Australia, and South Africa, frequent wildfire is necessary for the health of natural plant communities because ___________________. |
many of the plant species must have the smoke and/or heat of fire to germinate their seeds, it helps to control parasites and it influences insect behavior are correct |
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The spread of fire depends on behavior within the fire itself and on __________________. |
the types of fuel, weather and topography are correct |
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Pyrolysis of cellulose produces which of the following? |
water vapor |
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Return Period |
or recurrence interval, which is the number of years between same-sized events |
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Radioactive dating |
is a technique used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, usually based on a comparison between the observed abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay products, using known decay rates. |
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Epicenter |
The point on the surface of the Earth directly above a fault movement (i.e., earthquake location) |
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Pangaea |
"super continent" |