| Term | Definition |
|---|
| mass extinction | A _____ ______ is a crisis that affects life right across the planet from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains |
| biosphere | the _____ is a thin layer of life that exists on the surface of the planet that interacts with the hydrosphere (oceans, lakes and rivers), the atmosphere, and the lithosphere (the Earth's crust). |
| superposition | the principle of ______ is a fundamental principle of stratigraphy that states in a succession of layered rocks, the rock layer at the bottom of the pile will be the oldest and the layer at the top the youngest. |
| faunal succession | the principle of ______ ______ was devised by William Smith in 1799 who recognized that strata of like age can be recognized by the fossils they contain even if the outcrops of strata are separated by large distances geographically |
| biostratigraphy | Using the appearance and disappearance of fossils to subdivide geological time is the science of _______ |
| eras | ____ are broad subdivisions that represent a grouping of geological periods when there has been a major change in the Earth's biosphere |
| periods | The base of all _____ is defined on the emergence or radiation of new species |
| 30 | extinction - at least ___% of Earth's species must be lost |
| competition, predation, pathogens | The three main modes of a biologically induced extinction |
| pathogens | disease being introduced to an area by incoming plants or animals |
| climate | changes in ocean cyclicity, sea level, atmosphere and ____ are earth based causes of mass extinctions |
| diversity | extinction - The greater the landmass the lower the _____ |
| permo-triassic | the _____-______ extinction was the worst "day" for the bio-sphere 251 million years ago, during this time 95-98% of all species went extinct |
| K/T | during the ____ extinction event, on land few creatures over 25 kg in weight would survive, and 80-90% of marine species would go extinct |
| iridium | ______ is known to exist in higher concentrations in extra-terrestrial objects such as asteroids |
| ferns | _____ are often the first plants to colonize a landscape that has been devastated by fire |
| tektites | _____ are thought to be produced during an impact event, they are composed of natural glass, As it travels through the air and cools, it forms characteristic aerodynamic shapes |
| acid rain | High-energy blasts can cause oxygen to combine with nitrogen to form oxides of nitrogen, when these are dissolved in water it forms ____ _____ |
| chicxulub | global temperature change and acid rain were two long term effects from the _____ impact |
| comets | _____ are essentially material left over from the formation of the solar system and are composed of icy material and other debris - effectively "dirty snowballs" in space |
| kuiper | The _____ belt exists in an area from about the orbit of Neptune to about 50 au's out (1 au = 150 million kilometres), and may contain 1 billion comets that are greater than 5 km in diameter |
| oort | The _____ cloud is a cloud of comets that exists way beyond the Kuiper belt and is only weakly associated with our Sun, and may have more than 200 comets with a diameter greater than 500 km with many smaller but still significant in size |
| asteroids | ______ are mostly found in a belt between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter, some are solid, rocky to metallic while others are little more than "rubble piles" in space |
| planet x | two hypotheses put forward for the mass extinction events that occur every 25-26 million years are the Nemesis companion star and ____ _ |
| torino | the ____ scale assesses and communicates the potential threat of near earth objects |
| fragmentation | an impact mitigation strategy - which involves the destruction an approaching impactor with nuclear weapons is ______ |
| orbit | an impact mitigation strategy - sudden _____ adjustment would involve exploding a nuclear warhead in front or on the surface of an approaching body to adjust its trajectory so it is no longer an impact threat |
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