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EES112- Test1

Terms in this set (49)

The non-plate tectonics interpretation of paleomagnetic data referred to as ___________ eventually led geophysicists to conclude that continents had changed position over time.
apparent polar wander
When a new species originates from two or more individuals of a preexisting species
speciation
the result of particularly extreme impacts of the limiting factors that normally hold populations in check
extinction
According to Darwin, the kinds of individuals that came to predominate as generation followed generation could be said to be
favored by natural selection
the Hawaiian Islands owe their existence to the process of volcanism that is directly related to
a hot spot
magnetization of ancient rocks at the time of their formation
paleomagnetism
Before plate tectonics was accepted, some geologists explained fossil plant and animal similarities between and among continents separated by oceans by invoking the concept of motion called
continental drift
Marine sediment above evaporites in Red Sea deposits indicates that the
Indian Ocean has only recently gained access to the widening Red Sea
Global changes of sea level are termed
eustatic changes
The Milankovitch cycle of change in Earth's rotation that is longest is called
obliquity
three-armed grabens at plate boundaries are called
triple junctions
The origin of Earth's Moon was
the impact of a Mars-sized planet shortly after Earth's accretion
Meteorites consisting of mostly rocky material
stony meteorites
The axial tilt of Earth is likely due to
asteroid impacts
specialized features of animals and plants, which perform one or more useful functions
adaptations
smallest lithostratigraphic unit
member
In Hess' concept of plate tectonic movement, the furrow down the center of the mid-ocean ridges represents
the site of newly formed crust that is moving laterally in different directions
Synclines are characterized by
layers that are concave upward
Maria (seas) on the Moon were formed by
asteroid impacts followed by great lava flows
In the three chemosynthetic reactions, hydrogen oxidation—sulfur reduction, and methane production—__________ is produced
energy
With respect to a typical metamorphic belt, a fold-and-thrust belt lies
toward the continental interior
The origin of Earth's early atmosphere was the due to
degassing of Earth's interior over time
Evidence in the form of __________ allows us to know the age of the universe and distant galaxies
the redshift
The Wopmay orogeny, involving the Slave craton and an island arc, tells us that
Proterozoic orogenies are much like Phanerozoic orogenies
the entire body of rocks formed by piling up along huge thrust faults at subduction zones
Accretionary wedges
A regression might result in a sandy beach deposit (or facies) being deposited over a __________ deposit (or facies)
muddy offshore
Select from those listed below the incorrect reason that Archean rocks are rare on Earth's surface
Archean rocks have plentiful, yet small, index fossils
The main exposed part of the North American craton (Laurentia) that was assembled from at least five microcontinents between 1.95 and 1.85 billion years ago is called the
Canadian Shield
Today, the rate of extinction of species surpasses the great mass extinctions of the geologic past and the largest number of extinctions can be traced to
human destruction of habitats
Using the molecular clock method for determining how long ago two species, A1 and A2, diverged, what would be the time estimate if species A1 differed from species A2 by 20 percent and the mutation rate were 1 percent per million years?
20 million years
The Paleoproterozoic buildup of atmospheric oxygen resulted in
deposition of limestones with isotopically heavy carbon
The Hadean and Archean eons include about _______ percent of Earth's history
45
this characteristic is inconsistent with an index or guide fossil
It is very rare in the stratigraphic record
Increasing area of shallow seafloor during Archean promoted growth of
stromatolites
One of the problems with trying to compute the absolute age of Earth based upon rates of accumulation of sediment is that
the stratigraphic record is full of gaps
provides a means for determining how long an object has been exposed at Earth's surface
cosmogenic dating
the line of intersection between the axial plane and the beds of folded rock
axis of a fold
Alfred Wegener envisioned the concept of a supercontinent of the past
pangaea
remarkably rapid evolutionary expansions of one or more phyla, classes, orders, or families during brief intervals of geologic time
evolutionary radiations
the intracellular body called a chloroplast was originally
a cyanobacterial cell
Strong support for Hess' concept of widening seafloors came in the 1960s when it was recognized that the pattern of Late Cenozoic magnetic reversals determined in terrestrial rocks was evident on the seafloor in the form of
symmetrical patterns of magnetic striping about mid-ocean ridges
reversal in the polarity of Earth's magnetic field provides
accurate temporal correlation in magnetic stratigraphy
Evolutionary convergence within two or more different biological groups, for example, the evolution of __________, is convincing evidence of adaptation in biological forms
marsupial mammals of Australia and the placental mammals of other continents
The strike and dip of a tilted bed are generally
at right angles to each another
The first surface of Earth was likely a
magma ocean
Animals probably originated during
neoproterozoic
what evidence following does not suggest that the Wopmay orogen had the same pattern of formation as a modern orogenic system
Within fold-and-thrust belts, flysch deposits are succeeded upward by shallow-water shelf deposits
If a mineral crystal originally contained 80 atoms of a common, radioactive isotope of uranium after 3 half-lives, how many atoms of the original isotope would remain in the crystal?
10
plate tectonics help explain why
most volcanoes occur along curved belts of seafloor
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