Exam 1: Introducing Geology, the Essentials of Plate Tectonics, and Other Important Concepts

Geology uses the scientific method to explain natural aspects of the Earth.

The Earth is about 4.6 billion years old.

The North American Plate is all on one plate.

The _______ collectively make up the lithosphere.

Ocean - ocean plate convergence formed major mountain belts such as the Andes and Cascades.

A hypothesis that passes repeated tests ultimately becomes __.

A _____, by scientists definition, is something that has been overwhelmingly verified.

Disintegration of rock at Earth's surface may be facilitated by water __.

Eruptive activity at the summit of the Nevada del Ruiz volcano in Colombia in 1985 caused snow and ice to melt, generating a ___ that killed 23,000 people in the village of Armero.

A _____ is a scientific concept that has been tested and is in all likelihood true.

A tsunami has a small wave height, travels rapidly, and is not noticed by people in boats.

After data have been analyzed, tentative explanations or solutions called _____ may be proposed.

The Earth's interior heat engine works because hot buoyant material deep within the Earth _______ while cold denser material _______.

Fossil evidence indicates that complex life forms, capable of generating easily fossilized hard parts like shells or bones, have existed in abundance on Earth since approximately ___ years ago.

The _____ of old seafloor takes place at convergent boundaries.

Plate tectonics is a unifying idea that helps explain where and why there are ___ on Earth.

_______ takes place where moving water, ice, and wind loosen and remove material on the continents.

We depend on geologists for the raw materials we need for survival.

To understand geology one must understand how the solid Earth interacts with water, air, and living organisms. For this reason, it is useful to think of Earth as being part of a ____.

The Earth can be considered as interrelated systems or spheres.