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

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

A transform plate boundary occurs where two plates converge.

The _______ is the most voluminous of the Earth's three major concentric zones.

A hypothesis that passes repeated tests ultimately becomes __.

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 two major types of crust are oceanic crust and __.

Rocks brought to the earth's surface by internal processes are worn down, and eroded by surficial processes.

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.

Earth's lithosphere is made up of the uppermost part of the mantle and crust.

The ____ is soft and therefore flows more readily than the underlying mantle.

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

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, floods, and tsunamis are all examples of:

The mantle is the most voluminous of Earth's three major concentric zones.

With the cementation of loose particles sediment becomes ______.

A(n) ___ may eventually be formed as layers of sediment are buried by subsequent layers of sediment.

The Earth is about 4.6 billion years old.

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

Earth's external heat engine is driven by __.

Sedimentary rock that becomes deeply buried may be transformed by heat and pressure into _______ rock.

The concept of plate tectonics regards the earth's ___ as broken into a number of ___ that are in motion relative to each other.