Exam 23: The Earth’s Interior Revisited: Insights from Geophysics

The Earth's gravity is best represented by an equipotential surface that contains bumps and depressions where areas of higher or lower gravity appear over the Earth.This representation is called the ________.

The time it takes for a seismic wave to travel from the focus of an earthquake to a seismometer is called the ________.

Seismic waves travel ________ in solids than in liquids; however,unlike P-waves,S-waves ________ travel through liquids.

Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii has been erupting large volumes of basaltic lava over the past few decades.Would the magnetic anomaly associated with this recent volcanism be positive or negative? Why?

Which layer of the Earth has the highest density?

Which of the following best describes how scientists study the interior of the Earth?

What causes the velocity of a P-wave to increase when it enters the inner core?

In the picture below,when the ship is filled with cargo it sinks into the water until the mass of water displaced is equal to the mass of the cargo.The ship is then said to be ________.

A positive magnetic anomaly is produced when the measured magnetic field strength is ________ the expected magnetic field strength.

If a P-wave is traveling up toward Earth's surface from a layer of mantle peridotite to a layer of limestone crust,what will happen to the P-wave in terms of speed and direction of motion? Why?

Why would the gravity anomaly over a deep-ocean trench be negative?

In the following graph,why does the line for S-waves NOT appear in the outer core?

Imagine that you are an economic geologist,trying to find copper resources.How might gravity anomalies help you?

Using the graph below,why is the outer core liquid,but the inner core solid?

You are studying the seismic data from Mars when you notice that there are no S-waves recorded from 130° through 180° on the opposite side of the planet.What does this information tell you about the interior of Mars?

A mountain range made of high-density basalt would produce a(n)________ gravity anomaly compared to a mountain range of lower-density sedimentary rocks.

If a S-wave is traveling through sandstone and then encounters peridotite,the S-wave will ________.

If a ship weighs 52,000 tons and is in isostatic equilibrium when 6,000 tons of cargo is added,what is the total mass of water that will be displaced by the ship after the cargo is added?

The graph below shows the change in velocity of seismic waves with depth in the crust.Why does the velocity of the P-wave drop drastically at the core-mantle boundary?

Why are magnetic anomalies of continental crust so much more complicated than those of oceanic crust?