Exam 1: Understanding Earth: a Dynamic and Evolving Planet

The increasing percentage of heavier elements in the universe results from nuclear fusion during the evolution of ____________________.

Rocks that form from the crystallization of lava or magma are ____________________ rocks.

What comprises the ocean crust?

What are Earth's six principal subsystems?

Geologists use the Principle of Uniformitarianism as a basis to interpret the past and predict the future.

Which of the following is a characteristic of the asthenosphere?

Tentative explanations that are formulated to explain observed phenomena are known as ____.

What unifying theory of geology holds that large segments of Earth's outer part move relative to one another?

Natural selection refers to the ability of organisms to choose the habitat in which they feel most comfortable.

Which basic force is responsible for the breakdown of an atom's nucleus, thereby producing radioactive decay?

The principle of uniformitarianism is based on the idea that modern processes have operated throughout geologic time.

According to the theory of creation, all living organisms are related and they descended, with some modifications, from organisms that lived in the past.

The geologic time scale was first developed in the 19^th century using radiometric-dating techniques.

At the moment of the Big Bang, ____.

The study of the origin, evolution, and nature of the universe is _______________.

What three general characteristics account for the density differences among the concentric layers of Earth?

What theory has the central thesis that all present-day organisms are related and that they have descended with modifications from organisms that lived in the past?

Explain the connection between the rock cycle and plate tectonics.

The crust and the underlying uppermost mantle make up the ____________________.

Earth's core is likely to be ____.