EES Exam 1 Questions and answers, 100% Accurate. VERIFIED.

EES Exam 1 Questions and answers, 100% Accurate. VERIFIED. What is geology? - -Study of the earth what is the natural disaster? - -a natural event such as a flood, earthquake, or hurricane that causes great damage or loss of life. What makes a disaster natural? - -natural processes operating at high energy levels for brief times in restricted areas what makes a natural event a disaster? - - What is a "great" natural disaster and why are they increasing in number? - -kill 1,000's of people and require international aid, because of Earth's population increasing the occurrence of natural disasters increase as well "return time" - -the average number of years between same-sized events what is the difference between gas giant planets and terrestrial planets? - - How does our planet's surface constantly change? - - Explain the scientific method - -1. identify the problem 2. gather data 3. form hypothesis 4. test the hypothesis What is a hypothesis? - -an educated guess that can be tested What is a theory? - -a well-tested explanation for a broad set of observations, but still can be proven wrong What is a law? - - Which 4 elements are most common in the planet? - -iron oxygen silicon magnesium what is a mineral? - -A solid inorganic substance of natural occurrence. What is a rock? - -mixture of minerals how does the rock cycle explain how three types of rock form? - - why do we know that the earth must have layers of different compositions? - -the Earth's density is 5.5 g/cm3, while rocks at the surface average about 2.5 g/cm3 layers of earth based on composition - -crust, mantle, core What is the Mohorovicic discontinuity? - -boundary between crust and mantle, where velocity and earthquake waves changes Tectonic System - -plates moving on Earth's surface Earth's internal heat source - -internal radioactive decay: heat isotope - -Atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons half life - -length of time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay Difference with earthquakes on Mars Vs. Earth - -Mars is smaller than earth so has less internal heat and currently no active tectonic system Layers based on physical properties - -atmosphere: gas hydrosphere: liquid, water lithosphere