Geology 100 Review terms Test 2 Climate Atmosphere o the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period o Nitrogen Oxygen and Argon make up 99 9 o Unique in our solar system Troposphere Oxygen Water Vapor o the lowest region of the atmosphere o produces weather and clouds o extending from the earth s surface to a height of about 3 7 6 2 miles 6 10 km which is the lower boundary of the stratosphere o The height of the tropo varies depending on geologic location o Tropopause is the devision between tropo and stratspheres o Air is constantly getting turned over because of the temperature differences Stratosphere Ozone layer o the layer of the earth s atmosphere above the troposphere o extending to about 32 miles 50 km above the earth s surface the lower boundary of the mesosphere o This layer absorbs UV rays which in turn makes it warmer o There is much less turning over in here o a layer in the earth s stratosphere at an altitude of about 6 2 miles 10 km containing a high concentration of ozone which absorbs most of the ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth from the sun Insolation o solar radiation received at Earth s surface o INcoming SOLar radiATION Greenhouse effect o The trapping of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere that heats the planet o Gases absorb longwave radiation and emit some of it back to the Earth as heat Uneven heating Coriolis effect Hadley circulation o Because the sun rays come in straight lines but the earth is curved different areas of the earth receive different amounts of heat o Light is more diffuse at the poles o The effect on objects in motion in the air whereby the longer the object is in the air the further to the left or right of its intended target will it land o The circulation cell that occurs between 0 30degrees north o These are commonly referred to as easterlies o The circulation cell above the easterlies Westerlies Keeling Curve its history Trade winds o A graph which shows the overall CO2 concentration in the world throughout o Zig zagging curve with peaks representing winter with high CO2 concentrations and the valleys being summers with low concentration o a wind blowing steadily toward the equator from the northeast in the northern hemisphere or the southeast in the southern hemisphere especially at sea Two belts of trade winds encircle the earth blowing from the tropical high pressure belts to the low pressure zone at the equator Prevailing westerlies o Cells at 30 60 degrees Sea surface temperatures Sea surface salinities o Warmest at equator 28 C o Freezing at high latitudes o Mean annual temperature is 17 C o Oceanic 35 ppt o Brackish Lower than marine Bays lagoons o Hypersaline Higher than marine Hot arid climates o Surface zone o 0 200m deep in the ocean Pycnocline zone o 200 1000m deep in the ocean o All the water beneath the pycnocline Deep ocean Thermohaline density Circulation o circulation of the ocean refers to the flow of ocean water caused by changes in o the large scale movement of waters in the ocean basins o Winds drive surface circulation and the cooling and sinking of waters in the polar regions drive deep circulation Surface circulation carries the warm upper waters poleward from the tropics Antarctic bottom water North Atlantic deep o and the cooling and sinking of waters in the polar regions drive deep o primary mode of metamorphose in rocks o Rock formed at or near the Earth s surface by Weathering Transportation Deposition Lithification circulation water Sedimentary rock Weathering o Wind o Water o Ice o gravity Physical weathering Chemical weathering o rocks breaking apart without changing their chemical composition o the erosion or disintegration of rocks building materials etc caused by chemical reactions chiefly with water and substances dissolved in it rather than by mechanical processe o When ice forms in cracks in formations forcing them further open Frost wedging Lithofication o the process in which sediments compact under pressure expel connate fluids o Essentially lithification is a process of porosity destruction through and gradually become solid rock compaction and cementation Regolith Thermal expansion o layer of loose rock and mineral fragments o The idea that the expansion and shrinking of rocks from changing temperatures causes breakage o Proved to be false though o pile of rock at base of slope Talus slope rock and mineral fragments o pieces of rocks that broke off the main body Exfoliation Solution o large flat or curved sheets of rock fracture and are detached from an outcrop o a deformation mechanism that involves the dissolution of minerals at grain to grain contacts into an aqueous pore fluid in areas of relatively high stress and either deposition in regions of relatively low stress within the same rock or their complete removal from the rock within the fluid o How rocks with iron react to exposure to oxeygen o How feldspar and carbonic acid react to form potassium silica biocarbonates o A composition of humus and regolith o a very stable compound at Earth s surface Oxidation Hydrolysis and clay Soil Hematite Horizon A horizon B horizon C horizon Pedalfer Pedocal Laterite Dissolved load Bed Load Suspended Load Textural Maturity Sorting Roundness Sphericity Chemical Maturity Bedding Ripple mark Cross bed Mud crack Graded bed Lithification Clastic sedimentary Boulder Cobble Pebble Sand Silt Clay Conglomerate rocks rocks Breccia Quartz sandstone Arkose Siltstone Mudstone Shale Chemical sedimentary Limestone Oolite Micrite Chalk Coquina Chert Coal Evaporites Topographic map Formation Relative age Absolute age Nicholas Steno Lateral continuity Original horizontality Superposition Unconformity Hiatus Angular unconformity Disconformity Nonconformity Cross cutting relationships Fossil William Smith Faunal succession Biostratigraphy Geologic time scale Lord Kelvin Radioactive decay Alpha particle Alpha decay Beta decay Electron capture Half life Geologic time scale
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