Earth Science Exam Review Questions and Answers(A+ Solution guide)

seismic waves - Answer-Vibrations that travel through Earth carrying the energy released during an earthquake. crust - Answer-the outer layer of the Earth mantle - Answer-the layer of hot, solid material between Earth's crust and core lithosphere - Answer-the solid, outer layer of the earth that consists of the crust and the rigid upper part of the mantle asthenosphere - Answer-the soft layer of the mantle on which the lithosphere floats basalt - Answer-a rock that makes up much of the ocean floor granite - Answer-a usually light-colored rock that is found in continental crust outer core - Answer-a layer of molten iron and nickel that surrounds the inner core of Earth inner core - Answer-a dense sphere of solid iron and nickel at the center of Earth radiation - Answer-the transfer of energy through space conduction - Answer-the direct transfer of heat from one substance to another substance that it is touching convection - Answer-the transfer of heat by the movement of a fluid density - Answer-the amount of matter in a given spaceconvection current - Answer-the movement of a fluid, caused by differences in temperature, that transfers heat from one part of the fluid to another continental drift - Answer-the hypothesis that states that the continents once formed a single landmass, broke up, and drifted to their present locations Pangaea - Answer-large, ancient landmass that was composed of all the continents joined together fossil - Answer-the remains (or an impression) of a plant or animal that existed in a past geological age and that has been excavated from the soil mid-ocean ridge - Answer-An underwater moutain chain where new ocean floor is formed sonar - Answer-a device that determines the distance of an object under water by recording echoes of sound waves sea-floor spreading - Answer-the process by which molten material adds new oceanic crust to the ocean floor deep-ocean trench - Answer-a deep valley along the ocean floor beneath which oceanic crust slowly sinks toward the mantle subduction - Answer-the process by which oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary plate - Answer-a section of the lithosphere that slowly moves over the asthenosphere, carrying pieces of continental and oceanic crust plate tectonics - Answer-the theory that pieces of Earth's lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle fault - Answer-a crack in the earth's crust divergent plate boundary - Answer-a boundary where plates are spreading apartrift valley - Answer-a deep valley that forms where two plates move apart convergent boundary - Answer-a plate boundary where two plates move tward each other transform boundary - Answer-boundary where two plates slide past each other stress - Answer-a force that acts on rock to change its shape or volume tension - Answer-stress that stretches rock so that it becomes thinner in the middle compression - Answer-the type of stress that occurs when an object is squeezed shearing - Answer-stress that pushes a mass of rock in opposite directions normal fault - Answer-a type of fault where the hanging wall slides downward; caused by tension in the crust reverse fault - Answer-a type of fault where the hanging wall slides upward; caused by compression in the crust hanging wall - Answer-The block of rock that forms the upper half of a fault. footwall - Answer-the block of rock that forms the lower half of a fault strike-slip fault - Answer-a type of fault where rocks on either side move past each other sideways with little up or down motion anticline - Answer-an upward fold in rock formed by compression of Earth's crust