Relative Dating | Absolute Dating | Earth's History Part 1 | The Nebular Hypothesis | Earth's History Part 2 |
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Layers in rock
What are strata?
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They become inert (non-radioactive)
What happens to radioactive elements when they decay?
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Eons
What are the largest divisions of geologic time?
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Nebula
What is the term for a cloud of dust & gas where stars are born?
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4.5 billion years
About how old to scientists think the Earth is?
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On the bottom
In a sequence of layers, where are the oldest ones?
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5 grams
If you have 10 grams of carbon-14, how much will still be radioactive after 1 half-life?
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Hadean
During which eon did the following occur: formation of the Moon, Earth stratifying, and Earth’s crust forming?
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The Sun
Nuclear fusion caused what object to be born at the center of our solar system?
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Volcanic outgassing, or comets
What is 1 place Earth's water may have come from?
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The intrusion
What is newer, a sedimentary layer, or an intrusion that cuts through it?
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3:1
If you have 19.3 grams of a radioactive substance, what will be the ratio of inert material to radioactive material after 2 half-lives?
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Complex multicellular life
What separates the Phanerozoic Eon from the previous eons?
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Material sticking together and getting increasingly bigger
Accretion caused the planets to form. What is accretion?
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Too close to measure
On your timelines, about how far from the "now" line does human history start?
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Index fossil
What do you call a fossil that lets you identify the age of a rock layer?
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4 half lives
If there is 16 grams of radioactive material in a sample, how long will it take until only 1 gram is still radioactive?
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Cyanobacteria doing photosynthesis
During the Proterozoic Eon, why did the Earth’s atmosphere begin to fill with oxygen?
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It is very dense
Most of the iron in the Earth ended up in the core. Why?
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3-5 million years (Lucy and Ardi)
About how long ago did the first hominids show up?
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Key bed
What is the term for a widespread, easily recognizable rock layer that allows matching formations in distant locations?
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17.190 years
If a fossil has a 7:1 ratio of nitrogen-14 to carbon-14, how many years old is it? (1 half-life of C-14 is 5,730 years.)
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Mass extinctions
What separates the eras of the eras of the Phanerozoic eon?
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The Heavy Bombardment
Earth's gravity swept up a lot of debris early in its history. What is this period of time called, when all this stuff was pummeling Earth?
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Keeps the solar winds from destroying our atmosphere
Earth's iron core generates our magnetic field. Why is our magnetic field important?
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