2299898
Description
Flashcards by richard.obasa, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by richard.obasa
over 9 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| The Earth is one of the eight planets orbiting the Sun, and there are many other members of the Solar System including asteroids, moons and planets. | the diameter of the Earth is 12,800km (7,953 miles) the diameter of the Sun is 109 times that of the Earth’s the Earth is 150 million km (93 million miles) from the Sun the distance to the nearest star is four light years. |
| Moons orbit planets. Most are tiny. Only a few are as large as our Moon, which is nearly a sixth of the diameter of the Earth | Asteroids are much smaller than planets, and orbit the Sun. Most of the asteroids are between the planets Mars and Jupiter, but some come close to the Earth |
| In nuclear fusion, smaller nuclei come together and form larger nuclei. For example hydrogen nuclei are joined together to make helium nuclei. This releases enormous amounts of energy. | |
| In stars larger than our Sun helium nuclei can be fused together to create larger atomic nuclei. As the Earth contains many of these larger atoms, like carbon, oxygen, iron, etc, scientists believe that our Solar System was made from the remains of an earlier star. | |
| If the Earth moves, you would expect to see a different view of the stars at different times of the year, in the same way as the room you are in looks slightly different if you move your head to one side. That is to say everything seems to move in the opposite direction to your head, but the objects close to you seem to move more. This effect is called parallax | |
| geologists can use other evidence from the rocks themselves such as: looking at cross-cutting features (rock that cuts across another is younger) using fossils (species existed/ became extinct during certain time periods) deepness of the rock (younger rocks are usually on top of older ones). | Wegener developed his theory, it was thought that mountains formed because the Earth was cooling down, and in doing so contracted. This was believed to form wrinkles, or mountains, in the Earth's crust. If the idea was correct, however, mountains would be spread evenly over the Earth's surface. |
| Wegener suggested that mountains were formed when the edge of a drifting continent collided with another, causing it to crumple and fold. For example, the Himalayas were formed when India came into contact with Asia. | |
| The same types of fossilised animals and plants are found in South America and Africa the shape of the east coast of South America fits the west coast of Africa, like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle matching rock formations and mountain chains are found in South America and Africa. | Wegener’s ideas could certainly explain similar fossils turning up in different continents, but other geologists thought that there were once ‘land bridges’ between continents, allowing animals to travel between them. |
| Earth around 200 million years ago, at the time of Pangaea | The single landmass began to crack and divide, due to the slow currents of magna beneath it |
| The positions of the continents today | In the centres of many oceans, there are mid-ocean ridges. At these places, the tectonic plates are moving apart. Molten material, known as magma from inside the Earth oozes out and solidifies. |
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