Earth Science Final Exam Review CMA
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- During one part of the nitrogen cycle, nitrogen is removed from the air mainly by nitrogen-fixing
- bacteria
- Atmospheric pressure measured at sea level is
- 1.03kg/cm squared
- A barometer measures
- atmospheric pressure
- Almost all of the water and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is in the
- troposphere
- Readio stations can increase the distances they reach by bouncing radio waves off the
- ionosphere
- Around Los Angeles, frequent temperature inversions are the result of coll, polluted air abeing trapped by
- mountains
- Almost all of the energy reaching the earth from the sun is in the form of
- electromagnetic waves
- Raindrops may separate sunlight into a range of colors, thereby causing
- a rainbow
- The process in which the atmosphere traps warming solar rays at the earth's surface is called the
- greenhouse effect
- Heat can be transferred within the atmosphere in three ways: radiation, conduction, and
- convection
- A vertical looping pattern of air flow is known as
- convection cell
- A gentle wind covering less than 100 km is called
- a breeze
- The prcess by which ice changes directly into water vapor is referred to as
- sublimation
- Relative humidity is always expressed
- as a percentage
- TO express the actual amount of moisture in the air, meteorologists use
- specific humidity
- When air temperature drops, its capacity for holding water is
- lower
- The tiny droplets that result when air is cooled by contact with a cold surface are called
- dew
- Changes in temperature that result soley from the expansion or compression of air are called
- adiabatic
- Clouds form when the water vapor in air condenses as
- the air is cooled
- Low sheetlike clouds are called
- stratus clouds
- The term nimbo or minbus added to the name of any form of cloud means
- rain
- The fog that results from the nightly cooling of the earth is called
- radiation fog
- Rain that freezes when it strikes the ground produces
- glaze ice
- Clouds in which the water droplets reamin liquid below 0 degrees Celsius are said to be
- supercooled
- In one method of cloud seeding, silver-iodide crystals are used as
- freezing nuclei
- A wide-mouth funnel and a cylindrical container are used in making an instrument called a
- rain gauge
- In the majority of stars, the most common element is
- hydrogen
- The color of the hottest stars is
- blue
- Stars appear to move in curcular paths around the Polaris because
- the earth rotates on its axis
- The change in position of a newarby star compared with the position of a faraway start is called
- red shift
- The brightest stars have apparent magnitudes that are
- negative numbers
- THe absolute magnitude of a star is
- the true brightness of the star
- A protostar becomes a star when it begins to
- generate energy
- A main-sequence star genrate energy by fusing
- hydrogen into helium
- A dying star can shed some of its gases as a
- supernova
- Black holes are difficult to locate because they
- do not give off light
- A pattern of stars is called a
- constellation
- Stars appear in fixed locations in the sky because they
- are so far from the earth
- The basic types of galaxies are
- spral, elliptical, and irregular
- Quasar formation is associated with
- the big bang
- According to Einstein's theory of relativity, in the formula E = mc squared, the c stands for
- the speed of light
- A nuclear reaction in which two two atomic nuclei combine is called
- fusion
- THe portion of the sun in which energy moves from atom to atom in the form of waves is called the
- radiative zone
- The portion of the sun normally visilbe from the earth is the
- photosphere
- The sunspot cycle lasts
- 11 years
- Sudden outward eruptions of electrixally charged atomic particles from the sun are called
- solar flares
- Gusts of solar wind can cuase
- magnetic storms
- Northern lights and southern lights are other names for
- auroras
- The hypothesis that the sun and the p lanets developed out of the same cloud of gas and dust is called the
- nebular theory
- The small bodies of matter that filled the solar nebula are called
- protoplanets
- Compared with the size of the present day planets, the protoplants were
- larger
- The first atmosphere of the earth had a high percentage of
- helium
- In the process of photosynthesis, cyanobacteria and green plants give off
- oxygen
- Water vapor began to condense into oceans about
- 3 billion- 3.5 billion years ago
- Ptolemy modified Aristotle's model of the universe to include
- retrograde motion
- Copernicus's model of the solar system differed from Prolemy's because it was
- heliocentric
- Kepler's first law states that each planet orbits the sun in a path called
- an ellipse
- The weak magnetic field around Mercury suggests
- a core of molten iron
- The planet that rotates in a direction that is opposite the direction of the other planets is
- Venus
- The tilt of the axis of Mars is nearly the same as that of
- the earth
- The most distinctive feature of Jupiter is its
- Great Red Spot
- All of the outer planets in the solar system are large except
- Pluto
- The asteroid belt exists in a region between the orbits of
- Mars and Jupiter
- The compostion of asteroids suggests that they are
- fragments of planetesimals
- Meteorites can provide information about
- the composition of the solar nebula before the earth and its moon formed
- Dark areas on the moon that are smooth and reflect little light are called
- maria
- Most of the information astronomers have gathered about the interoir of the moon has come from
- seismographs
- Soon after the moon formed, it was covered with
- molten rock
- In the most recent stage in the development of the moon,
- the number of meteorites hitting the moon decreased
- The moon is closest to the earth at
- perigee
- During each orbit around the earth, the moon spins on its axis
- one time
- In a lunar eclipse, the moon
- is in the earth's shadow
- When the size of the visible portion of the moon is decreasing, the moon is
- waxing
- In the crescent phases, the entire moon shines dimly because of
- sunlight reflected off the earth
- THe two moons of Mars are
- Phobos and Deimos
- Compared with the other moons of Jupiter, the four Galilean moons are
- larger
- The rings of Saturn are probably composed of
- billions of pieces of ice and rock