Question 1

How do we know that Earth's magnetic field has flipped its polarity many times in the past?

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Question 2

List the names of the four layers of Earth's interior shown in the figure below going from the outer layer to the innermost layer, and designate whether they are solid or liquid.

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Question 3

Describe one example of tectonic disruption on Mercury, Venus, and Mars, respectively, and explain how they formed.

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Question 4

Describe two reasons why we know that the Earth's magnetic field cannot be a result of permanent magnetism in a solid iron core.

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Question 5

Suppose that two planets of the same size formed from the same material. If planet A had differentiated and planet B had not, how would samples of their surface rock differ? Explain why.

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Question 6

List the three areas of the lunar surface shown in the figure below in the order of their age from youngest to oldest. Explain your reasoning.

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Question 7

If you obtained a sample of Martian rock, determined the abundances of 230_U and 207_Pb in it, and found that for every one uranium atom there were seven lead atoms, then what would the age of this rock be? Note that 230_U decays to 207_Pb with a half-life of 700 million years. Assume that there was no 207_Pb in the rock when it originally formed.

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Question 8

If there is water on Mars today, where is it likely to be? Name two separate pieces of evidence we have that Mars once had flowing water on its surface and how this evidence was obtained.

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Question 9

Give a specific example of a historical impact of an asteroid or comet that hit the Earth. Why are impact craters rare on the surface of Earth but plentiful on the Moon?

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Question 10

List the main process that shaped the planetary surface features illustrated in each of the four pictures shown below.

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Question 11

Describe the difference between seismic primary and secondary waves and why this difference makes them useful in probing the structure of the Earth's interior.

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Question 12

How did the radioactive heating of Earth vary from when it was first formed 4.6 billion years ago until today?

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Question 13

The American and African/European continents are now separated by the Atlantic Ocean, which is approximately 4,000 km wide. Assuming a continental drift rate of 2 cm/year, how long has it been since they were one land mass?

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Question 14

Which planet would you expect to have a larger molten core, a planet of Earth's size or a planet that had half the radius of Earth? Explain why.

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Question 15

Which is denser-the mantle or crust of the Earth? Explain why.

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Question 16

What is one major difference between the volcanoes on Venus and Mars and the volcanoes on the Earth? What might explain this difference?

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Question 17

What are the four main processes that shape the surfaces of the terrestrial planets?

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Question 18

What are two materials present in the K-T boundary that support the idea that a 10 km-wide asteroid or comet hit the Yucatan peninsula and caused or accelerated the extinction of more than 50 percent of all living species on the Earth? Explain where these two materials came from. How long ago did this happen?

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Question 19

Three different things can happen when two continental plates meet. What is the name given to each, and briefly explain what happens in each.

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Quiz 8: The Terrestrial Planets and Earths Moon