Honors Earth Science Study Guide
Answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Define these parts of the water cycle.
 Accumulation
 Condensation
 Evaporation
 Precipitation
 Runoff
 Transpiration
 Groundwater
2. What causes the temperature to decrease with altitude in the troposphere?
3. The amount of water in Earth’s atmosphere: changes/does not change. (Circle One)
4. What causes the temperature to rise in the stratosphere?
5. What is the composition of the atmosphere? (In terms of elements)
6. In your own words, describe how air pressure decreases as you climb a mountain. Use the word
density.
7. During thermal expansion, density decreases. Explain why using the following words: mass, volume,
kinetic energy.
8. How is temperature different from thermal energy?
9. Why does warm air rise?
10. Wind is the movement of air caused by a difference in _____________________
________________________.
11. Air pressure always (naturally) flows from areas of __________ pressure to __________ pressure.
12. On a sunny day, the land heats up faster than the water. This causes the wind to blow from
the______________________________ to the _________________________. EXPLAIN.
13. What is the #1 cause of wind?
14. What are the 4 different types of air masses? Where does each one come from?
15. The boundary between two different air masses is called what?
16. What do cold fronts and warm fronts look like on a weather map?
17. Cold fronts form precipitation behind/in front of (circle one) the front.
18. Warm fronts form precipitation behind/in front of (circle one) the front.
19. Compare and contrast warm and cold air fronts.
20. What are the 3 different classes of rocks?
21. What processes are responsible for breaking larger rocks into smaller pieces (sediment)?
22. What processes are responsible for creating sedimentary rocks from sediment?
23. What are igneous rocks called if they form above the Earth? Inside?
24. Indiana is well known for its vast deposits of this sedimentary stone, found in lakebeds, that
contributes to southern Indiana’s vast network of caves.
25. What information can we gain from fossils?
26. Are the following objects fossils? If so, write “fossil” and a brief reason why. If not, write “no” and a
brief reason why not.
a. Pottery piece found in an ancient city
b. Casting (mold) of an ancient fish in rock
c. Dog prints in mud
d. Dinosaur tracks in rock
e. Small, extinct mammal preserved in glacial ice
27. Which layer is the oldest? Rank the fossils in age from youngest to oldest.
28. The Earth has been around for approximately 4.6 billion years. Within that space, time is split into
large and small chunks. Order the chunks in order from largest to smallest: period, age, eon,
epoch, era
29. Define the following terms:
a. Glacier
b. Cave
c. Sinkhole
30. Explain the topographical (landscape) differences in northern and southern Indiana. How did
glaciers affect these changes?
31. What is soil? How is soil made?
32. Soil can be developed or undeveloped. List 4 factors that speed up or slow down soil development.
33. What is a soil profile? How is this different from a soil horizon?
34. Which horizon contains the most humus?
35. Which layer is most responsible for the makeup of the soil?
36. Soil texture comes in 3 sizes. List them and explain which will drain water the best.