1.
You may use a 5’’ x 8’’ index card. Both sides of the note card can be used.
2.
NOTHING may be glued or attached onto the card.
3.
NOTHING can be printed from a computer, photocopied, or scanned onto this card, it must be hand written in your handwriting.
4.
You may write or draw on both sides of this note card.
5.
The note card will be turned in with your final exam at the end of the exam period.
Branches of science (biology, chemistry, physics, geology, meteorology, oceanography, seismology)
Scientific method concepts
Observations, Hypothesis, Variables, Controls
Significant Figures
Precision vs. accuracy
SI base units for temp, time, length, and mass
SI prefixes (know the order, milli- to kilo-) Manipulated variable (independent) vs. Responding variable (dependent)
Scientific theory vs. scientific law
Scientific models
Density
Be able to:

Interpret hypothetical experiments.

Interpreting graphs and charts

Put numbers to a from scientific notation

Make measurements with the correct precision

Count significant figures AND round answers to math problems.

Convert from one SI unit to another (in class we used conversion factors)

Understand the density concept.
Branches of Earth Science
Crust, Mantle, Core (and all properties)
Lithosphere
Asthenosphere
Physical vs. Historical Geology
Geosphere
Biosphere
Hydrosphere
Oceanic vs. continental crust
Theory of Plate Tectonics
Atmosphere
Renewable vs/ nonrenewable resources
Important Ideas/Questions:

Two parts of Geology (physical and historical)

What other planets are of most interest to people who study the Earth? Why?

Understand about the Formation of Solar System (including Earth) (i.e., Nebular Theory-see also Chap 23)

Where in Solar System did heavy elements end up? The lighter gases?

What force was critical to all the material coming together to form the Sun, Earth, etc?

What was early Earth like? Why did all the iron end up in the core at this time?

How do P, T, and D change within Earth

Where did the gases come from that made Earth's atmosphere and water for the oceans originally come from?
1


Understand the important aspects of the collision that would form the Moon and how it changed Earth to make it habitable for life as we know it.

Understand the 4 spheres and ways that they are interconnected

Why is Earth considered a Closed System?

The Sun is the source of energy for which spheres? Earth's internal heat drives which sphere?

Know important latitudes and longitude (equator, N & S pole, prime meridian). Know how to determine from a map.
Element, compound
Three states of matter
Crystallization (of minerals)
Precipitation (of minerals)
Silicates carbonates
Density (formula and solving simple problems)
Properties of minerals (luster, streak, hardness, , fracture, etc)
Important Ideas/Questions:

Understand what makes a mineral a mineral. (see 5 criteria)

How are minerals classified? (i.e., into 6 groups)

Be able to interpret mineral tests

Where or how do most silicate minerals come from?

Where or how do most carbonate minerals come from?

What gas reacts with metals for form oxide minerals? Generally, if one finds an oxide mineral in a rock, it must have formed after ___________________ evolved in plants.

What are the most abundant elements? What kind of minerals do these two elements (mostly) make together?

How could one test for carbonates in an unknown mineral? (Hint: bubbles form when you do this test)

Be able to solve density problems.

NOTE: Density is an important concept throughout the course. Be sure to understand how it relates to a wide range of processes on Earth. Also understand how temperature affects density on the Earth's surface. (See other chapters!)
rock
Igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic
Magma vs. lava
Sediment
Deposition
Clastic, Chemical, and biochemical sed. rock fossils metamorphism
Compaction and cementation
Intrusive Rock vs. Extrusive Rock (rate, crystal size, air bubbles, where?) rock texture
Agents of erosion
Contact vs regional metamorphism
Foliation or foliated metamorphic rock
The Rock Cycle
Important Ideas/Questions:

Be able to describe the processes that change rock and how rock goes from one type to another.

What do weathering & erosion form?

Role of Extreme Heat and Pressure on existing rock forms…?

What is the source of energy driving the formation of igneous rocks and metamorphic rocks?

What is the source of energy driving the formation of sedimentary rocks? Why?

Describe four textures (course-grain, fined-grained, glassy, and porphyritic)
What each looks like, Cooling rate, Where? (below ground or near surface?)
2


Describe Four types of Composition (granitic, andesitic, basaltic, ultramafic)
General information about composition (light minerals vs. dark)
Where on Earth each is found in large amount

Which are carried further by moving water, large sediment particles or small?

What kinds of things are often in limestone?

What do mud cracks and ripple marks in sedimentary rock each indicate?

Where does metamorphism usually take place? why?
(Sect 5-1, 5-3, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, 7-1)
Weathering vs. erosion
Mechanical weathering
Frost wedging and talus
Chemical weathering
Mass movement and the common triggers of mass movement
Deltas and levees flood plains
Drainage basins (aka, watershed) stalactite vs. stalagmite.
Meanders and oxbow lakes
Abrasion (by rivers and glaciers)
Sorting (in river)
V-shaped valley vs. U-shaped water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, percolation, runoff, transpiration) aquifer porosity, permeable, impermeable
Springs, hot springs, geysers
Subsidence (sinking issue for aquifers) glacier valley glaciers and ice sheets glacial deposition landforms: till, moraine, terminal moraine, erratics icebergs
Plucking (as in what a glacier does to rocks)
Important Ideas/Questions:

Why does mechanical weathering increase rate of chemical weathering (know what happens to surface area)

How could a tree cause mechanical weathering? Ways in which humans enhance weathering?

Know that water is most important agent in weathering and erosion

What do gases such as CO
2
, SO
2
, NO
2
form when they dissolve in water? Why does this matter for rocks like limestone and marble?

Why are cracks in rock important to weathering?

What climate conditions are most favorable to weathering? Wet,dry? Hot,cold?

Why does water saturation cause mass movement?

What is most likely trigger for many mass movements like mudflows?

Know important places water stored on Earth

How does water always flow? What about glaciers? Why?

Where in a river is the velocity the highest (and therefore can erode the most)
 how can groundwater become contaminated?

Why do limestone caverns form? Also, what is Karst topography?

Where are glaciers found?
 where are Earth’s two remaining ice sheets located?
 what happens if accumulation on a glacier is greater than wastage?
3

Focus vs. epicenter of EQ seismic waves (S, P, surface) aftershocks and foreshocks elastic rebound hypothesis
Seismographs
Stations to determine epicenter
Richter scale vs. Mercalli scale tsunami stress, faults, folds.
Brittle vs. ductile rock compression
Tension
Shearing
Anticline vs syncline reverse (or thrust) fault
Normal fault strike-slip fault
Important Ideas/Questions:

P-waves and s-waves (aka, body waves): describe how they move, which arrives first? travel fastest? which cannot go through liquid?

How to recognize the p and s wave arrivals on seismograph

Faults form when stress exceeds the _____________ of the rock.

Under what conditions within the earth will rock be either brittle or ductile?

When rock is brittle, compression leads to faults When rock is ductile, compression leads to folds

Three kinds of forces (compression, tension, shearing) lead to different fault types above

Be able to look at pictures or diagrams of rock layers and identify the fault type or fold.
Alfred Wegener and Continental drift (and early evidence)
Pangaea
Mid-ocean ridges, trenches
Role of mantle convection (in asthenosphere) sea-floor spreading
Linear sea
EQ focus as proof of plate subduction (deep vs shallow) Convergent (continental-continental) plumes Transform
Calderas (and how they form) Know basic parts of volcano (crater, vent, pipe, layers, sills, dikes) shield, cinder cone, and composite cone volcanoes (how and why they form)
Divergent (between oceanic plates)
Divergent (on land, aka rifting)
Convergent (oceanic-oceanic)
Convergent (oceanic-continental)
Important Ideas/Questions:

Why was Wegener's theory rejected?

Is continental drift the same a plate tectonics?

Underwater Features and what they mean for plate motion (creating and destroying)

What kind of rock is oceanic crust made of? So they are rich in the element ____.

Sea-floor Spreading (Who proposed it? What does it do to the size of ocean basins?

What process counteracts sea-floor spreading?

What features or landforms are found near subduction zones

Understand the Evidence for sea-floor spreading and subduction
1. Magnetic Banding in Rock on Sea Floor.
2. Age of oceanic crust(where is youngest oceanic crust? oldest? Why are continents older (see subduction)?
3. Earthquake Distribution (as evidence for subduction) - EQ focus depth (figure 13 is a good visual)

Understand and be able to describe the subduction process and why it is so important
4


Understand what happens at each of the different kinds of plate boundaries (above). Also be able to name the types of landforms or events that occur at each boundary.

NOTE: plate subduction is a very important process. Be sure to understand it fully and know where it occurs and doesn't occur.

Understand different kinds of volcanism (convergent, divergent, intraplate (aka, hot spots))

Be able to explain how the Hawaiian Island chain formed

Understand the factors affecting eruptions (viscosity, how temperature and silica content affect viscosity, gases content)

Understand the relationship between igneous rock type and how volcanoes erupt and the types of volcanoes that result (Table 1 in Chap 10 is a nice summary)

Volcanic materials (two types of lava, gases, pyroclastic materials)

Volcanic hazards and why they are dangerous (lava flows, gases, vog, pyroclastic flow, accompanying EQs, lahars)
from Sect 12-1, 12-2, 12-3 and topics from Chap 13 uniformitarianism
Relative dating vs. absolute dating
Law of Superposition
Principle of Crosscutting Relationships
Radiometric dating and Radiocarbon Dating radioactive isotope
Half-life
Parent isotope vs. daughter isotope
Principle of Original Horizontality
Index fossils
Correlation of rock layers
Important Ideas/Questions:

Be able to provide relative age of rock layers and geologic events based on diagrams (i.e., using 3 laws above)

Know how to solve the half-life problems like the ones we done in class!

Know the basic details about these major eras of Earth's history: Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic

When did photosynthesis evolve? In what ways was this important for life on Earth?

Understand major reasons for mass extinction events. Why do they lead to mass extinctions?

What is believed to have caused the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) Mass Extinction? What species were positively and negatively affected in the long run?
abundant gases in the atmosphere (While CO
2
is important, it is not abundant) troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere ozone layer
Rotation vs. revolution
Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn
Arctic and Antarctic Circle
Temperature vs. heat
Conduction, convection, radiation (how they work)
Albedo and how to interpret
Greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases
Isotherms (on maps) equinoxes and solstices (for each hemisphere)
Important Ideas/Questions:

Understand the variable components (water vapor, ozone, pollutants)

How do pressure and density change with height in the atmosphere? What force makes this happen?

Know four layers and their characteristics
 How does each layer’s temperature change with height? Why is there warming with height in two layers?

Understand Earth-Sun relationships

What causes variation in day-length and therefore seasons?

Three modes of heat transfer and how they relate to heating the atmosphere

Understand the basics of the electromagnetic spectrum (p. 484). * Important for chap 24/25 also.
5


High frequency radiation also is [ high ; low ] energy

Four Laws of radiant energy (basics ideas)

Which is hotter, something emitting visible light or something emitting Infrared light?

What happens to light from the Sun? (reflection, absorption, (and scattering))
 What is? What is Earth’s overall albedo (%)? What kinds of objects have low albedo?
 Understand that absorbed light from Sun is reradiated by Earth’s surface as IR, and it is this IR light that warms our atmosphere. VERY IMPORTANT..this also known as greenhouse effect.

Greenhouse Effect vs. Global warming.

What role does the ozone layer play in the greenhouse effect??? (careful! trick question)

Understand the effect that each of these has on annual temperatures o Latitude, Proximity to Water, Geographic Position (wind direction, mountain ranges), Altitude

Be able to interpret temperature/climate diagrams like the ones we went through in class

Role of Cloud cover (day vs. night)
Chap 18, 19 and Sect 20-1 and 20-2
Phase changes for water (freezing, melting, etc) humidity and relative humidity
Dew point dew, frost, fog hail, sleet, snow, and freezing rain (how they form)
Condensation nuclei cumulus, nimbus, stratus, alto, cirrus
Barometer, thermometer isobar
Coriolis Effect
Global Winds (trades, westerlies, polar easterlies)
Low and high pressure centers (a.k.a., Weather Systems)
Cyclone vs. anticyclone
Sea vs. land breezes
Air masses (four types)
Fronts (cold, warm, stationary, occluded) wind
Important Ideas/Questions:

Humidity, relative humidity, and dew point AND how to interpret data

Know under what conditions hail, sleet, snow, and freezing rain form.

Four processes that lift air (orographic lifting, frontal lifting, convergence, local convective lifting)

How differences in pressure cause wind (flow always high to low)

Understand how the Coriolis effect makes winds curve and rotate in both hemispheres (remember Right Hand Rule for NH can help)

Know latitudes where air is generally rising and sinking

Understand the properties of Low and High Pressure weather systems (all facets)

Which air mass types influence US weather the most? Where to they come from?

Fronts and their characteristic weather, cloud types, typical duration (relative)


Symbols for fronts and how to interpret on a weather map
Isobars and using them to interpret a map

Be able to determine wind direction by using locations of H and L pressure on a map
Equatorial Currents
Eastern Boundary Currents vs. Western Boundnary
Gyres (i.e, subtropical gyres)
Coastal Upwelling
Global Conveyor Belt/thermohaline circulation
Gulf Stream
Important Ideas/Questions:

Understand how ocean surface currents form.

Know where warm and cold currents are generally found.

Why do currents turn different ways in each hemisphere?

Where does cold salty water sink to help start thermohaline ciculation?

What effect do ocean currents have on Climate?
6

Sect 21-1 and 21-3 and Carbon Cycle Topics
Three climate regions (polar, temperate, tropical)
El Niño
Carbon cycle
Global Warming
Important Ideas/Questions:

Two primary components of climate

Understand the Role that each of these plays in determining the relative Temperature and/or Precipitation of an area: Latitude (general effect on temp) , Latitudes where air generally rises[rain] and sinks [dry], Altitude,
Topography (esp Rain Shadow Effect), Nearby bodies of water, Prevailing Wind direction , Location of warm and cold currents

Be able to interpret the climates of locations on a map using the above.

Understand the natural processes that can change Earth's Climate (we listed 5)

Probable Causes and Effects of Global Warming

Understand and be able to describe how carbon moves between various reservoirs, in particular how carbon dioxide is taken from or added to the atmosphere.

Understand and be able to describe how climate changes as changes are made to the carbon cycle.
Sect 22-1 and 23-1, 23-2, 23-4 only
Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton Nebular Theory
Terrestrial vs. Jovian (Gas Giants) Planetesimal
Dwarf planets
Asteroids
Kuiper Belt
Oort Cloud
Comets (long vs. short period) and parts of comet AU
Important Ideas/Questions:

Know the 8 planets and characteristics of dwarf planets. Map out the organization and order of planets, asteroids, comets, etc. in our solar system.

In what ways are terrestrial and Jovian planet different? Why did they end up that way? Consider their composition of rock, ices, and/or gases.

Compare and contrast the 4 terrestrial planets. Why similarities and differences?

Understand the importance of volcanism/internal heat on the characteristics of terrestrial planets.

Why is studying asteroids and comets important? Especially their age?

Comet tails: Which way do they face and why?

Identify planets based on defining characteristics (extreme temp. changes, red spot, etc.)

How do atmospheres (or lack of) influence temperatures?
7

Sect 24-1, 25-1, 25-2, 25-3
Main sequence stars (red, yellow, blue)
Red giant, super giant, white dwarf, black dwarf, neutron star, black hole
Galaxies
Light-year
Absorption lines (star spectrum)
Nebula
Nuclear fusion
Big Bang
H-R Diagram Hubble's Law
Important Ideas/Questions:
 What is the sun’s (or any stable star's) source of energy?

Describe what happens in nuclear fusion. Where does it take place? How does fusion change as the star / sun ages
(In terms of elements produced)?

How do the forces of gravity and pressure keep the sun / star stable?
 Identify how long it takes light to travel from stars “X” light years away.
 How does a star’s color influence its temperature? Know trend for blue to red.

Map out the stages of average and high mass stars (How does the star change in terms of size, density, fusion, brightness, etc.)

Compare low, average, & high mass stars (main sequence) in terms of temp., brightness, & length of life, color

Interpret the H-R diagram

Compare star systems, clusters, & galaxies in terms of star number.

Compare types of galaxies (shape); Identify the main features of our Milky Way Galaxy (arms, disk, nucleus, etc)
 What does Hubble’s Law tell us about the motion of galaxies and the boundary of the universe?

What can star spectrum tell us (Red shift vs Blue shift; age of star or galaxy)?

What pieces of scientific evidence support the Big Bang Theory? What is approx Age of Universe according to the
Theory
8