Name________________________________________ Date __________ Teacher: P W Y Blk ____ NB#____
Greatest Discoveries with Bill Nye: Earth Science
Description
While on his quest to uncover the top 100 scientific
discoveries of all time, Bill Nye checks in with
leading scientists to discuss the greatest
discoveries ever made in the field of earth science.
Greatest Discoveries with Bill Nye: Earth Science,
Science Channel, 2005. Full Video.
Discovery Education. Web. 17 November 2015.
The following is in the order the information will be
as Bill Nye walks you through the Science behind
the Geology of our planet:
4. At the center of the core, the temperature can
be as high as ____________ºF, which is 2,000º
hotter than the surface of the sun.
3- Continental Drift
5. Pangaea comes from the Greek and means
_________________________________________.
4- The Sea-Floor is Spreading
1- The Outer Core
1. The first layer of Earth is the containing the
continents is called _________________________,
a skin of rock covering the planet.
2- The Inner Core
2. The core that Lehman had found was the Earth’s
_________________________________________.
6. When the United States entered the war,
3. The core that Richard Oldem had discovered
turned out to be the Earth’s
_________________________________________
was a geology professor at Princeton University.
_________________________________________.
7. In 1953 a 12,000 mile long mountain range
called the__________________________________
was discovered in the Atlantic Ocean.
8. Harry Hess had discovered that the seafloor was
_________________________________________.
9. The process that recycles the crust is called
_________________________________________.
5- Plate Tectonics
10. The surface of the planet is broken into large
interconnected ____________________________,
that are constantly in motion.
11. The plates are _________________________,
they are not_______________________________.
12. A _________________________ fault is where
the plates move by one another.
7- Cosmic Radiation
17. Victor Hess discovered
_________________________________________.
18. It is estimated that each year more than
__________________________people die from
cancer caused by the small natural dose of
radiation.
8- Magnetic Field Reversal
19. The Earth’s magnetic field acts as a
_________________________________________,
protecting our planet from the Sun’s dangerous
radiation.
20. The Earth’s magnetic field has reversed about
__________________________times in the last 20
million years.
9- Periodic Ice Ages
21. Every_______________________
years or so the angle of the Earth’s axis
tilts slightly.
22. The Earth may have experienced as
many as __________________________ ice ages
over the last several million years.
13. Weather has so many ____________________
it can change quickly.
14.One lightning bolt can strike with the power of
_________________________ million volts.
6- Troposphere and Stratosphere
10- Global Warming
23. Over the past 100 years the surface
temperature of the Earth has increased about
__________________________ ºF.
24. Keeling found that the level of CO2 in the
atmosphere was increasing at a rate of
__________________________ billion tons per
year.
25. The South Cascade Glacier has retreated by
__________________________ miles over the last
century.
15. Troposphere means… ____________________
16. Stratosphere means… ____________________
26. It would take __________________________
the size of Mt. St. Helens erupting every day of the
year to equal the amount of CO2 emissions people
produce.
11- Geological Change
27. The mechanism of the slow process of geologic
change was _______________________________.
29. If we compare the entire history of the Earth to
a span of 24 hours, 1 million years would go by in
about __________________________ minutes.
12- Radiometric Dating
28. Mineral samples of uranium always contained
traces of _________________________________.
30. The Earth ______________________________
all living things.
For each Vocabulary Term – read the definition and then in the context sentence fill in the
missing word to make the complete sentence a factual statement:
Crust
Definition: The outer layer of the Earth
Context: The Earth’s crust is _____________________ under the continents than it is under
the oceans.
Earthquake
Definition: Shaking and vibrating at the surface of the Earth resulting from underground
movement along a fault plane
Context: Earthquakes have helped scientists define the size and shape of
_____________________ plates.
Mantle
Definition: The layer of the Earth between the crust and the core
Context: The _______________ ______________ in the mantle causes the Earth’s plates to
move.
Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Definition: An underwater mountain range in the Atlantic Ocean, stretching from Iceland to
Antarctica
Context: _____________________ from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge creates new oceanic crust.
Plate tectonics
Definition: A scientific theory that unifies many of the features and characteristics of
continental drift and seafloor spreading into a coherent model; it has revolutionized
geologists’ understanding of continents, ocean basins, mountains, and Earth history.
Context: The theory of _____________________ _____________________ did not gain wide
scientific interest until the 1960s.
Subduction
Definition: When an oceanic plate collides with a continental plate and sinks below the latter;
results in the creation of oceanic trenches and mountain building
Context: Subduction of an oceanic plate consumes, or _________________________, the
crust.
Volcano
Definition: A fissure in the Earth’s crust through which molten lava and gasses erupts
Context: Mount St. Helens is an _____________________ volcano in Washington State.