Science 10, Group Tournament QUESTIONS
1. A baseball is thrown vertically into the air with an initial velocity of +9.8 m/s. Based on your
knowledge of gravity, how long will it take for the ball to reach its apex when the velocity is 0m/s?
Explain
2. Look at the graph below. Describe the change in motion (N/S), velocity (+/-) and acceleration (+/-)
from 4-6s.
3. When looking at a velocity-time graph with multiple linear slopes, how do you know when an object
travels with the greatest velocity?
4. Look at the below graph. From 0-30 seconds, what direction is the object travelling? Explain
5. Look at the velocity-time graph below. From 7-9s, describe what is happening to the speed of the
object.
6. What is the difference between a continental edge and continental shelve? Which fits better, and why?
7. Why do most earthquakes occur at plate boundaries rather than at the edges of continents?
Science 10, Group Tournament QUESTIONS
8. Name one reason why the theory that continents were once connected by massive land bridges is
unlikely.
9. Where does coal come from?
10. Coal deposits have been found in Antarctica! This does not make sense unless we consider that the
continents have moved to different latitudes (e.g., from warm to cold climates) over time. Why is this?
11. What is paleoglaciation and how does evidence from it support Pangaea?
12. If lava was constantly flowing out of a volcano, and the world’s magnetic field suddenly shifted,
would iron and other magnetic metals in the newly formed rock show this? If so, how? Please explain.
13. What is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge? Where is it and what type of plate boundary is it?
14. What is magnetic striping, and what causes it?
15. Hess characterized sea floor spreading at spreading ridges, and this helped to explain Wegener’s
theory of Pangaea (“all earth”). What is sea floor spreading?
16. True story: in 2006, a worker was monitoring the temperature of a roadway in British Columbia and
determined that it was 90C warmer than the surrounding roads! Suggest an explanation for this.
17. Compare the lithosphere to the asthenosphere. Which is brittle? Which is warmer? In which do
convection currents take place?
18. List two processes that contribute to the movement of tectonic plates.
19. What is density? Explain how it influences convergent plate interactions. Give one example.
20. The Pacific Plate is moving Northwest whereas the Juan De Fuca Plate is moving South East. Sea
floor spreading adds material (i.e., molten rock) to the Juan De Fuca Plate, pushing it into the Pacific
Plate. Describe one consequence of this.
21. Why does the earth’s surface not get bigger and bigger if lava continues to spew from volcanoes?
22. Is a shallow focus or deep focus earthquake more likely to cause a lot of damage to human cities?
Why?
23. The earth’s radius is over 6,000 kms! Where do the heavy metals tend to be found? What about the
lighter metals? Why?
24. On the topic of earthquakes, what is an S wave? Come up with an easy way to remember the direction
they travel and the type of damage they create.
25. Which type of earthquake body wave, an S wave or a P wave, does not travel through liquids? Why?
Science 10, Group Tournament QUESTIONS
26. View the below time-distance graph. Which wave travels the fastest? How do you know this based on
reading the graph axes?
27. View the below time-distance graph. How long does it take for an S wave to travel 5,000 km from the
epicentre?
28. Most composite volcanoes in Canada do not have a typical large cone shape. Why?
29. Are shield volcanoes more common on continents or on the sea floor? Please explain why.
30. Analyze the (earthquake) seismogram below. Describe what the question marks represent. Be specific
and explain how you know this.
?
??
???
31. Your parents are on vacation in Africa and chatting with you on their cell phone. All of sudden, they
yell “earthquake!” They are shaken but ok. The earthquake registers 9.1 on the Richter scale. Should
you be worried about massive S-waves causing structural damage to your apartment in Vancouver?
Explain using your knowledge of the anatomy of the earth.