Exam 8: The Terrestrial Planets and Earths Moon

Name the terrestrial planets in order of increasing distance from the Sun. What are the terrestrial planets in order of increasing geologic age of their surface?

Which is NOT a reason for the large size of volcanoes on Mars as compared to Earth's smaller volcanoes?

Present-day erosion on the surface of the Moon is primarily caused by:

The North American plate and the Pacific plate are sliding past one another at a rate of approximately 3 cm/year. San Francisco, which is located on the edge of the North American plate, is sliding southward toward Los Angles, which is located on the Pacific Plate. If they are currently separated by a distance of 600 km, how many years will it take for the two cities to meet?

In the Earth's crust, lower density igneous rock such as _________ make up the continents, and higher density volcanic rock such as _________ make up the ocean floor.

Which object would have the LOWEST impact on our planet if it were to strike Earth?

The observation that the Moon's average density is similar to the density of the Earth's _________ supports the collision theory of the Moon's origin.

Which of the following statements is FALSE?

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

The rovers named Spirit and Opportunity that recently explored the surface of Mars discovered:

The dynamo theory says that a planet will have a strong magnetic field if it has:

The smallest number of craters per square meter are found on the surface of:

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

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.

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.

Convection cannot take place in the Earth's mantle because it is not molten.

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?

All the terrestrial planets show evidence of disruptions due to tectonics occurring now or in the past.

What will eventually happen to the Earth when radioactive decays in its interior cease?

Earth's innermost core is solid, not liquid, because: