EXAM #3

Physics 1050 Fall 2002 Dr Fanelli
EXAM #3 VERSION 2

Solutions

(1)

past volcanic activity.

(2)

P-waves pass through liquids regions, whereas S-waves do not.

(3)

analysis of seismic waves produced by earthquakes.

Drilling has only reached a handful of miles below the Earth's surface.

(4)

asteroid and meteroid impacts

(5)

the ozone layer

(6)

The planet's cloud cover is highly reflective.

(7)

Earth's average density is less than that of water.

(8)

about 1/80, about one-quarter

(9)

greater than 3 billion years.

(10)

CO₂ and H₂O

CO₂ (carbon dioxide), water, and methane are the primary greenhouse gases, however there is little methane in the Earth's atmosphere.

(11)

The pressure is much greater than Earth's.

(12)

lower troposphere

(13)

Hot, dry, light winds

(14)

the location where one plate is pushed under an overlying plate.

(15)

the Van Allen belts

(16)

differentiation

(17)

thin crust, mantle, molten outer core, solid inner core.

(18)

Earth's rotation is gradually slowing down.

(19)

sulfuric acid vapor

(20)

differential gravitational forces produced by the Moon and the Sun on Earth's oceans.

(21)

It is always close to the Sun on the sky.

(22)

a rock-strewn surface

(23)

electric currents generated in the Earth's rotating, liquid metal core.

(24)

there is no atmosphere

(25)

impact cratering followed by extensive lava flows.

Impacts produced the fractures, through which molten magma welled up and spread across the surface.

(26)

lack of atmosphere.

(27)

nitrogen

(28)

Venus rotates backwards.

(29)

shrinkage of the crust and/or core as they cooled.

(30)

convection within the upper mantle

(31)

(1) Certain types of earthquake waves do not pass completely through the Earth and, (2) the existence of a planetary magnetic field.

Lava from volcanoes originates a few miles below the surface, and doesn't tell us about the Earth's deep interior. Earthquakes and the properties of a magnetic field provide information about the Earth's core.

(32)

The highlands are geologically older than the maria.

(33)

Because the rotation and orbital periods of the moon are equal.

(34)

The lunar crust on the far-side is thicker, which prevented molten rock from reaching the surface.

(35)

number of craters on the planet's surface.

More craters-- an older surface, few craters, a relatively young surface.

(36)

by radar imaging techniques

The Pioneer and Magellan spacecraft used radars to bounce signals through the Venusian clouds, and use the reflected radar beams to map the surface.

(37)

on the horizon

The sun is either rising or setting at all points on the terminator.

(38)

Mercury rotates so slowly.

The dynamo theory posits that magnetic fields are caused by rotating, liquid metals, so a slowly rotating planet should lack a magnetic field.

(39)

due to its size, the moon cooled early in its history.

(40)

Both have diameters that are smaller than the Earth.

(41)

Both have a dense, iron-rich core.

(42)

The Moon originated from material torn from the Earth in the aftermath of a collision with a Mars-sized object.