Sara's Science Vocab
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- mold
- a fossil formed when an organim burried in sediment dissolves, leaving a hollow area
- continental glacier
- a glacier that covers much of a continent or large island
- potential energy
- energy that is stored
- moraine
- a ridge formed by the till deposited at the edge of a glacier
- stalagmite
- cone-shaped calcite deposit that builds up on the cave floor
- oxbow lake
- meander cut off from a river
- half-life
- the time it takes for a half of the atoms of a radioactive element to decay into a stable element
- vertebrate
- an animal with a backbone
- sand dune
- a deposit of wind-blown sand
- period
- one of the units of geologic time into which smart people divide eras.
- paleontologist
- a scientist who studies fossils to learn about organisms that lived long ago
- glacier
- a large mass of moving ice and snow on land
- epoch
- lengths of time that periods are divided into
- kinetic energy
- the energy an object has due to its motion
- invertebrate
- the opposite of a vertebrate...an animal without a backbone
- extinct
- a whole species dies and does not come back
- friction
- the force that opposes the motion of one surface as it moves across another surface
- cast
- a fossil that is a solid copy of a organism's shape, formed when minerals seep into a mold
- turbulence
- type of movement of water in which rather than moving downstream the water moves every which way
- ground water
- water that fills the cracks and spaces in underground soil
- alluvial fan
- wide sloping deposit of sediment formed where a stream leaves a mountian range
- karst topography
- region in which a layer of limestone close to the surface creates deep valleys and sinkholes.
- beach
- wave-washed area with lots of deposited sand
- kettle
- small depression that forms when a chunk of ice is left in a glacial till
- deflation
- wind erosion that removes surface materials
- relative age
- the age of a rock compared (younger or older)
- terminal moraine
- a mound of till at the edge of a glacier
- cross-cutting
- when something cuts through layers of rock
- till
- the sediment deposited directly by a glacier
- longshore drift
- the movement of water and sediment down a beach caused by waves coming into the shore at an angle
- stalacite
- calcite deposit that hangs from the roof of a cave
- radioactive decay
- the breakdown of a radioactive element releasing particles & energy
- intrusion
- an igneous rock layer formed when magma hardens beneath earth's surface
- extrusion
- an igneous rock layer formed when lava flows onto earth's surface and hardens
- carbon film
- a type of fossil consisting of an extremely thin coating of a carbon on rock
- geologic time scale
- a record of the geologic events and life forms in earth's history
- trace fossil
- a type of fossil that provides evidence of the activities of ancient organsms
- energy
- the ability to do work or cause change
- petrified fossil
- a fossil in which minerals replace all or part of an organism
- evolution
- the process by which all the different kinds of living things have changed over time
- index fossil
- fossils of widely distributed organisms that lived during only one short period
- plucking
- the process by which a glacier picks up rock as it flows over the land
- spit
- a beach formed by longshore drift that projects like a finger out into the water
- absolute age
- the age of a rock given as the number of years since the rock formed
- flood plain
- wide valley through which a river flows
- valley glacier
- a long, narrow glacier that forms when snow and ice build up in a mountain valley
- mass extinction
- when many types of living things go "bye-bye" at the same time
- load
- the amount of sediment that a river of stream carries
- fossil
- the preserved remains of traces of living things
- loess
- a wind-formed deposit made of fine particles of clay and silt
- ice age
- times in the past when continental glaciers covered large parts of eath's surface
- unconformity
- a place where an old, eroded rock surface is in contact with a newer rock layer
- abrasion
- grinding away of rock by other rock particles carried in water, ice, or wind
- meander
- loop like bend in the course of a river
- era
- one of the 3 long units of geologic time between the precambrian and the present
- law of superposition
- the principle that states that younger layers are on top wile the older they are the deeper they are
- delta
- a landforms made of sediment that is deposited where a river flows into an ocean or lake
- fault
- a break or crack
- sedimentary rock
- the type of rock that is make of hardened sediment...layers