Home >> Flashcards >> Environmental Studies >> Chapter 12: Earth's Evolution through Geologic Time
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| COVERS 71% OF EARTH'S SURFACE |
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BIG BANG THEORY
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| About 13.7 billion years ago a cataclysmic explosion created all matter and space almost instantaneously |
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| Continual bombardment by planetesimals and the decay of radioactive elements produces magma "ocean". |
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An exploding star produces all of the elements heavier than iron and spews them into interstellar space. |
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- Formed Earth + the rest of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
- A large rotating cloud of interstellar dust and gas
- Its contraction led to the formation of the protosun
-Matter gradually formed clumps that collided and stuck together to form planetesimals |
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| Gases trapped in planest interior are released. |
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BANDED IRON FORMATIONS |
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-Early iron deposits that consist of alternating layers of iron-rich rocks and chert and formed on the seafloor as sediment
- Iron oxide (iron has a high affinity for oxygen)
- Laid down in the Precambrian between 3.5 and 2 billion years ago |
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| -4 BILLION YEARS AGO 90% OF THE CURRENT VOLUME OF SEAWATER WAS CONTAINED IN THE OCEAN BASINS |
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