Name ______________________________________________
Introduction to Geography
Chapter 1 Pages 8-9,11, 13-16, 23-25
• Read the assigned pages and answer the following questions.
• This assignment will be turned in and evaluated as part of your grade.
• This information will be included on your exams, so study your answers carefully.
EARTH’S ENVIRONMENTAL SPHERES
1. Name and define the 4 Environmental Spheres:
a.
.
c.
d.
SIZE AND SHAPE OF EARTH
2. Provide the location and elevation of the highest and lowest locations on Earth:
Highest _________________________________________________________________________________
Lowest __________________________________________________________________________________
GEOGRAPHIC GRID – LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE
3. Latitude is a description of location measured north and south of ______________________________.
4. What is the highest number of degrees of latitude? ___________________.
5. Where would you find this location? ____________________________________________________.
6. What is the lowest number of degrees of latitude? _________________________.
7. Where would you find this location? _________________________________________________________.
8. Longitude lines are refe
ed to as _________________________________________________.
9. Latitude lines are refe
ed to as __________________________________________________.
10. How many “prime meridians” were used in the 1880’s? _______________
11. When was the cu
ent “Prime Meridian” established? _________________
* Take special care to note the figures that accompany this topic. Figs. 1-11 through 1-20.
Understand the visual illustrations of the coordinates of Latitude and Longitude.
TELLING TIME
12. FIG. 1-27: How many time zones in the world? _______ How many degrees apart? __________
13. Why and where was Daylight Savings Time created?
PLATE TECTONICS:
A GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE
Chapter 14 Pages XXXXXXXXXX
Read the 3 paragraphs under the heading “From Rigid Earth to Plate Tectonics”. This is the basis for your understanding of the dynamic nature of Earth.
WEGENER’S CONTINENTAL DRIFT
1. Who was Alfred Wegener? What did he do?
2. In 1915, Wegener postulated the existence of a massive supercontinent called _________________________.
3. Provide the lines of evidence Wegener used to support his theory of drifting continents:
a.
b.
c.
d.
4. Wegener’s ideas attracted much attention in the 1920’s. Although some geologists from the southern hemisphere responded with enthusiasm, the general response among world scientists was _________________________________________.
5. What were the 2 main reasons that Earth scientists rejected or ignored Wegener’s ideas?
1.
2.
THEORY OF PLATE TECTONICS : THE EVIDENCE
6. By the 1950’s, scientists from many fields had accumulated a large body of data about the ocean floor. Specifically, what were their findings and/or results of those findings?
a.
b.
c.
SEAFLOOR SPREADING
7. In the 1960’s Ha
y Hess and Robert Dietz proposed a theory that would provide a mechanism for
Wegener’s continental drift. What was that theory?
8. The validity of seafloor spreading was confirmed by 2 lines of evidence:
1.
2.
9. How many times has Earth’s magnetic field reversed over the past 100 million years? __________
10. Data obtained through ocean cores shows that seafloors are like gigantic _____________________________________________________________ moving outward from the midocean ridges toward the _________________________________________.
11. New crust is formed at the _____________________________________________________________ and, within 200 million years, is returned to the mantle by ___________________________________________________.
12. The interiors of continents have a core of very old rock called a ____________________________________ .
13. Some areas of continental crust have been discovered that are more than ______________________ years old.
PLATE TECTONICS
14. What are the 3 types of plate boundaries?
1.
2.
3.
15. At which type of plate boundary are ‘midocean ridges’ formed? ______________________________________
16. At which type of plate boundary does ‘subduction’ occur? _____________________________________________
Refer to fig XXXXXXXXXX
17. Name the plate that is interacting with the west side of the South American Plate: ___________________
18. What type of plate boundary interaction is occuring here? ______________________________________________
19. Which direction is the Pacific Plate moving? ____________________________________________________________
20. Which direction is the North American plate moving? ___________________________________________________
21. What feature marks the eastern boundary of the North American plate? ______________________________.
Refer to fig XXXXXXXXXX
22. Name the plate that is interacting with the west side of the North American plate along the coast of Oregon and Washington. _____________________________________________________________________
23. What type of plate boundary exists between Baja Ca. and mainland Mexico? _____________________