Name: ______
June Proficiency Exam Study Guide
7th Grade Honors Science
Proficiency Exam Dates: Wed 6/10 & Thurs 6/11
Chapter 14: Earth’s Changing Surface
· Lesson 1 Plate Tectonics (pages 500 - 506)
· Lesson 2 Earthquakes and Volcanoes (pages 508 - 516)
· Lesson 3 Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition (pages 518 - 525)
1. What are the two types of weathering? Define each and give an example.
Physical weathering: process of breaking rocks without changing its composition. Example: Frost Wedging (freezing and thawing)
Chemical Weathering: process of changing the composition of rocks by exposure to water and the atmosphere. Examples: acid rain, rusting, gases in the atmosphere
2. What happens when sediment is eroded by water, ice, and wind slows down or stops moving?
The sediment is deposited to a new location
3. What are the components of soil? How long does it take to form?
Weathered rock, mineral material, organic matter, air, water; hundreds to thousands of years
4. How do scientists learn about all of the layers of the geosphere?
They analyze seismic waves from earthquakes
5. What does the hypothesis of continental drift state?
Continents have slowly moved to their current locations
6. What evidence did Wegener use to try to prove his continental drift hypothesis?
Fossil Evidence: tropical plant fossils found in Antarctica
Geological Evidence: matching rock structures
7. Why was Wegener’s hypothesis rejected? What concept eventually led to the approval of the Theory of Plate Tectonics?
Wegener’s hypothesis was rejected because he could not provide a reason as to how the continents move. His hypothesis was finally approved after the concept of sea-floor spreading was discovered.
8. What does the Theory of Plate Tectonics state? States that Earth’s crust is broken into rigid plates that move slowly over Earth’s surface.
9. What is a caldera?
After an eruption, the top of a volcano collapses down
10. Complete the table below
Movement of Plates / Landforms/EventsConvergent / plates move towards each other / Volcanoes
Divergent / plates move away from each other / Volcanoes
Transform / plates slide past each other / earthquakes
11. What force drives plate tectonics?
Convection currents in the mantle
12. What is a volcano?
Forms a mountain when layers of lava and volcanic ash erupt and build up
Chapter 6: The Environment and Change Over Time
· Lesson 1 Fossil Evidence of Evolution (pages 192-200)
13. What is relative-age dating?
A rock is either older or younger than rocks nearby. Scientists determine the relative order in which rock layers were deposited.
14. What is absolute-age dating?
More precise than relative-age dating; scientists use radioactive decay, a natural clocklike process in rocks to learn its age in year.
15. What type of rock do fossils form in?
Sedimentary rock
16. What are fossils?
Preserved remains of traces of living things
17. List the correct order of the divisions of the geologic time scale from largest to smallest.
Eons-Eras-Periods
18. Give an example from each way that fossils can form.
Fossil / Definition / ExampleMineralization / Minerals in the water replace the organism’s original material and harden into a rock / petrified wood
Carbonization / A fossil forms when a dead organism is compressed over time and pressure drives off the organism’s liquids and gases, only the carbon outline or film remains. / outline of a fern found in a rock
Molds and Casts / Mold: impression of an organism in a rock
Cast: fossil copy of an organism in a rock / impression of a shell in mud that has hardened
Trace Fossils / Preserved evidence of the activity of an organism / foot print
Original Material / Original tissue of organisms are buried in the absence of oxygen for long periods of time become fossilized / baby mammoth found in a glacier
19. What is biological evolution?
The change over time in populations of related organisms
Weather and Climate
Weather and Climate slides (pages 570 -683 as a reference)
20. What is the Coriolis Effect ?
change that Earth’s rotation causes in the motion of objects and that explain how winds curve
21. What are the layers of the atmosphere? List important facts about each layer. Be sure to include information about changes in temperature and pressure!!
Troposphere: surface-weather
Stratosphere: ozone layer, airplane fly
Mesosphere: meteors
Thermosphere: satellites
Ionosphere: Auroras
Exosphere: space-no definite end
22. How are layers of the atmosphere distinguished? Composition, temperature, and altitude
23. What are doldrums? Calm, windless areas
24. What is the relationship between the amount of molecules in the atmosphere and altitude?
The higher in altitude you go, the lesser the number of air molecules there are in the atmosphere
25. What causes global winds?
Unequal heating of Earth’s atmosphere
26. What is a front?
the boundary where two different air masses meet
27. What is the difference between weather and climate? Give an example of each.
Weather is the atmospheric conditions, along with short-term changes, of a certain place at a certain time. Example: its raining and cold outside, it snowed 20 inches last night. Climate is the long-term average weather conditions that occur in a particular region. Example: It snows about 20 inches a year in this area
28. List five pieces of evidence of climate change.
· Increase in temperatures
· Melting ice caps
· Rising sea levels
· Decrease in the amount of glaciers
· Decrease in the amount of snow cover
· Increase in humidity