History of Earth - Middle School

You'll get a big bang out of this list of terms related to the history of Earth. Review the origins of the solar system, geological eras and epochs, plate tectonics and continental drift, paleontology and evolution, and more.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. Archean
    relating to the eon from about 4.0 to 2.5 billion years ago
  2. asteroid
    a small celestial body composed of rock and metal
  3. bed
    (geology) a stratum of rock (especially sedimentary rock)
  4. big bang theory
    (cosmology) the theory that the universe originated sometime between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago from the cataclysmic explosion of a small volume of matter at extremely high density and temperature
  5. canyon
    a ravine formed by a river in an area with little rainfall
  6. Cenozoic
    the current geologic era, starting about 66 million years ago
  7. climate change
    a shift in the world's average weather and temperature
  8. continent
    one of the large landmasses of the earth
  9. continental drift
    the gradual movement of very large land masses
  10. crater
    a bowl-shaped geological formation at the top of a volcano
  11. crust
    the outer layer of the Earth
  12. decay
    the organic phenomenon of rotting
  13. earthquake
    vibration from underground movement along a fault plane
  14. eon
    the longest unit of geological time
  15. epoch
    a unit of geological time that is divided into ages
  16. era
    a major division of geological time
  17. erosion
    the process of wearing or grinding something down
  18. eruption
    the sudden occurrence of a violent discharge
  19. evolution
    sequence of events involved in the development of a species
  20. extinction
    the state of being no longer in existence
  21. fault
    a crack in the earth's crust resulting from displacement
  22. fossil
    the remains of a plant or animal from a past geological age
  23. geologic
    of or relating to the study of Earth and its structure
  24. geology
    science of the history of the earth as recorded in rocks
  25. Hadean
    the first geologic eon, from about 4.6 to 4.0 billion years ago
  26. half-life
    the time required for something to fall to half its initial value (in particular, the time for half the atoms in a radioactive substance to disintegrate)
  27. ice age
    a period when glaciers cover much of the Earth's surface
  28. igneous
    produced by the action of fire or intense heat
  29. index fossil
    a fossil known to have lived in a particular geologic age that can be used to date the rock layer in which it is found
  30. Mesozoic
    the geologic era from about 252 to 66 million years ago
  31. metamorphic
    having undergone transformation by pressure, heat, etc.
  32. meteorite
    a stony or metallic object from space that hits the earth
  33. microfossil
    a very tiny impression left by an organism from a past geological age
  34. mountain chain
    a series of hills or mountains
  35. ocean floor
    the bottom of a sea or ocean
  36. paleontology
    the earth science that studies fossil organisms
  37. Paleozoic
    the geologic era from about 541 to 252 million years ago
  38. Pangaea
    (plate tectonics) a hypothetical continent including all the landmass of the earth prior to the Triassic period when it split into Laurasia and Gondwanaland
  39. period
    a unit of geological time when a system of rocks formed
  40. petrifaction
    the process of turning some plant material into stone
  41. Phanerozoic
    relating to the eon from about 541 million years ago to the present
  42. plate
    a rigid layer of the Earth's crust
  43. plate tectonics
    the movement or study of the movement of Earth's crust
  44. Precambrian
    the vast span of time from about 4.6 billion to 541 million years ago
  45. prehistoric
    belonging to or existing before recorded times
  46. radiocarbon dating
    an analysis used to determine the age of organic materials
  47. radioisotope
    a radioactive isotope of an element
  48. ridge
    a long narrow natural elevation or striation
  49. sedimentary
    formed by or containing the accumulation of deposited matter
  50. sedimentary rock
    rock formed from consolidated clay deposits
  51. solar system
    the sun with the celestial bodies that revolve around it
  52. stratum
    one of several parallel layers of material
  53. superposition
    (geology) the principle that in a series of stratified sedimentary rocks the lowest stratum is the oldest
  54. time scale
    an arrangement of events used as a measure of duration
  55. volcanism
    the phenomena associated with volcanic activity
  56. volcano
    a fissure in the earth's crust through which gases erupt
Created on Wed Feb 15 22:28:25 EST 2017 (updated Wed Apr 12 15:07:38 EDT 2017)

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