01:460:100 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Grenville Orogeny, Taconic Orogeny, Acadian Orogeny

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Geological Sciences
• Course: 01:460:100
• Professor: C.Lepre

Document Summary

Oldest rocks/minerals date to the hadean era; plate tectonics began during or just before the archean; 90% of today"s continental crust formed in the proterozoic. Red shift- moving away; blue shift- moving closer. After big bang, hydrogen formed in a few seconds, in 3 minutes helium starts to form. Elements with atomic numbers 5 and less formed shortly after (nuclear fusion and big. End result was nebulae in the young universe. Over 100 billion galaxies exist in the visible universe. Our solar system is on an arm of the milky way galaxy. Our sun is one of 300 billion stars in the milky way. 91. 2% of earth"s mass comprises just four elements: iron (fe) 32. 1% oxygen (o) 30. 1% silicon (si) 15. 1% magnesium (mg) 13. 9% Lithosphere - crust plus cooler part of mantle. Asthenosphere - warmer mantle that can flow very slowly. Continental lithosphere about 150km thick, oceanic about 100km thick.