ASTR 101 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Paleomagnetism
Document Summary
Tectonic activity displays itself in the following ways: plate motion, volcanoes, mountain/terrain formation, crustal fractures. The more diverse the surface geography of a planet, the more involved is the tectonic activity. For example, the earth is one of the most tectonically active planets in the solar. System and has extensive systems of plate boundaries, active volcanoes, mountain ranges and canyons. Mars (small, low in mass) on the other hand has very few mountain ranges or active volcanoes. The fact that the volcanoes on mars are large implies that mars was once active, in its distant past but with limited plate motion. Erosion can be cause by the following processes: atmospheric erosion (wind, weather, tectonic activity (crustal movement/recycling, volcanoes, gravity (slumping) Depending on the mass of the atmosphere, this list is in order of strength. Atmospheric erosion has short timescales, on order of hundreds of thousands of years. Tectonic activity can take on order of millions of years.
