Grade 10 – Term 1

SCIENCE REVIEWER

A. CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY

- Published by Alfred Wegener in a 1915 book called “The Origins of Continents and
Oceans”
- States that there was a Protocontinent – a first continent
- 4 things Wegener noticed:
1. Apparent Fit of the continents
 South American + African
 Noticed by Abraham Ortelius
2. Fossil Correlation

Glossopteris - Extinct Seed fern

- Dominant in Gondwana
- Found in S. America, Africa, Madagascar, Antarctica,
and Australia
- Discovered by Eduard Suess – he suggested land
bridges
Mososaurus - Middle Lizard
- Freshwater Lizard older than dinosaurs
- Found in South Africa and South America
- Discovered by Alexander Du Toit
Cynogathus - Dog Jaw
- Warm-blooded, mammal-like reptile
- Powerful Jaws & Dog-like teeth
- Found in Africa and Argentina
Lystrosaurus - The shovel reptile
- Found in Africa, India, Antarctica
- Mammal-like reptile about the size of a small dog
 3. Rock and Mountain Formations
 Similarities in Geological formations in the Southern Continents
 Noticed by Roberto Mantovani – he believed the earth was expanding but
continental movement without expansion was proposed by Frank Bursley
Taylor because of the gravitational pull of the moon towards the equator that
formed the Himalayan and the Alps.
 Appalachian Mountain ranges in N. America are Similar to those in Europe
 Identical rocks are found on both sides of the Atlantic ocean
4. Climate Mismatch
 Glacial Striations are found on continents near the equator but should only form
near poles
 Tropical Plants are found in Antarctica in the form of coal deposits
- The North was called Laurasia while the South was called Gondwanaland as suggested
by Eduard Suess
- Tethys – ocean between Laurasia and Gondwanaland
- All Land = Pangaea , All Sea = Panthalassa
- Continental Drift Theory resulted to orogeny – formation of mountains
- The idea was against Permanentism – states that continents & ocean basins have always
been permanent
- Pole-fleeing force is the centrifugal force Wegener believed to cause continental drift but it
wasn’t strong enough

B. PLATE TECTONICS
- Arthur Holmes
 Modified Wegener’s Theory
 “Continental rocks were lighter than oceanic rocks” therefore oceanic rocks
submerge
 Had the idea of thermal convection in the mantle
- SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging)
 Invented in the 1920’s
 Reflects sound from the ocean floor
 Signals are called Pings
  Bathymetry & Echo-sounding – Measurement of water depth
1. Challenger Expedition (1872-1876)
 Ocean floor is not flat
2. German Ship Meteor
 First Echo Sounding Survey
 Swath Mapping – Multi beam & Side-scanning SONAR
- Ocean Floor

Continental - Sea is shallow 200 m

Shelf - Seabed near a large landmass
- Neritic Zone
Continental - Drops from the outer edge of the continental shelf to the 200-4000 m
Slope deep ocean floor
Volcanic - Chain of offshore volcanoes
Arc - Result of Subduction of an oceanic tectonic plate beneath
another tectonic plate
Abyss - Temp. is very low and sunlight doesn’t penetrate 4-5 km
Mid-ocean - Mountain ranges formed where tectonic plates pull apart
Ridge - Elevated region with a rift valley
- Boundary between 2 divergent plates
- Where new crust forms
Abyssal - Large, flat sediment-covered area 4000 m
Plain - Filled with mud and marine organism remains
Seamount - Underwater mountain rising above the deep sea floor
- If it reaches above sea level, it becomes an island
Guyot - Flat-topped seamount
Ocean - Long, narrow, deep depression in the ocean floor 7,300 - 11,000
Trench - Parallel to the plate boundary m
- Formed by subduction of one plate beneath another
- Deepest is Marianas Trench which is 11 km deep in the
pacific, where most trenches are found
- Magnetic Anomaly Detection
 Used by US Navy to detect submarines
 Any change in pre-recorded magnetic map would be considered an anomaly
- Magnetic Stripes
 Magnetic map revealed that the seafloor was striped on either side of a mid-ocean
ridge which keep reversing pattern
 Pattern on one side of the ridge is a mirror copy on the other side
 These stripes can be matched with geo-magnetic reversal records obtained from
continental rocks already dated
 Rocks closest to the ridge are the youngest while those near the cost lines are the
oldest
 Rocks increase in age as they go farther from the central ridge
- Magnetic Reversals
 The earth’s magnetic field reverses direction at lengthy intervals of time
 Can be detected when iron content of ferromagnetic lava changes direction and can
be seen in hardened rocks
 Last reversal was 780 000 years ago
- Seafloor Spreading

 Developed by Harry Hess, an American Geologist who studied mid-ocean ridges

  He suggested that ocean floors move along with continents in 1962
 According to the theory, hot less-dense material from below the earth’s crust rises
towards the surface at a mid-ocean ridge.
 Magma or Molten Basaltic Material flows out, material moves sideways away from
the ridge and creates a new crust
 The Lithosphere, consisting of the crust and upper mantle, sinks under the
Asthenosphere, the upper layer of the earth's mantle, in a process known as
Subduction.
 It is consumed at Subduction Zones where there are ocean trenches.
 Findings that support this theory:
1. Rocks are younger at the mid-ocean ridge
2. Rocks far from the mid-ocean ridge are older
3. Sediments are thinner at the ridge
4. Rock at the ocean floor are younger than those at continents
- Claims to the Ocean
 1958 – UN agreed upon the Law of the Sea, providing passage provisions for ships,
subs, and airplanes
 Today we have EEZ’s or Exclusive Economic Zones
 Nations have rights to all living and non-living resources 200 nautical miles
from the shore
 US made their claim in 1958 and they have an EEZ larger than their land area
 1990 – US Geological Survey and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
planned to complete swath mapping of the US EEZ but it is not finished.

- Plate Tectonics Theory

 Gave evidence to Wegener’s continental drift theory

 Proposed by John Wilson where earth’s crust is divided into plates that fit like a
puzzle
 Mantle Convection is the main driving mechanism that generates force strong
enough to move plates

 Plate Boundaries:

Convergent Plate - Plates collide with each other

Boundary - Continental Plates are made of Granite while Oceanic Plates
are made of Basalt (Basalt is more dense and heavier
therefore it sinks)
- When 2 continental plates collide, they simply ram against
each other and create a mountain range
- When 2 oceanic plate collide, the difference in density is
because of temperature and the colder and older palte
sinks
Divergent Plate - Plates move away from each other
Boundary - New crust is created
- Move 2-5 cm per year
Transform Plate - Plates slide against each other
Boundary - San Andreas fault is an example

 Hotspots
o Exceptionally hot regions that forms
volcanoes
o The volcano formed moves away from
the hot spot together with the plate
movement
o There are hotspots beneath Hawaii,
Iceland, the Azores, and Galapagos
Islands
 Wilson Cycle
 o Repeated process of the opening and closing of ocean basins

C.
ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
- Electromagnetic Waves
 Waves without any medium
 Vibrations of electrons
 James Clerk Maxwell discovered that in a
vacuum, EM waves move at the speed
of light – 3 x 108 or 299 792 458 m/s

Radio Waves - Lowest Frequency, Longest Wavelength
- Predicted by James Clerk Maxwell in 1867 but Heinrich Hertz
successfully produced it in 1887
- Hertz – unit of frequency per second
- Transceivers – two-way radio that can transmit and receive signals
- AM – Amplitude Modulation, can be transmitted over long distances but
poor sound quality
- FM – Frequency Modulation, higher quality due to high bandwidth but
prone to interference
- MRI – uses short wave radio waves with a magnet to create an image
Microwaves - Jagadish Chandra Bose transmitted a wireless signal from a lecture hall
through three walls to ring a bell and ignite gunpowder
- Percy Spencer used cavity magnetron and discovered the microwave
oven
Infrared Waves - Part of sun radiation
- Discovered by Frederick William Herchel and first called it Calorific
Rays
- 49% of the earth’s heat is from the infrared rays of the sun
- Thermographic Cameras can detect infrared radiation in an object in a
process called thermography
- Remote controls, wireless mouse, Night Vision Goggles, Autofocus
Cameras
Visible Light - Range of EM humans can see
- Violet – Shortest wavelength, Red – Highest wavelength
- All Colors = White
Ultraviolet waves - Beyond Violet
- Have enough energy to enter skin cells
- Discovered by Johann Wilhelm Ritter with the use of Silver Chloride
which turned black when exposed
- Sun is natural source of UV Rays
- Tanning, UV watermarks, water sterilization, etc
X-Ray - High Energy – Go through skin and Muscle
- High level of exposure may cause cancer
- William Crookes and Johann Hittorf, inventors of the Crookes Tube,
found photographic plates with marks and shadows
- Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen systematically studied and discovered X-rays
and called it unknown rays
Gamma Rays - Highest Frequency
- Most radiant and harmful rays
- Used in treating cancer
- Discovered by Paul Villard in 1900
- Ernest Rutherford renamed Villard’s Radiation to Gamma Rays
- Produced by supernova explosions , nuclear explosions, and radioactive
atoms
- Ionizing and non-ionizing radiations
 

D. MIRRORS
- Reflection in a Plane Mirror
 Matter classified when light strikes

Transparent Translucent Opaque

Effect on incident Transmits Transmits some Absorbs or reflects
light
Effect on visibility See through Not Clear Can’t see through

 Terminologies

Incident Ray Incoming ray

Reflected Ray Ray that bounces off
Normal Perpendicular line to a mirror surface
Angle of incidence Angle between incidence ray and normal
Angle of reflection Angle between reflected ray and normal

 Law of Reflection
 “Angle of incidence (incoming ray) = Angle of reflection (outgoing ray)
 Works only on flat plane surfaces

 Types of Reflection
 Specular Smooth Surface
Diffuse Irregular/Dull surface

 Plane Mirror

 LOST- Location, Orientation, Size, Type

 Location
 Image - Distance
 Orientation

 Size
 Enlarged, Reduced, or The Same
 Type
 Real – image appears in front of the mirror
 Virtual – image appears behind the mirror
 Concave and Convex

 Types of Rays
 Formulas