History of the Earth Jeopardy

1. History of the Earth Jeopardy Before the Earth Major Events Timelines Pictures Earth’s Future 100 100 100 100 100 200 200 200 200 200 300 300 300 300 300 400 400 400 400 400 500 500 500 500 500 Final Jeopardy

2. 2 How long ago did the “Big Bang” occur?

3. 3 13.7 Billion Years Ago

4. 4 What is the name our galaxy and the name of the closest galaxy to our own?

5. 5 Ours - The Milky Way Closest - The Andromeda Galaxy

6. 6 What is theorized to be at the center of every galaxy?

7. 7 Super-massive Black Holes

8. 8 How did the moon form?

9. 9 A 5th inner planet named Theia smashed into Earth 4.6 bya and blew debris into orbit. Eventually, the debris formed an accretion disk and soon thereafter coalesced into the moon

10. 10 What are the “seeds” of stars, planets, and entire solar systems, how do these “seeds” arise, and what are these “seeds” made of?

11. 11 Solar Systems (etc) are formed from nebulas Nebulas come from exploded supernovas Nebulas are comprised of the 92 naturally occurring elements

12. 12 What was the Cambrian Explosion and what was the end result of the event?

13. 13 Explosion of life at the beginning of the Phanerozoic Eon Result – All present animal Phyla developed during the Cambrian Explosion over the course of 20 million years or so

14. 14 Daily Double Compare and contrast the P-T and K-T Extinctions on the basis of cause, the time in which they occurred, and the end result of the extinctions Daily Double

15. 15 P-T – Caused by the formation of Pangaea and the super-volcano eruption that occurred in present-day Siberia about 251 mya - Resulted in the death of 83% of all animal genera K-T – Caused by an asteroid impact near the Yucatan Peninsula 65 mya - Resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs

16. 16 What caused the Snowball Earth event and how did this event come to an end?

17. 17 Cause – Proliferation of photosynthetic organisms began to draw too much CO2 out of the atmosphere causing it to cool down rapidly End – The frozen landscape allowed very little photosynthesis to occur. Additionally volcanism was releasing high amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. Eventually the CO2 rose to a point to melt the Snowball Earth

18. 18 What was the defining event that led to the ability of single-celled organisms to begin to form multicellular organisms?

19. 19 Atmospheric oxygen rose to a point high enough for massive amounts of collagen to be produced

20. 20 Why was the “Late Heavy Bombardment” so important in the development of life on Earth?

21. 21 It brought most of the water to the Earth as well as the amino acids essential for life to exist

22. 22 The first 3 Eons of Earth’s history are collectively known as what?

23. 23 The Precambrian

24. 24 In which Eon did Snowball Earth occur?

25. 25 Proterozoic

26. 26 In which Period did dinosaurs reach their peak diversity?

27. 27 The Cretaceous Period

28. 28 Describe the following 3 Eras of the Phanerozoic Paleozoic Mesozoic Cenozoic

29. 29 Paleozoic – Formation of all present animal phyla, formation of Pangaea, colonization of land by plants & animals Mesozoic – The Age of Dinosaurs (Earth was hotter & wetter with lots of jungles & swamps) Cenozoic – The Age of Mammals (Earth got much cooler & drier and the jungles/ swamps gave way to grasslands)

30. 30 Daily Double What is the balanced formula for photosynthesis? Label the following time periods as either an Eon, Era, Period, or Epoch. Pleistocene Hadean Paleozoic Triassic Cambrian Phanerozoic Daily Double

31. 31 Pleistocene - Epoch Hadean - Eon Paleozoic - Era Triassic - Period Cambrian - Period Phanerozoic - Eon

32. 32 What is the name of the landmass pictured below and what was the climate like throughout much of the interior of the landmass?

33. 33 Pangaea – Most of the inner landmass was scorching desert

34. 34 What is the name for these mounds of photosynthetic bacteria that are responsible for the majority of the atmospheric oxygen on earth?

35. 35 Stromatolites

36. 36 What is the name of this fractal organism that may be found in 560 million year old rock all over the world?

37. 37 Charnia

38. 38 What does the following figure show about the development of Homo sapiens over the last 1 million years?

39. 39 Other species of the Homo genus competed with Homo sapiens for resources. Eventually Homo sapiens were the only species left by 30,000 years ago

40. 40 What is tidal braking?

41. 41 The moon pulls on the tidal bulge in the opposite direction of the spin of the Earth. Resulting friction between the ocean water and the ocean floor constantly slows the spin of the Earth. (The moon is speeding up at the same time)

42. 42 • In how many years from now is the Earth expected to enter a new ice age?

43. 37 Approximately 25,000 years

44. 44 • What theory predicts that the Atlantic ocean will reach a maximum size, collapse, and that the continents will then come back together in a formation similar to Pangaea?

45. 45 Introversion Theory

46. 46 What will happen once the moon leaves earth’s orbit and flies off into space?

47. 47 The moon will cease to stabilize Earth on its 23.5° axial tilt and it will begin to tumble around its axis causing the climate to destabilize forever

48. 48 Which would have a more devastating impact on life on Earth? Explain. Formation of a New Super-continent Or Solidification of Earth’s inner core

49. 49 Super-continent – May cause extinctions and change weather patterns Solid Core – Magnetic field around the Earth would break down and solar radiation would destroy all DNA it touched (Much worse fate)

50. 50 Compare and contrast “The Big Crunch” and “The Big Freeze”