Explain inductive and deductive reasoning.
What is a hypothesis? A law?
What is special about Cepheid variables?
What is the Doppler effect and why do we care?
Explain the life cycle of a star like our sun. How does the life cycle of a giant star differ from this?
List some differences between the inner and outer planets.
What makes Earth a hospitable planet for life?
Explain why the Earth experiences seasonal temperature contrasts.
What happens when the solar wind interacts with Earth's magnetic field (draw a diagram)?
Describe and explain the significance of the magnetism of the rocks on the seafloor.
What is the evidence for seafloor spreading? Plate tectonics?
Explain the life cycle of the oceanic crust, being sure to include a diagram.
What are the main compositional layers of the Earth? How do these relate to the asthenosphere and the lithosphere?
What are the three types of plate boundaries? Include a sketch. How are plate boundaries identified?
Be prepared to provide diagrams regarding any permutation of convergent and divergent boundaries. What is a fault? An earthquake?
What are the three major types of faults (include diagrams)?
What are the three major types of earthquake waves? Briefly describe each.
Explain how to locate an earthquake based on the information in seismograms.
What is the modified Mercalli intensity scale (called Mercalli Intensity scale in lecture notes) based on?
What is the Richtor magnitude?
Where are earthquakes most likely to occur?
What is the difference between forecasting and predicting?
Is long-term or short-term mitigation more realistic for earthquake hazards? Explain.
What is the Gutenberg-Richtor relationship? Include a plot.
What factors will influence how well a city will fare given an earthquake?
What are the most dangerous effects of earthquakes?
What strategies can be taken to mitigate earthquake hazards?