Earth’s Interior
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Example answers: [Drawings described in brackets]
- Mostly because of the compilation of theories
- This information is gathered by geologists who study the earth
- We know this because it has been researched
 An example of a “flat” Earth |
 Another example of a “flat” Earth |
 A spherical Earth |
Why is there an underwater mountain chain in the middle of the Atlantic ocean?
| Seafloor Spreading | 10 | 9% |
| Volcanic Activity | 22 | 19% |
| Collision of two plates | 30 | 26% |
| Rise in water levels | 37 | 33% |
| Misc | 15 | 13% |
Example answers:
- Underwater volcanoes and millions of years of evolution
- The Ice Age produce glaciers which melted and the water level rose.
- Severe flooding and erosion of the earth below.
One student’s explanation for the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Earthquakes
N=142 (95%)
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Example answers:
- [Earthquakes are caused by] shifting of plates. [They occur in] California, West Coast because of the pressure from the ocean.
- [Earthquakes are caused by] shifting of tectonic plates. [They] occur in the West Coast; I don’t know why.
- Earthquakes are caused when there is a shift in the Earth’s crust. This can occur from two plates moving toward each other, away from each other or from water. They occur in California. Part of California (western-most part) is breaking away from the continent. Eventually (in several hundred or thousand years) it won’t be a part of California, but it will form an island.
- Earthquakes are caused by the earth’s crust, more specifically, tectonic plates that float on top of molten magma. These plates bump into each other. Because the crust is gradually but always being created or destroyed (I forgot the terms for abduction, subduction, something like that.) These tectonic plates or cracks in the Earth’s crust, or faults crash into each other, move along each other or up and down against each other.
- Plates that move beneath the Earth collide and cause earthquakes. They happen on the West Coast of the United States and Alaska because the faults there are active.
- Heat [they occur] in warmer weather areas.
- [Earthquakes are caused by] the shifting of the inner core. They occur in the southwest area such as California. The reason they occur is because of aa fault line where the earth has a separation.
- Earthquakes are caused by an increase in pressure underneath the Earth’s surface. They occur closer to the equator on the West Coast of the US.
- [Earthquakes are caused by] heat and pressure from the Earth’s core. [Earthquakes occur] on fault lines like NM fault or SA fault because they sort of let the pressure most easily escape like seams. When an earthquake happens, it is sort of bursting the Earth’s seams.
- [Earthquakes are caused by] underground “plate things” [that] move and eventually collide. They occur on faults (I think) where the “plate things” are located.
- [Earthquakes are caused by] the moving of plates under the ocean colliding with the states on the coast. [Earthquakes occur] along the coast.
Volcanoes
N=120 (81%)
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Example answers:
- An increase in heat in the magma pockets inside the Earth’s mantle causes an abrupt spurt, which breaks through the layers into the crust, causing a bulge of land to rise.
- Melting and crushing of the rocks cause heat underneath the surface. They occur in Florida, maybe because it is consistently warmer there.
- A buildup of gaseous rocks and heat and gasses within the Earth. Pressure builds up and forms; volcanoes occur. They occur in Hawaii, because of the climate.
- Volcanoes are caused by built pressure. They occur in Hawaii because of it’s tropical climate.
- Volcanoes are caused by an eruption in the Earth’s surface due to running water that carve out mountains. They occur on islands, like Hawaii where the climate is warm.
- Volcanoes occur when the mountains get too hot and they erupt.
- I think the mixture of heat and sand causes volcanoes. Volcanoes occur in the mountains and deserts because it is hot and there is a lot of sand.
- Heat and gasses from the Earth’s core push their way up, bringing lava with them.
Global Warming
N=120 (81%)
| What is “global warming”? | What causes global warming? | |||
| Increase in Temperature | 89 | Increase in CO2 | 13 | |
| Increase in sunrays/UV | 25 | Increase in CO | 4 | |
| Greenhouse effect | 13 | Hydrocarbons | 7 | |
| Misc | 7 | Pollution | 54 | |
| Decrease in vegetation | 4 | |||
| Hole in Ozone layer | 64 | |||
| Misc | 30 |
(Some responses had multiple answers)
Example answers:
- The buildup of infrared energy, absorbed in the visible spectrum and the re-emitted by the Earth’s surface, beneath gasses in the atmosphere (mostly CO2 on Earth), which the visible spectrum can pass through, but infrared cannot.
- When things such as fossil fuels are burned and the emmissions break down the ozone layer which is the Earth’s protection from the Sun. That allows the Sun to warm the planet, causing climate change which also causes an increase in natural disasters.
- Global warming is the gradual shrinking of the ozone layer which is our protection from the harmful rays of the Sun. This is caused by our extensive daily use of CFCs and our growing pollution problem, the destruction of the rainforest, etc.
- Global warming is when average seasonal temperature increases to a warmer temp. The ozone problem and pollution cause global warming.
- Global warming is the change of the Earth’s temperature. It is caused by a breakdown in the ozone layer – a protective layer of the atmosphere.
This test was designed by John DeLaughter and Seth Stein
Update: 10 Feb 1998