Earth Science

Plate Tectonics - 30%

The following topics will be tested:

  • Identification of Earth’s layers
    • Crust, mantle, core, lithosphere, asthenosphere, etc.
  • Types of plates, boundaries, and margins
    • Convergent, divergent, transform, etc
    • Examples of each
  • Driving forces behind plate tectonics
    • Mantle convection, mantle plumes
  • Plate movement and The Wilson Cycle
  • Isostatic adjustments
  • Magma chemistry and formation


Glaciers - 20%

  • Glacial formation, mass-balance, and flow
  • Glacier and ice sheet types and forms (alpine and continental)
  • Glacial erosion, erosional landforms, and sediment transport
  • Glacial depositional landforms and sediments
  • Glaciers in the hydrological cycle - impacts on climate, streams, lakes, and oceans, sub-glacial hydrology, isostatic effects on Earth’s crust
  • Theories explaining glacial and ice sheet advance and retreat (ex: Milankovitch)


Oceanography - 10%

  • El Nino and La Nina
  • Underwater structures
    • Continental slope, rise and shelf
    • Mid Ocean Ridge
  • Upwelling
  • Ocean Currents (Global Conveyor Belt)
  • Global Energy Budget
  • Tsunamis


Water Quality - 20%

The following topics will be tested:

  • General Principles of Ecology
    • Aquatic Food webs and trophic pyramids
    • Nutrient/Biogeochemical Cycles
    • Community Interactions
    • Population Dynamics
  • Human Impact on Ecosystems
    • Pollution
    • Remediation
  • Aquatic environments
    • aquatic ecology
    • Water cycle
    • Aquatic chemistry (and its implications for life),
    • potable water treatment, waste water treatment, watershed resource management issues


Geologic Mapping - 10%

  • Basic geologic formations
    • Syncline, anticline, dome, basin,
  • Geologic maps
    • Strike and Dip
    • Be able to give the relative ages of rocks given a diagram of rock layers and intrusions.
  • Topographic maps

Herpetology and Fossils

  • Herpetology is based on reasoning, as opposed to memorization.