QUIZ - 3.5.13

1. What geological features tell us that water once flowed on Mars?
• Geological features that tell us that water once flowed on Mars would be dry riverbeds, eroded craters, and rock-strewn floodplains. Mars today has ice, underground water ice, and perhaps pockets of underground liquid water.
2. Why did Mars change?
• Mars changed because its atmosphere must have once been much thicker for its greenhouse effect to allow liquid water on the surface. Somehow Mars lost most of its atmosphere, perhaps because of a declining magnetic field.
3. Is Venus geologically active?
• Venus' surface shows evidence of major volcanism and tectonics during the last billion years. There is no evidence for erosion or plate tectonics.
4. Why is Venus so hot?
• Venus is hot because the runaway greenhouse effect made Venus too hot for liquid oceans. All carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere, leading to a huge greenhouse effect.
5. What unique features of Earth are important for life?
• Unique features of Earth, which are important for life, would include surface liquid water, atmospheric oxygen, plate tectonics, and climate stability.
6. How is human activity changing our planet?
• Human activity is changing our planet because it is releasing carbon dioxide into Earth's atmosphere, which is increasing the greenhouse effect and producing global warming.
7. What makes a planet habitable?
• The two things that make a planet habitable would be Earth's distance from the Sun, which allows for liquid water on Earth's surface. The Earth's size, which allows it to retain an atmosphere & enough internal heat to drive geological activity, makes a planet habitable as well.
8. Was there a volcano born last century on Earth?
• YES!
9. Which country witnessed a new volcano on February 20, 1943?
• [Paricutin Volcano] Mexico was the country that witnessed a new volcano on February 20th, 1943.
10. Who was working on the field when the volcano was born?
• Dionisio Pulido was working on the field where the volcano was born.