Across
- 3. the earths 4th sphere, the totality of life on earth.
- 4. deals with processes and phenomena that vary in size from the subatomic scale of matter to the nearly infinite scale of the universe.
- 5. the span of time since the formation of earth, is about 4.6 billion years, a number that is difficult to comprehend.
- 6. earths physical environment is traditionally divided into 3 major parts: solid earth (geosphere), water portion (hydrosphere), and the earths gaseous envelope (atmosphere).
- 9. a well tested and widely accepted explanation that the scientific community agrees best fits certain observable facts.
- 11. scientists make careful observations, construct tentative explanations for those observations, and test them with field investigations and lab work.
- 12. seeks to understand the oceans, the atmospheres weather and climate, and earths place in the universe.
Down
- 1. describes the formation of the solar system.
- 2. 2 broad subdivisions, physical and historical.
- 7. as failed hypotheses are discarded, scientific knowledge moves closer to a correct understanding, but we can never be fully confident that we know all the answers.
- 8. includes geology, oceanography, meteorology, and astronomy.
- 10. the time scales of phenomena studied in Earth science range from tiny fractions of a second to many billions of years.