Unit II.

Earth and Space

Module 1. Earthquakes and Faults

Fault
It is the break in the Earths crust

Hanging Wall
The mass of rock lying above the fault plane

Footwall
The mass of rock lying beneath the fault plane

Normal Fault
It is a geological fault in which the hanging wall was move downward relative to the
footwall.

Reverse Fault
It forms if the hanging wall rises relative to the footwall and occur in areas undergoing
compression.

Strike-slip Fault
A fault where the blocks of rock move horizontally and parallel to each other.

Dip-slip Fault
Dip-slip faults can occur either reverse as normal fault

Oblique-slip Fault
It is the combination of dip-slip and strike-slip faults

Earthquake
A sudden and violent shaking of the ground, sometimes causing great destruction, as a
result of movements within the earths crust or volcanic action.

Epicenter
The point on the earths surface vertically above the focus of an earthquake

Hypocenter
The underground focus point of an earthquake

Fault Plane
It is the plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault

Fault Line
A line on a rock surface or the ground that traces a geological fault

Seismic Waves
Waves of energy that travel through the Earths layers and are results of earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, magma movement, large landslides and large man-made explosions
that give out low-frequency acoustic energy.

Magnitude
It is the energy released or the Earthquake size

Intensity
It is a number (written as roman numeral) describing the severity of an earthquake in
terms of its effects on the earths surface and on humans and their structures.

PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS)

It is a Philippine national institution dedicated to provide information on the activities
of volcanoes,earthquakes, and tsunamis, as well as other specialized information and
services primarily for the protection of life and property and in support of economic,
productivity, and sustainable development.

Liquefaction
Process by which loose saturated sand lose strength during an earthquake and behave like
liquid

Tsunami
Series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water
generally in an ocean or a large lake

Active Fault
A fault that is likely to become the source of another earthquake sometime in the future

West Valley Fault

It is a dominantly dextral strike-slip fault system in Luzon, Philippines

Lithosphere
It is the rigid, outermost shell of a terrestrial-type planet or natural satellite that is defined
by its rigid mechanical properties.

Mohorovii Discontinuity
It is the boundary between the earths crust and mantle

Conrad Discontinuity
It corresponds to the sub-horizontal boundary in continental crust at which the seismic
wave velocity increases in a discontinuous way.

Crust
It is the outermost solid shell of the earth

Oceanic Crust
It is the uppermost layer of the oceanic portion of a tectonic plate

Continental Crust
It is the layer of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks that forms the continents
and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves.

Mantle
It is the thickest layer of the Earth

Core
The central part of a celestial body (as the earth) usually having different physical
properties from the surrounding parts.

Transition Zone
The transition zone is part of the Earth's mantle, and is located between the lower
mantle and the upper mantle.

Module 2. Understanding Typhoons

Typhoon
It is an extremely large, powerful and destructive storm that occurs especially in the
region of the Philippines or the China Sea.

Tropical Cyclone
It is a system of thunderstorms that are moving around a center.

Tropical Depression
Forms when a low-pressure area is accompanied by thunderstorms that produce a circular
wind flow and has a wind speed between 35 to 64 kph.

Tropical Storm
It is one step above a tropical depression, but a step below a hurricane in terms of
intensity and has a wind speed between 65 and 118 kph.

Supertyphoon
It is a storm that sees wind speeds of at least 150 miles per hour for a minimum of one
minute and has a wind speed of greater than 200.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration
It is an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce
focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere.

Philippine Area of Responsibility

(PAR)
Refers to the designated area in the Northwestern Pacific where PAGASA is tasked to
monitor tropical cyclone occurences.

Philippine Atmospheric,
Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA)
It is a Philippine national institute that monitors tropical cyclone activity and issues

warnings within the area of responsibility.

Cyclonic
It is the spin direction of hurricanes

Eye
The eye is a region of mostly calm weather at the center of strong tropical cyclones.

Eyewall
It is a ring of towering thunderstorms where the most severe weather occurs.

Low Pressure Area

It is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations.

High Pressure Area

It is a region where the atmospheric pressure at the surface of the planet is greater than its
surrounding environment.

Public Storm Warning Signals

(PSWS)
Are warnings to raise public awareness of the incoming weather disturbances

Wind Speed
It is the rate or movement of air flow as it travels from high to low pressure, in relation to
the Earth.

Air Pressure
It is the force exerted onto a surface by the weight of the air.

Coriolis Effect
An effect whereby a mass moving in a rotating system experiences a force (the Coriolis
force ) acting perpendicular to the direction of motion and to the axis of rotation.

Counter-clockwise
The direction of the clouds that are being blown by winds

Clockwise
The direction of the hurricanes in the south of the equator

Thunderstorm
A storm with lightning and thunder

Water Vapor
Water vapor can be produced from the evaporation or boiling of liquid water or from the
sublimation of ice.

Atmospheric Circulation
It is the large-scale movement of air by which heat is distributed on the surface of the
Earth.

Barometer
An instrument measuring atmospheric pressure, used especially in forecasting the
weather and determining altitude.

Northwest direction
The direction of the tropical cyclone

Bagyo
The term used in the Philippines for all categories of tropical cyclones

Hurricane
The term used in the northeastern part of the Pacific Oceana and in the northern part of
the Atlantic Ocean for all categories of categories of tropical cyclones

Northwestern Pacific Basin

Most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth

Longitude
The angular distance of a place east or west of the meridian at Greenwich, England, or
west of the standard meridian of a celestial object, usually expressed in degrees and
minutes.

Latitude
The angular distance of a place north or south of the earth's equator, or of a celestial
object north or south of the celestial equator, usually expressed in degrees and minutes.

Temperature
The degree of hotness or coldness of a body or environment

Module 3.Comets, Asteroids and Meteors

Comets
It is an icy body that releases gas or dust.

Long-period comets
Come from the Oort Cloud (beyond our Solar System) and takes 200 to hundred million
of years to complete their orbit around the Sun.

Short-period comets
Come from the Kuiper belt (beyond Neptunes orbit) and are generally defined as having
orbital periods of less than 200 years.

Halleys Comet
Most famous comet of the 20th century and is the only known short-period comet.

Comet Hale-Bopp
It is a comet that was perhaps the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of
the brightest seen for many decades.

Nucleus
the nucleus of a comet is composed of ice and rocky material

Coma
the cloud of gases that forms around the nucleus

Dust Tail
It is composed of gases and tiny dust particles blown away from the nucleus as the comet
is heated and is the most visible part of a comet.

Ion Tail
The ion tail is a stream of ionized gases that are blown directly away from the Sun as a
result of the comets contact with the solar wind

Asteroids
Are small, airless rocky worlds revolving around the sun that are too small to be called
planets

Main Asteroid Belt

This belt is theorized by scientists to be remnants of a planet that did not completely form

Asteroid 2012 DA14

Made a very close approach to Earth as it orbited the Sun.

Alvarez Hypothesis
It posits that the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and many other living things during the
Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event was caused by the impact of a large asteroid on
the Earth.

Kuiper Belt
A region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, believed to contain many
comets, asteroids, and other small bodies made largely of ice

Oort Cloud
A spherical shell of cometary bodies believed to surround the sun far beyond the orbits of
the outermost planets and from which some are dislodged when perturbed to fall toward
the sun

Near-Earth Objects (NEO)

It is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth.

Silicates
Minerals that contain the elements silicon, oxygen, and at least one metal

Orbital Periods
It is the time taken for a given object to make one complete orbit around another object.

Meteoroid
It is a broken up rock and dust from either a comet, asteroid, the Moon, or from Mars.

Meteor
It is a light phenomenon or a streak of light that occurs when a meteoroid burns up at it
enters Earths atmosphere.

Meteorite
A meteoroid that survives its passage through the earth's atmosphere such that part of it
strikes the ground

Meteor Shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to
radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky.

Light phenomena
Are any observable events that result from the interaction of light and matter

Stony meteorites
The largest group of meteorites and they once formed part of the outer crust of a planet or
asteroid.

Stony-iron meteorites
The least abundant of the three main types. They are comprised of roughly equal amounts
of nickel-iron and stone and are divided into two groups: pallasites and mesosiderites.

Iron meteorites
Iron meteorites were once part of the core of a long-vanished planet or large asteroid and
are believed to have originated within the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Celestial
Positioned in or relating to the sky, or outer space as observed in astronomy.

Solar System
The collection of eight planets and their moons in orbit around the sun, together with
smaller bodies in the form of asteroids, meteoroids, and comets

Stars
It is a luminous sphere of plasma held together by its own gravity

National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA)
NASA is in charge of U.S. science and technology that has to do with airplanes or space.