Subduction zones are downgoing convection cells in the earth but only carry oceanic
material into the mantle.
When a glacier is retreating, the upstream ice is still moving forward toward the
downstream terminus of the glacier.
Isotherms are more irregular in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern
Hemisphere.
Tornadoes are cyclonic, while hurricanes are anticyclonic.
Cold fronts usually move more slowly than warm fronts.
The atmosphere of Venus is composed primarily of carbon dioxide.
Pillow lavas are basaltic magmas extruded as piles of bombs that accumulate in piles of
rocks that look like a pile of pillows.
Four of the major climate groups are defined on the basis of temperature characteristics.
Building stone, sand and gravel, and fertilizers are industrial materials that are a special
class ore deposits but are usually subject to the same regulations as other ores.
Earth’s original atmosphere, several billion years ago, was similar to the present
atmosphere.
Many metals are extracted from ores that contain sulfide minerals.
The solum or true soil includes all horizons above the C-horizon.
Volcanos have no significant impact on weather and climate.
The Gulf Coast lacks barrier islands.
Earthquakes result from the sudden release of elastic energy previously stored in rocks
surrounding a zone of fault movement.
The decay of radioactive atoms, coupled with heat released by colliding particles,
produced at least some melting of Earth’s early interior.
Patterns or configurations of stars named in honor of mythological characters are called
perturbations.
The east and west coasts of the North America have very different temperatures at the
same latitude primarily because of ocean currents.
Seafloor hot springs occur mainly in oceanic, abyssal plains.
The energy from nuclear fusion is produced by the conversion of mass to energy.
Radiant energy is very different depending on its wavelength.
Not all scientific hypotheses require real world observations. Some are tested through
computer modeling or some other non-direct observations.
Orographic lifting occurs where sloping terrains, such as mountains, act as barriers to
the
flow of air.
Upper air winds are generally faster than the surface winds directly below.
The formation of stalactites and stalagmites occurs in the zone of saturation.
Turnagain Heights, was badly damaged by a landslide during the 1964 Alaskan
earthquake.
A barrier island is a static feature that has been unchanged for thousands to hundreds of
thousands of years.
During the history of the earth there have been periods when all the continents were
together in a supercontinent.
Because of axial precession the constellations of the zodiac shift by about 1 month
every 2500 years.
High pressure systems are usually associated with stormy weather.
Hurricanes form between the latitudes of 5 degrees and 20 degrees.
Which of the following characterizes the history of impacts on Earth as deduced by
impact history on other terrestrial planets?
A) All major impacts occurred in the first 100 million years after the solar system
formed.
B) Impacts continued at a fairly constant rate throughout the 4.5 billion year history of
the solar system.
C) Impacts were more intense in the early history of the earth but have continued at
about half the rate of bombardment since about 4.4 billion years ago.
D) Impact rates were very high in the early history of the earth, but dropped off after
about the first 1 billion years of Earth history to a nearly constant rate since that time.
How do the strength and cohesion of clay-rich regolith or soil change with the addition
of water?
A) Water does not affect the cohesion but lowers the strength.
B) Water reduces the strength of clays but raises the cohesion of the soil.
C) Water increases the strength and cohesion.
D) Water lowers the strength and cohesion.
Little Johnnie from down the street from your house brings an object that looks like a
bone, and Johnnie says “look, I found a dinosaur bone.” Which of the following would
not be useful in evaluating Johnnie’s claim?
A) Examine the object for hardness to determine if the sample is permineralized.
B) Ask if the object was found embedded in rock.
C) Evaluate the object for fine textures indicative of bone material or replaced bone
material.
D) Extract charcoal from the object and use carbon-14 dating
Which type of bacteria thrive in environments that lack free oxygen?
A) aerobic
B) placental
C) anaerobic
D) foraminifera
E) photosynthetic
The apparent westward “drift” of the planets compared to the background stars is called
________.
A) Ptolemaic motion
B) occultation
C) precession
D) retrograde motion
What is the probability that a large earthquake (M > 6.7) will occur in the San Francisco
area between 2003 and 2032?
A) 23%
B) 44%
C) 62%
D) 85%
Frost wedging is the major weathering process contributing to the formation of which
regolith material?
A) tropical soils
B) talus slopes
C) soil horizons
D) clay minerals
Which science is not used within the Earth sciences?
A) Chemistry
B) Physics
C) Biology
D) Mathematics
E) None of the above; Earth Science makes use of all of these sciences.
Wegener’s work is a good demonstration of the scientific method because ________.
A) he was right, but no one believed him
B) his hypothesis passed all of the scientific testing to become a theory
C) his hypothesis did not pass all of the scientific tests to become a theory
D) he was wrong, and as a result, no one believed him
A halo around the Sun or Moon indicates that this cloud type is present.
A) cirrostratus
B) cumulonimbus
C) altostratus
D) cirrus
A Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (H-R Diagram) is a plot of ________.
A) size versus brightness
B) size versus color
C) color versus brightness
D) brightness versus temperature
E) temperature versus color
The Sun produces energy by converting ________.
A) oxygen nuclei to carbon dioxide
B) oxygen nuclei to nitrogen nuclei
C) carbon monoxide to oxygen nuclei
D) hydrogen nuclei to helium nuclei
E) helium nuclei to hydrogen nuclei
A major economic deposit associated with the Cretaceous period is ________.
A) gold
B) uranium
C) sand
D) coal
E) platinum
The belt of constellations through which all the planets move is called the ________.
A) Planetoid
B) Parallax
C) Cosmos
D) Zodiac
E) Milky Way
The most common group of silicates is ________.
A) feldspar
B) quartz
C) mica
D) granite
Tsunamis and earthquakes have killed millions of people during human history. What
branch of the Earth sciences is the main group that studies these phenomena?
A) Meteorology
B) Geology
C) Oceanography
D) Astronomy
The force that generates wind is ________.
A) Coriolis force
B) gravity force
C) centrifugal force
D) pressure gradient force
Why do the minerals calcite and dolomite bubble with the mineral or its powder are
placed in hydrochloric acid?
A) Both minerals are sulfides, and the acid reacts to release sulfur dioxide gas.
B) Both minerals are metal hydrides, and when placed in hydrochloric acid they give
off hydrogen gas.
C) The acid and the mineral together react with oxygen in the air, releasing CO2 gas.
D) The acid reacts with the mineral to release CO2 gas that is bound into the crystal as
carbonate ion.
Earthquakes with a very deep focus are usually located along ________.
A) a divergent plate boundary such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
B) a transform boundary such as the San Andreas
C) a hot spot chain such as the Hawaiian Islands
D) a convergent boundary such as the Peru-Chile trench
Which planet rotates the opposite direction it revolves around the sun?
A) Mercury
B) Venus
C) Earth
D) Mars
During a total lunar eclipse, the moon remains visible because ________.
A) the earth is too far from the moon to totally cover the solar disk
B) the atmosphere of the moon diffuses light from the other side of the moon
C) the atmosphere of the earth refracts light around its perimeter
D) None of the above; the moon completely disappears against the night sky.
Which of the following is not a form of artificial flood control?
A) levee construction
B) dam construction
C) channel cutoff to form oxbow lakes during a flood
D) forced levee breaks to deflect flood waters
The term ________ is used to describe the conversion of a solid directly to a gas,
without passing through the liquid state.
A) evaporation
B) sublimation
C) condensation
D) melting
Death Valley is a site where ________ sedimentary rocks are common.
A) detrital
B) evaporite
C) biochemical
D) clastic
You have a fancy beach house in the east coast of Florida. The main wave source is to
the northeast. Your neighbor to the south of you is having problems with beach erosion
and storm waves often come under his house. So he decides to build a groin and he tells
you it is for the benefit of the neighborhood. What should you respond to his comment?
A) Thanks buddy, I was thinking about doing that myself but you just saved me the
money.
B) Ask for clarification of what type of material he will use, to make sure it is strong
enough.
C) Tell him no way. He is going to destroy the beach in front of your house. If he
proceeds you might need to find a lawyer.
D) Don’t worry, be happy, you’re on the beach. It won’t hurt anything.
Which of the following is designed to prevent or retard shoreline erosion?
A) groin
B) beach nourishment
C) seawall
D) all of these
This fog forms in valleys at night.
A) advection fog
B) radiation fog
C) steam fog
D) precipitation fog
Evidence for the existence of dark matter includes ________.
A) the observation that Mercury rotates about the Sun faster than Pluto
B) the observation that the universe is not expanding as fast as predicted by Big Bang
Theory
C) the observation that stars near the center of galaxies do not rotate as fast as expected
D) the observation that the universe appears to be slowing down
At high latitudes the thermocline is ________.
A) narrower than at low latitudes
B) wider than at low latitudes
C) about the same as at low latitudes
D) There is no thermocline at high latitudes.
E) There is no thermocline at low latitudes.
The Columbia Plateau in the northwestern United States is an excellent example of
________.
A) silica-rich lava flows
B) pyroclastic flow deposits
C) flood basalts
D) an eroded shield volcano
During the earliest history of the earth, ________ .
A) the earth did not have any radioactive material
B) the temperature increased so that iron and nickel melted
C) almost all of the material was radioactive, and it decayed to the compositions we
have today.
D) the earth was cold and lacked any source of heat.
“Black smokers” are associated with ________.
A) oceanic ridges
B) mineral-rich waters
C) hot water
D) all of these
The principle of superposition which states that in undeformed rocks, the younger rocks
will be on top of older rocks, is particularly important because ________.
A) it supports the laws of gravity which indicate that rocks must be deposited on
something that already exists
B) it showed that the interior of the earth is not growing outward
C) it provided an order for assembling the relative ages of various rock layers
D) it proved that life evolved by putting fossils in a logical order
Which common mineral is composed entirely of silicon and oxygen?
A) calcite
B) diamond
C) olivine
D) quartz
Examine the words and/or phrases for each question below and determine the
relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit
the pattern.
Vent
Use one of the following five terms to fill in the blanks for the questions below:
Continental crust, Asthenosphere, Mantle, Lithosphere, Oceanic crust
The upper part of the ________ has the approximate composition of granite.
The Sun produces energy by converting ________ to energy.
What type of front is illustrated in the diagram below?
Examine the words and/or phrases for each question below and determine the
relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit
the pattern.
The rock formations of the ________ era are more widespread and less disturbed than
those of any other time.
Large circular-moving currents of water within an ocean basin are called ________.
Examine the words and/or phrases for each question below and determine the
relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit
the pattern.
The development of ________, organisms that reproduce sexually and have cells that
contain nuclei, may have increased dramatically the rate of evolutionary change.
Examine the words and/or phrases for each question below and determine the
relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit
the pattern.
Primitive organisms, called ________, reproduce asexually and contain cells that lack
organized nuclei.
Unconsolidated, granular materials such as gravel and sand will support maximum
slope angles of about 33 to 35 degrees. What is the name for this maximum slope
angle?
Examine the words and/or phrases for each question below and determine the
relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit
the pattern.
Possibly the most cataclysmic event associated with the death of a star is the ________.
Why is climate change a political issue in the United States?
The low, bedrock ridges and peaks of a highly eroded, basin and range, desert landscape
are called ________.
The ________ is the most prominent feature on the ocean floor.
What type of structure is shown below?