Organisms, such as algae and bacteria, that drift with ocean currents are known as
________.
A) nekton
B) plankton
C) benthos organisms
D) biomass
E) none of these
The point in stellar evolution when a star has used up all its fuel and is radiating away
its remaining thermal energy as light is the ________ stage.
A) black hole
B) main-sequence star
C) red giant
D) white dwarf
The advantage for fishers to choose a population that feeds close to the primary
producing population is that ________.
A) it is easier to recover more biomass from the fish because they have not wasted
energy swimming after food
B) there will be a bigger variety of food available in those locations because there will
be several trophic levels available
C) they will be close to shore so it is easier to fish those regions
D) energy transfer between trophic levels is inefficient and this will increase the
available biomass
E) none of the above
The type of spectrum produced by a common light bulb is a ________.
A) continuous spectrum
B) dark-line (absorption) spectrum
C) bright-line (emission) spectrum
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
Kppen believed that the distribution of ________ was an excellent expression of the
totality of climate.
A) solar energy
B) sedimentary rocks
C) ocean basins
D) tsunami
E) natural vegetation
A mass wasting process that involves rapid down-slope movement of debris aided by a
cushion of air is called ________.
A) a slump
B) a rock avalanche
C) a rock fall
D) a rock slide
General circulation models are based on the fundamental laws of physics and chemistry,
and they are designed to ________.
A) measure urban heat islands and identify where changes need to be made in a
community
B) predict the weather over periods of weeks and months
C) determine whether places are going to experience bad hurricane seasons or droughts
during the next year
D) model climate behavior over decades
E) mimic the history of weather on earth for the last ice age
In the Rocky Mountain region of the United States, north-facing slopes (downhill
direction is toward the north) are typically moister and more heavily forested than
south-facing slopes. Why?
A) North-facing slopes receive more sunlight in the summer; snow melts faster and
more soil moisture is available for the trees.
B) South-facing slopes receive more moisture and sunlight; rock weathering is slower.
C) North-facing slopes receive about the same amount of precipitation as south-facing
slopes; less moisture evaporates from north-facing slopes.
D) South-facing slopes receive less moisture, yet rock weathering is faster.
Under similar warm, moist climatic conditions, why would basalt and gabbro generally
have higher chemical weathering rates than rhyolite and granite?
A) The quartz in the gabbro and basalt decomposes very quickly.
B) The ferromagnesian minerals in the gabbro and basalt are subject to oxidation and
chemical breakdown.
C) The plagioclase feldspars in the granite and rhyolite decompose readily to clay
minerals and iron oxides.
D) The potassium feldspars and quartz in the rhyolite and granite are more susceptible
to cracking by frost wedging.
Visible light is a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum, but when we see colors,
we are seeing ________.
A) different photons that come from different directions
B) refractions of white light
C) an even narrow range of wavelengths than white light within the visible light
spectrum
D) complementary spectra from light re-emitted off objects when light impinges on the
object
A naturally occurring concentration of one or more metallic minerals that can be
extracted economically is a(n) ________.
A) reserve
B) ore
C) resource
D) tailing
The western U.S. climate is different from the western European climate because
________.
A) the U.S. is significantly closer to the equator than Europe
B) the western U.S. has mountains near the coast and Europe does not
C) the winds that dominate the weather in the U.S. come from the west but in Europe
they come from the southeast
D) the water along the coast of Europe is warmer than the water along the western coast
of the U.S.
E) the water along the western coast of the U.S. is warmer than the water along the
coast of Europe
The main difference between weather and climate is that ________.
A) climate is the daily variations that actually occur at a location and weather is the
general pattern of climate over time
B) weather is the daily variations that actually occur at a location and climate is the
general pattern of weather over time
C) climate is the regional pattern based on latitude and humidity while weather is the
daily pattern based on season.
D) weather is the regional pattern based on latitude and humidity while climate is the
daily pattern based on season.
E) climate is a political opinion while weather is reality.
The Goldilocks scenario suggests that ________.
A) we are very fortunate that the meteorites that have bombarded the earth over time
were not too large or too small
B) we are very fortunate to be in the right place in the universe and to have had the right
condition to develop and sustain life
C) we are very fortunate that dinosaurs were destroyed but left us an inhabitable planet
D) we are very fortunate to be in a solar system where life can develop and be sustained
An unconformity is a buried ________.
A) fault or fracture with older rocks above and younger rocks below
B) surface of erosion separating younger strata above from older strata below
C) fault or fracture with younger strata above and older strata below
D) surface of erosion with older strata above and younger strata below
Which of the following places is well known for its intrusive igneous rocks that were
exposed by erosion?
A) Mount St. Helens Volcano
B) Hawaii
C) Yosemite National Park
D) Yellowstone National Park
Most of the United States is situated in which zone of prevailing winds?
A) trade winds
B) subpolar easterlies
C) westerlies
D) doldrums
Human ancestors developed the tendency to walk on two legs instead of four in order to
accommodate ________.
A) climbing trees in the forests
B) picking fruit
C) hunting and gathering food in grasslands
D) running across hot ash beds in Tanzania
E) riding elephants
What is the Southern Oscillation?
A) the intermittent switch from El Nio to La Nia conditions in the equatorial Pacific
B) the periodic intense cyclonic storms from Antarctica
C) the weather pattern that changes tropical cyclone activity in the southern ocean
D) the 10-year cycle in winter storm activity in the temperate zone of the Southern
Hemisphere
Ocean floor topography can be estimated from space using ________.
A) high resolution measurements of the earth’s magnetic field
B) laser beams that penetrate to the sea floor
C) radar pulses that bounce off the ocean surface
D) powerful sound waves that echo to the satellite
One reason that Catastrophism was popular was ________.
A) Ussher’s estimated age of the earth required catastrophic events to form mountains
and canyons
B) Hutton’s observations of great geologic time could not explain the rise of mountains
or formation of deep canyons
C) everyone loves a disaster and as a result, the hypothesis that supported disasters was
a favorite
D) there were many real catastrophes, like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, to
support the Catastrophism idea
A geologist is looking at deposits along a river below a large volcano. She finds large
boulders mixed with sand and mud, and all of the material is comprised of volcanic
rocks, particularly the mud which is volcanic ash. She quickly realizes these deposits
represent an ancient ________.
A) earthflow
B) rock avalanche
C) slump
D) lahar
Which of the following pairs are likely products of weathering granite?
A) sandstone and calcite
B) feldspar and mica
C) clay and quartz
D) olivine and pyroxene
The variations in temperature are less extreme in the Southern Hemisphere than in the
Northern Hemisphere because ________.
A) all of the cold air in the Southern Hemisphere is concentrated over Antarctica, but
there is not a large land mass at the north pole
B) there is more land in the Southern Hemisphere
C) there is more water in the Southern Hemisphere
D) the hole in the ozone allows more solar radiation to warm the Southern Hemisphere
E) the Northern Hemisphere is more mountainous
Fetch is ________.
A) a method of shoreline erosion control
B) the distance between the trough of a wave and the still water level
C) the circular pattern made by water particles when a wave passes
D) none of these
In Rodinia, a well-documented Precambrian supercontinent, ________.
A) there is no evidence of North America
B) North America was the last collision in the formation of the supercontinent
C) North America and South America made up one continuous fragment
D) North America was located near the center of the supercontinent
E) the Rocky Mountains were located to the south of the North American craton
Which of the following is not a physical weathering process?
A) frost wedging
B) salt crystallization
C) tree root growth
D) rocks reacting with organic acids from plants
A tornado watch is issued by the National Weather Service after a tornado has been
sighted in an area.
Manganese nodules are an example of ________.
A) terrigenous sediment
B) biogenous sediment
C) hydrogenous sediment
D) both terrigenous and biogenous sediment
The process in which plants use light energy to synthesize food sugars from carbon
dioxide is called ________.
A) photosynthesis
B) hydration
C) oxidation
D) fusion
E) none of these
A sandbar that completely crosses a bay, sealing it off from the open ocean, is a
________.
A) sea stack
B) tombolo
C) coastal barrier
D) none of these
Why do scientists think that lithosphere has to be destroyed somewhere on or in the
earth?
A) There is not enough lithosphere on the earth to account for what has been produced
in the last 200 million years.
B) Lithosphere is created at divergent boundaries and the earth is not getting any larger.
C) The moon is moving away from the earth and this would not happen if the earth had
more lithosphere to increase its mass.
D) The earth is getting smaller as the new oceanic crust cools and contracts.
The half-life of carbon-14 is about 6000 years. Assume that a sample of charcoal
formed by burning of living wood 15,000 years ago. How much of the original
carbon-14 would remain today?
A) more than one-half
B) between one-fourth and one-eighth
C) between one-half and one-fourth
D) between one-half and one-third
Earlier in this class you learned about the Coriolis force. Given your knowledge of this
force and Jupiter, which of these statements is most accurate?
A) The Coriolis force is the same on Jupiter as on Earth.
B) The Coriolis force is much weaker on Jupiter than on Earth because of the strong
gravity on Jupiter.
C) The Coriolis force is much stronger on Jupiter than on Earth because Jupiter rotates
more slowly than Earth and is much larger than Earth.
D) The Coriolis force is much stronger on Jupiter than on Earth because it rotates more
than twice as fast as Earth and it is much larger than Earth.
The pycnocline is a rapid change in ________ with depth in the ocean.
What term describes a soil that has developed from silt and clay deposited by a flooding
river?
What term describes open fissures in the brittle surface ice of a glacier?
Which component of the water cycle describes the recharge of water to the soil and
groundwater systems?
What term denotes blocks of older rock enclosed in a body of younger igneous rock?
Deposits of windblown silt are called ________.
A variety of techniques and efforts are used to stabilize shorelines throughout the world.
Are all of these efforts only temporary measures or are any of them permanent? Also,
does urbanization and development of coastal areas always contribute to shoreline
erosion? Explain.
The San Andreas fault in California is a good example of a(n) ________ plate
boundary.
Magma chamber
Compare and contrast the various types of telescopes, including radio telescopes. What
are the advantages and disadvantages of each one? Are there other considerations when
choosing one telescope over another besides optical clarity or magnification?
Refer to the figure below, captured from Google Earth, for the following questions.
At location D you would expect to find ________ faults.
Patterns or configurations of stars named in honor of mythological characters are called
________.
Japan and the Aleutian Islands have formed from a(n) ________ to ________
convergent boundary.
The first instrument to measure air pressure was the ________ barometer.
If the earth were the center of the universe and the moon, planets, and sun all moved
around the earth, logic would say that all of these celestial objects should move in the
same direction across the sky, and relative to the celestial background. The sun and
moon both follow this pattern, but the other planets have periods of retrograde motion.
How did the Ptolemaic model explain retrograde motion and how is it more easily
explained by the heliocentric model.
The most studied and well-documented urban climatic effect is the ________.
The Laramide Rockies formed between about 85-50 million years ago. A popular theory
is this event was caused by “flat slab subduction” of over-thickened oceanic crust. From
your understanding of mountain building processes in this part of the course, evaluate
the following question(s).
Was this mountain building process an Andean type mountain building event, a
collisional event, or both; and what might have been subducted to produce the
over-thickened oceanic crust that drove the orogeny?
The ________ zone refers to areas of the ocean, regardless of depth, where animals
swim or float freely.