What is slab pull?
A) Cold oceanic lithosphere is pulled below warmer asthenosphere.
B) Cold continental lithosphere is pulled below warmer asthenosphere.
C) Cold continental lithosphere is pulled below warmer oceanic lithosphere.
D) Warmer oceanic lithosphere is pulled below colder asthenosphere.
Which of the following statements about deserts is true?
A) Although rainfalls are infrequent, erosion and deposition related to water are
important in deserts.
B) Deserts are located where there are ascending air masses and low atmospheric
pressure.
C) Deserts are defined by their sand content.
D) Deserts are always located in hot, humid coastal areas.
Which type of convergence will result in a volcanic island arc?
A) Oceanic-continental
B) Oceanic-oceanic
C) Continental-continental
Using the figure above, indicate which boundaries are convergent, divergent, and
transform.
1. Pacific/North American boundary
2. Nazca/South American boundary
3. Pacific/Antarctic boundary
4. African/South American boundary
5. Caribbean/North American boundary
6. African/Eurasian boundary
A) Transform
B) Divergent
C) Convergent
What is the source of much of water in geothermal features such as geysers and hot
springs?
A) Precipitation
B) Water vapor from magma
C) Melting glaciers
D) Subterranean lakes
With the exception of volcanoes associated with a subduction zone, most volcanic
islands are ________ volcanoes.
A) cinder cone
B) shield
C) composite cone
D) caldera
Which of the following rocks composed of silt- and clay- sized particles displays
fissility?
A) Claystone
B) Siltstone
C) Shale
D) Mudstone
Which process releases energy from radioactive materials to produce nuclear power?
A) Nuclear fission
B) Nuclear fusion
C) Gasification
D) Nuclear bombardment
Which process is thought to generate most felsic magmas?
A) Decompression melting in a continental rift zone
B) Crystal settling during magmatic differentiation
C) Heat from basaltic magma partially melting overlying crust
D) Friction along the crust in a convergent plate boundary
What is the definition of an ephemeral stream?
A) A distributary channel on a stream delta
B) A stream that meanders back and forth across a valley
C) A stream that has interweaving channels and is choked with sediment
D) An intermittent stream that only has water after specific episodes of rain
Within water-deficient regions, two climatic types are recognized. What are they?
A) Subpolar high and subpolar low
B) Ephemeral and playa
C) Desert and steppe
D) Saltation and tropical
________ are instruments that sense earthquake waves and transmit them to a recording
device.
A) Seismology
B) Seismograms
C) Seismometers
D) Seismic relays
________ weathering occurs when differences in resistance or environmental factors
produce uneven surfaces on rocks.
A) Chemical
B) Differential
C) Spheroidal
D) Mechanical
What factor in this image would control the depth of this feature? (What might stop it
from getting deeper?)
A) Presence of large boulders will stop the wind.
B) Sediment will be frozen in place.
C) Scouring will go down to bedrock and run out of sediment.
D) Presence of vegetation will hold sediment in place.
In which geologic setting is the most widespread occurrence of hydrothermal
metamorphism found?
A) Subduction zones between oceanic and continental plates
B) Along the axis of a mid-ocean ridge system
C) Along transform plate boundaries
D) Where mantle plumes interact with the bottom of continental plates
Which of the following will not oversteepen a slope and lead to mass wasting?
A) Quarrying
B) Coastal erosion
C) Construction
D) None of these
All of the following offer additional evidence supporting the theory of plate tectonics
except for ________.
A) changes in the Moon’s orbit due to shifting plates
B) ocean floor sediment cores
C) hot spots
D) measurements of plate motions
Which negative ion forms the basis of the oxide minerals?
A) F–
B) Cl–
C) O2
2-
D) S–
Only a few thousand impact craters have been identified on Venus’s surface, even
though it, too, would have experienced the same heavy bombardment period that
affected Mercury and the moon. Why does Venus appear relatively unscathed?
A) Venus was not impacted.
B) The gravitational forces of Mercury deflected the meteorites.
C) Venus’s surface was reshaped by extensive volcanism.
D) Extensive stream networks buried the impact sites with sediments.
Which of the following accounts for the largest usage of groundwater in the United
States?
A) Domestic and municipal water
B) Agriculture and irrigation
C) Cooling reactors at nuclear power plants
D) Manufacturing and industry
Which of the following regions has the least likelihood of experiencing weathering via
salt crystal growth?
A) Arid deserts
B) Rocky shorelines along the ocean
C) Subterranean cave passages
D) Roadways cleared of snow by the spread of halite
Read the following excerpt from The Works of John Playfair (1822). What glacial
landform is being described?
“…For the moving of large masses of rock, the most powerful engines without doubt
that nature employs are the glaciers….[Rock] fragments they gradually transport to their
utmost boundaries, where a formidable wall ascertains the magnitude, and attests the
force, of the great engine by which it was erected.”
A) Arte
B) Drumlin
C) Horn
D) Moraine
Sunspots occur in cycles with the maximum number of sunspots occurring about every
________ years.
A) five
B) nine
C) eleven
D) fifteen
Outside of the crust, the layer that scientists know the most about is the mantle. Other
than via seismic waves, how else do geologists obtain information about the
composition of the mantle?
A) Drill cores
B) Volcanoes
C) Sonar
D) Seismic waves
Which of the following is a real-world example of isostatic adjustment?
A) Continental margin of North America extending to create a forearc basin in
California
B) African continent bulging upward when moving over a mantle plume
C) Downwarping of the continent in Illinois due to subduction of slabs of oceanic
lithosphere
D) Rebound of the landmass around Hudson Bay after glacial ice sheets have retreated
As India is colliding with Asia, the margin of Asia is experiencing significant
deformation. What is happening to the rocks that are being deformed?
A) They are being subducted into the mantle
B) They are being melted to become magma plutons
C) They are being displaced to the southeast to make up Southeast Asia
D) They are breaking off to form microcontinents
If CFCs have not been widely used since the late 20th century, why are they considered
a major greenhouse gas in the 21st century?
A) Although they have been banned, they are being use illegally
B) CFCs are released by a number of natural processes, such as volcanoes
C) Greenhouse gases such as methane will break down into CFCs
D) CFCs can stay in the atmosphere for decades
Match the diagram with the appropriate oil trap term.
A) Stratigraphic trap (pinchout trap)
B) Salt dome
C) Fault trap
D) Anticline
1.
2.
3.
4.
Using this image, match the correct terms to the correct locations on the moon.
A) Mare
B) Highlands
C) Crater
1. A
2. B
3. C
A ________ occurs when an iron-rich fluid in the core is electrically charged and
flowing, which generates a magnetic field.
A) geotherm
B) geodynamo
C) geophysical anomaly
D) geosyncline
Match the environment of deposition with the appropriate category. Answers will be
used more than once.
A) Marine environment
B) Continental environment
C) Transitional environment
1. Alluvial fan
2. Deep marine
3. Mudflat
4. Swamp
5. Stream
6. Beach
7. Lakes
8. Reef
During which geologic time period did Pangaea form?
A) Precambrian
B) Late Paleozoic Era
C) Mesozoic Era
D) Mid-Cretaceous Era
Which characteristics are used to determine the processes that created a rock?
A) Heat and pressure
B) Texture and composition
C) Size and shape
D) Color and texture