Which of the following scenarios best describes the creation of the lahars associated
with the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980?
A) Hot gases melted the volcano’s snowcap, generating meltwater that mixed with ash.
B) A volcanic flank collapsed in a landslide, which flowed into Spirit Lake.
C) Ash deposited during the eruption was remobilized by a flood years later.
D) The eruption deposited fine ash in the Toutle River.
What is the most common igneous rock found on the lunar maria?
A) Anorthosite
B) Regolith
C) Basalt
D) Pumice
What prevents hurricanes from developing in the band five degrees on either side of the
Equator?
A) The Coriolis Effect is too weak.
B) Too much precipitation.
C) Temperatures are not high enough.
D) Lack of wind near the Equator.
Which of the following materials is most closely associated with shock metamorphism
and meteorite impact sites?
A) Slate
B) Blueschist
C) Gneiss
D) Tektites
The interior of the Earth is divided into roughly spherical layers of differing ________.
A) density
B) temperature
C) pressure
D) magma
Which of the following represents the single most common and characteristic structures
in sedimentary rocks?
A) Mudcracks
B) Crystalline texture
C) Cross-bedding
D) Strata
What is an accretionary wedge?
A) Deformed and thrust-faulted continental lithosphere
B) A fan of sediments at the bottom of a deep-ocean trench
C) Sediments and ocean crust fragments being scraped off of a subducting plate
D) Fault blocks that are slipping down due to extension in a back-arc basin
If you happen to be caught in a rip current, what is the best way to get to safety?
A) Swim straight toward shore.
B) Swim parallel to the shore.
C) Swim further out to sea.
D) Tread water and do nothing.
During the formation of the solar system, which planet came the closest to starting the
process of nuclear fusion, which would have resulted in a second sun?
A) Saturn
B) Mercury
C) Jupiter
D) Uranus
In which layer of the Earth does the convection necessary for plate motion occur?
A) Crust
B) Mantle
C) Outer core
D) Inner core
Which of the following statements best characterizes the geology and structure of the
Appalachian Mountains?
A) Deeply eroded, late Mesozoic upwarping mountains
B) Sedimentary strata folded at in the late Paleozoic Era
C) Continental volcanic chain along a subduction zone
D) Fault-block mountains developed from rifting of North America from Africa
Even before the proposal of continental drift, paleontologists recognized that some sort
of land connection was needed to account for the identical fossil organisms found on
multiple continents. Select the correct hypothesis or hypotheses these paleontologists
developed.
A) Sea level falling
B) A chain of island stepping stones
C) Floating debris used as rafts and sea level rising
D) A transoceanic land bridge
E) Island stepping stones, transoceanic land bridge, and floating debris used for rafts
________ are organisms that reproduce sexually and have cells that contain nuclei.
A) Prokaryotes
B) Eukaryotes
C) Protologics
D) Cenozoics
Which rock type can contain fossils?
A) Igneous rocks
B) Sedimentary rocks
C) Metamorphic rocks
D) Minerals
Which of the following does not characterize the early development and specialization
of mammals?
A) Increase in brain capacity
B) Increase in body size
C) Increase in lung capacity
D) Specialization of teeth to accommodate diets
Match the oceanic and continental lithospheres with their positions on the figure below.
1. Oceanic Plate
2. Continental Plate
A) on the left
B) on the right
Match the foliated metamorphic rocks in order from lowest grade to highest grade.
(Note: First refers to the lowest grade of metamorphism and fourth refers to the highest
grade.)
A) Slate
B) Phyllite
C) Gneiss
D) Schist
1. First (lowest level of metamorphism)
2. Second
3. Third
4. Fourth (highest level of metamorphism)
Around which volcano is a scientist likely find pillow basalts?
A) Mount St. Helens
B) Parcutin
C) Fujiyama
D) Kilauea
During what time period did scientists first notice the jigsaw puzzle fit of the southern
continents?
A) 1600s
B) 1750s
C) 1800s
D) 1910s
What is the mineral name for table salt?
A) Halite
B) Calcite
C) Dolomite
D) Gypsum
The Maunder Minimum occurred at the same time as the ________ and has been used
by some to explain the cooling temperatures during that period.
A) Industrial Revolution
B) Cretaceous Period
C) Medieval Warm Period
D) Little Ice Age
Which mass wasting process involved volcanically derived material from the eruption
of Nevado del Ruiz and destroyed the city of Armero in 1985?
A) Lahar
B) Rockfall
C) Solifluction
D) Debris flow
Which of the following is not one of the three zones of a river system?
A) Sediment Capacity Zone
B) Sediment Transport Zone
C) Sediment Deposition Zone
D) Sediment Production Zone
The ________ is a flooded margin of the continent.
A) continental shelf
B) deep-ocean floor
C) continental slope
D) continental rise
________ is the compass direction of the line produced by the intersection of an
inclined rock layer with a horizontal plane.
A) Dip
B) Angle
C) Strike
D) Plunge
The ________ is the point in the subsurface where 100% of the pore spaces are filled
with water.
A) Vadose Zone
B) Zone of Saturation
C) Zone of Accumulation
D) Capillary Fringe
Which environmental issue most commonly affects groundwater aquifers in coastal or
island areas?
A) Subsidence
B) Dissolution
C) Chemical contamination
D) Saltwater contamination
If a back-arc basin is a region related to a subduction zone, how can such an extensional
basin form near a boundary defined by compression?
A) Trench rolls back as the old, dense subducting plate sinks.
B) Compression ceases before extension takes over.
C) Rising magma is softening the crust, allowing it to stretch.
D) A plate subducting at an extremely shallow angle is pushing against the back-arc
region.
Continents have a density of ________ and are made of ________ rock.
A) 1.9 g/cm3; sandstone
B) 4.5 g/cm3; gneiss
C) 3.0 g/cm3; basalt
D) 2.7 g/cm3; granite
What is the average density of oceanic crust?
A) 2.7 g/cm3
B) 3.0 g/cm3
C) 3.3 g/cm3
D) 5.6 g/cm3
Which of the following is the best description for structural geology?
A) Study of intergrown mineral crystals in igneous rocks
B) Study of sequences of sedimentary rocks and how their environments of deposition
dictate how sediments are laid down
C) Study of earthquakes and how they move through Earth’s interior
D) Study of rock deformation in response to tectonic forces
________ describes the formation of one or more secondary magmas from a single
parent magma.
A) Magmatic differentiation
B) Hydrothermal alteration
C) Decompression melting
D) Partial melting