How has sea level changed over the last few thousand years?
A) It has risen 1 cm per millennium.
B) It has remain constant.
C) It has fallen 25 cm per century.
D) It has risen about 10 cm per century.
How can subduction result in the emplacement of batholiths?
A) Partial melting of the mantle overlying the subducting plate creates magma.
B) Decompression melting of the plate creates magma.
C) Friction of descending plate creates magma.
D) Pillow basalts get subducted with plate and forced into overriding plate.
Where is the world’s largest tidal electricity power plant?
A) The California coast north of San Francisco
B) Annapolis River estuary, Maryland
C) Murmansk, Russia
D) The mouth of the Rance River in Brittany, France
Which climate contains the optimum environment for chemical weathering?
A) Cold and dry
B) Warm and dry
C) Cold and wet
D) Warm and wet
Continental crust is mainly composed of ________, whereas oceanic crust is mainly
composed of ________.
A) olivine; basalt
B) limestone; gabbro
C) granite; basalt
D) gabbro; granite
Match the fault with the appropriate stress that caused it.
A) Shear
B) Compression
C) Tension
1. Normal fault
2. Reverse fault
3. Strike-slip fault
Which of the following best describes interbedded gypsum and halite?
A) Biochemical sedimentary rocks
B) Detrital sedimentary rocks
C) Carbonate sedimentary rocks
D) Evaporitic sedimentary rocks
What kind of stress would be affecting the marked region in this image?
A) Compression
B) Tension
C) Shear
Which of the following is not one of the roles of the atmosphere?
A) Energy exchanges between the surface and outer space, creating weather and climate
B) Lessening the effects of weathering on the geosphere
C) Protection from ultraviolet radiation and the intensity of the Sun
D) Providing air for respiratory processes in the biosphere
The planet Mercury absorbs most of the sunlight that strikes its surface. Why is so little
reflected back to outer space?
A) Mercury has a great deal of frozen methane on its surface.
B) The planet is covered by a thick haze.
C) Mercury has little or no atmosphere.
D) The surface of Mercury has not been disturbed by meteorite impacts.
The volcanic islands visible here formed as a result of a mantle plume. Which volcanic
island is the oldest and subsiding into the sea?
A) Volcano A
B) Volcano B
C) Volcano C
Which tectonic boundary is associated with regional metamorphism?
A) Convergent
B) Divergent
C) Dip-slip
D) Transform
A(n) ________ coast will be created when sea level falls or the land is uplifted.
A) exposed
B) emergent
C) submergent
D) eroded
What was the rate of cooling and the environment of formation for an extrusive igneous
rock and why?
A) Slow because the magma was insulated below the surface
B) Fast because it was erupted from a volcano
C) Slow because it cooled in a volcanic lava flow far from the vent
D) Fast because it cooled 6 kilometers below the surface
Which mechanical weathering process will be most common in an arid environment?
A) Salt wedging
B) Abrasion
C) Root wedging
D) Exfoliation
Match the convergent boundary with a real-world example.
1. Oceanic-continental
2. Oceanic-oceanic
3. Continental-continental
A) North American and Juan de Fuca plates
B) Indian and Eurasian P=plates
C) Pacific and Philippine plates
________ are primary reservoirs of groundwater.
A) Igneous rocks
B) Sedimentary rocks
C) Metamorphic rocks
D) Sediments and sedimentary rocks
Which U.S. region is made up of a series of high-angle normal faults producing nearly
parallel mountain ranges?
A) Appalachian Mountains
B) Basin and Range Province
C) Colorado Plateau
D) Valley and Ridge Province
What is the source of black carbon aerosols?
A) Petroleum
B) Soot
C) Bacteria
D) Mineral deposits
What feature is marked with the circle in this image?
A) P wave
B) Focus (hypocenter)
C) Hanging wall
D) Crust
________ are small vents that emit volcanic gases.
A) Calderas
B) Domes
C) Fumaroles
D) Tuff
What is the mouth of a stream?
A) The location where one stream flows into another body of water
B) The location where streamflow begins
C) The location where streamflow evaporates
D) The location where streams diverge into distributary channels
What is the definition of sheet erosion?
A) The removal of soil particles by wind gusts
B) Water moving in thin sheets, carrying dislodged soil particles
C) Removal of sheets of rock through exfoliation
D) Transportation of vegetation from rapidly eroding sediments
A ________ is a crustal fragment that has been transported by plate tectonics and has
adhered to an overriding plate.
A) Terrain
B) Guyot
C) Xenolith
D) Terrane
What feature is present in this image?
A) Black smoker
B) Coral
C) Seamount
D) Guyot
Which group of animals will bear live young that are underdeveloped and must stay in
the mother’s pouch to complete their development?
A) Placentals
B) Marsupials
C) Prokaryotes
D) Angiosperms
Which of the following statements regarding the global oceanic ridge system is correct?
A) The ridge system marks the deepest locations on the Earth’s surface.
B) The ridge system marks the locations of most mantle plumes in the mantle.
C) The ridge system is the longest topographic feature on the Earth’s surface.
D) The ridge system has an extensive submarine canyon system.
California’s Central Valley is an important agricultural area for U.S. fruit and vegetable
production. Because of the semiarid climate there, farmers must irrigate their crops.
Which environmental problem do you anticipate as a result?
A) Saltwater contamination
B) Fluvial erosion
C) Land subsidence
D) Water acidification
Use this image of the hydrologic cycle to illustrate the processes of the hydrologic
sphere. Match the correct labels to the correct spaces for those processes.
A) Runoff
B) Precipitation
C) Evaporation
1. A
2. B
3. C
________ refers to the bouncing motion sands will display when transported by moving
water or wind.
A) Yardang
B) Saltation
C) Deflation
D) Slithering
What is the molecular formula for ozone?
A) O
B) O2
C) O3
D) O4