Which of the following major discoveries was not made near or after World War II?
A) the extensive ranges of mountain chains on the sea floor
B) deep focus earthquakes that occur in some regions of the earth
C) rift valleys in Africa
D) the absence of rocks older than 200 million years on the sea floor
What was the main view how the world worked geologically prior to the 1960s?
A) It was generally believed that the earth was flat.
B) It was generally believed that mountains were produced by vertical forces.
C) It was generally believed that continents and oceans moved.
D) It was generally believed that oceans formed as a result of meteorite impacts.
A geologist is working in an area of old volcanic rocks exposed by erosion. He finds a
large rock outcrop that contains flat lying gravels in the base of the outcrop. These
gravels are overlain by basalt that forms a series of layers representing flows. The
uppermost basalt lava flows have a dip of about 10 degrees to the west. What does this
outcrop record?
A) Basalt flows formed above a series of gravels, filling a river valley.
B) Basalt flows formed after gravels were deposited, covered the local terrain, and built
a shield volcano with dips of about 10 degrees.
C) Gravels were initially deposited in a river valley and a cinder cone was erupted,
damming the valley, before a cinder cone formed.
D) You can’t tell anything about the history of this region from this outcrop.
Use the Periodic table below to answer the following questions:
The bond between sodium (Na) and Chlorine (Cl) to form halite (salt) is a(n) ________
bond.
A) ionic
B) valent
C) covalent
D) metallic
If you go to a beach in the continental United States and you are standing on a long, flat
strand of sand, and you look away from the open ocean and see only a few low sand
dunes and then a large, open waterway, where are you?
A) on a surfing beach in California
B) on a the Oregon coast at the mouth of river
C) on a barrier island on the Florida Gulf Coast
D) You must be on a Pacific Island; there is nothing like that on U.S. coastlines.
The major driving force of Plate Tectonics is ________.
A) subduction of cold, dense lithosphere
B) subduction of hot lithosphere
C) decompression melting and the rise of magmas at spreading ridges
D) heating of magma near the surface of the lithosphere
The supercontinent of Pangaea began to break up during the ________ era.
A) Precambrian
B) Paleozoic
C) Mesozoic
D) Cenozoic
Streams of protons and electrons emitted from the Sun produce ________.
A) quasars
B) the solar wind
C) granules
D) plages
E) prominences
________ develop where oceanic lithosphere bends downward and sinks into the
mantle.
A) Submarine canyons
B) Abyssal seamounts
C) Deep ocean trenches
D) Rift valleys on mid-ocean ridges
The Richter magnitude of an earthquake is determined from the ________.
A) duration of the earthquake
B) intensity of the earthquake
C) arrival time of P and S waves
D) amplitude of the largest seismic wave
What is the important measure from weather radar that gives the intensity of the
precipitation?
A) brightness of the echo
B) time of the echo
C) number of echoes from a single point
D) height of the echo
E) none of the above
Which of the following is not true for anticyclonic storms systems in the Northern
Hemisphere?
A) The outward flow produces a clockwise circulation due to the Coriolis force.
B) The storm system is characterized by high pressure and descending air.
C) The storm system is characteristic of mid-latitude zones and is typically associated
with fair weather.
D) The storm system is a low-latitude phenomena associated with outflow from tropical
cyclones.
Which type of plate margin is characterized by volcanos that include basalt, andesite,
dacite and rhyolite?
A) hot spots
B) spreading ridges
C) transform faults
D) convergent plate margins
How do modern telescopes prevent problems of earlier telescopes that limited mirror
size and stability during temperature changes?
A) They use a digital imaging system and process the image to remove distortions.
B) They use a mirror that is constantly adjusted in shape to adjust for changes in
atmospheric distortions.
C) They only use telescopes in space to avoid the atmosphere.
D) They use a super refraction system that uses a series of small lenses that avoid
chromatic effects to collect more light than previously possible.
The average salinity of seawater is ________.
A) 0.01%
B) 0.27%
C) 3.5%
D) 19.8%
E) 30.0%
What is the source of the energy that powers the Earth system?
A) the Sun
B) heat from Earth’s interior
C) both A and B
D) none of the above
Human evolution takes place during the ________ period of the ________ era.
In what plate tectonic setting are magmas generated predominantly by fluids fluxing the
melting process by decreasing melting temperature?
A) hot spots
B) spreading ridges
C) transform faults
D) convergent plate margins
Which one of the following statements is true?
A) Desert landscapes are monotonous, relatively flat areas covered to various depths
with sand.
B) Deserts and dry lands are concentrated in areas of ascending air masses and
relatively low atmospheric pressures.
C) Despite infrequent rainfalls, erosional and depositional features of running water are
important in desert landscapes.
D) Wind is the major cause of erosion in deserts because there is little water but a lot of
wind available.
Scientists have found evidence that life existed at least 3.5 billion years ago ________.
A) in northern Siberia
B) on the Gulf Coast
C) throughout North and South America
D) in Kenya
E) in several locations around the world
Detrital sediments would predominate in all of the following environments except
________.
A) swamp
B) salt flat
C) river floodplain
D) delta
________ denotes the exposed, crescent-shaped rupture surface at the head of a slump.
A) Scoop
B) Sole
C) Toe
D) Scarp
All of geologic time prior to the beginning of the Paleozoic era is commonly referred to
as the ________ era.
Which era is sometimes called the “age of dinosaurs”?
A) Pleistocene
B) Cenozoic
C) Cretaceous
D) Mesozoic
E) none of these
Where is the most severe weather typically located in a midlatitude cyclone?
A) just north of the center of circulation
B) just south of the center of circulation
C) on the warm front preceding the center of circulation
D) on the trailing cold front, south or west of the center of circulation
Use the figure below to answer the following questions.
In the figure, the stress on block ‘Z‘ is ________.
A) shear
B) folding
C) tensional
D) compressional
The atmosphere acquires most of its energy from ________.
A) solar radiation
B) the Earth’s surface
C) water vapor
D) wind
Why would astronomers place an X-ray observatory in space, like the Chandra
observatory?
A) to map X-ray emissions from the moon
B) to map X-ray emissions from the sun
C) to record X-rays emitted from the big bang; the so called background radiation of the
universe
D) to map deep X-ray emissions from deep space, particularly as a proxy for materials
being sucked into black holes
Quartz has a characteristic conchoidal fracture, yet rock shops often sell quartz as
elongate six sided objects with a pointed termination. What causes this shape?
A) The rock shop cuts them that way with abrasives. The facets are cut to give the
crystals more “power” for the crystal people.
B) The planar faces that form the object are crystal faces that grow when the crystals
grew into a void.
C) Quartz usually is amorphous, consistent with its conchoidal fracture, but when it
grows it grows against minerals with planar faces, causing this shape.
D) You should never buy a crystal like this because it is clearly fake, only artificial
crystals grow this way.
Which of the following is not a trace gas?
A) CH4
B) N2O
C) C2N
D) CFCs
Desert and steppe lands cover about what percentage of Earth’s land area?
A) 10%
B) 66%
C) 30%
D) 3%
Most stars are in this stage of evolution.
A) black hole
B) main-sequence star
C) red giant
D) white dwarf
Limestone and marble weather faster than granite because ________.
A) granite is more resistant to physical weathering because of its large crystals
B) limestone has many cracks and holes that allow water to infiltrate and weather the
rock
C) limestone and marble can be dissolved by weak acids in rain
D) granite does not react with rainwater and only weathers by physical erosion
Antarctica became glaciated because ________.
A) it moved to a position over the south pole
B) ocean circulation changed with the northward movement of South America
C) ocean circulation changed with the southward movement of South America
D) global climate changed with the formation of the Himalayan Mountains
E) a meteorite impact changed the earth’s tilt axis
On each continent, large “core areas” of Precambrian rocks, called ________, dominate
the surface.
Which planet, in addition to Earth, shows clear evidence of water erosion?
A low pressure center is called a(n) ________.
________ temperature changes are those that do not involve the addition or subtraction
of heat.
The two most abundant gases in Earth’s atmosphere are ________ and ________.
Briefly discuss stellar evolution. What forces are opposing one another throughout the
life of a star and how do they influence the various stages in the life cycle of a star?
Wind is included along with gravity, water, and ice as an agent of erosion. In many
national parks and other areas of natural beauty, statements are often made that credit
wind as having sculpted the landscape. Briefly discuss the importance of wind as an
agent of erosion and explain why such statements are probably geologically inaccurate.
The phrase, “The present is the key to the past,” refers to the doctrine of ________.
A north wind blows from the ________ to the ________.
Briefly summarize at least 4 major volcanic hazards. Describe the level of risk from
most dangerous to least dangerous to human life. For each hazard indicate where the
hazard is located relative to the volcano (on the volcano slopes, anywhere within
several km of the volcano, anywhere within thousands of km of the volcano, in river
valleys near the volcano, near bodies of water near the volcano, etc.) and consider if the
probability of the hazard is very low, low, medium, high, or high, within the danger
zone of the hazard.
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 ________ is the relatively rigid zone above the asthenosphere that includes the
crust and upper mantle.
When conditions appear favorable for tornado formation, a(n) ________ is issued for
areas covering about 65,000 square kilometers.
What term denotes a sand bar built across the former mouth of an estuary, separating it
from the open sea?
Which climate is situated on the western (windward) side of continents, from about 40
to 65 degrees north and south latitude?
A wintertime form of precipitation that consists of small ice particles is called
________.
A prominent feature of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a very deep linear valley known as
a(n) ________ valley.
The belt of constellations through which all the planets move is called the ________.