What organic compounds are essential for DNA and RNA to form?
A) ammonia and methane
B) hydrogen sulfide
C) carbon dioxide
D) oxygen
E) amino acids
Which of the following is a part of the earth system that could be significantly impacted
by climate and climate change?
A) deposition of sedimentary rocks
B) igneous intrusions
C) formation of volcanic islands
D) development of metamorphic minerals
E) none of the above
The ________ Ocean is largest.
A) Atlantic
B) Pacific
C) Indian
D) Arctic
Which of the following features characterize meandering streams and valleys?
A) natural levees; broad floodplains
B) rapids; channel bed potholes
C) waterfalls; entrenched meanders
D) V-shaped valley cross sections
If you live in the Midwestern United States or Canada and you experience several days
of winter temperatures below -20C with clear weather, you are undoubtedly
experiencing ________.
A) a Continental Polar air mass
B) a Maritime Polar air mass
C) a Continental Tropical air mass
D) a cyclonic storm
Abrasion and plucking generally involve what part of a glacier?
A) the internal flowage zone
B) the snout zone
C) the surface brittle zone
D) the bottom or base
________ is the major dissolved volatile constituent in both magmas and volcanic
gases.
A) Water
B) Carbon monoxide
C) Hydrogen chloride
D) Methane
Permanent streams in desert regions are rare, and when they do occur, ________.
A) they originate in a glacier region
B) they have numerous tributaries to keep them supplied with water as they cross the
desert
C) they originate outside of the desert region and have few tributaries in the desert
D) they get their water from wadis and arroyos
The ________ forms the relatively cool, brittle tectonic plates.
A) asthenosphere
B) lithosphere
C) astrosphere
D) eosphere
The outermost layer of the Sun is called the ________.
A) ionosphere
B) corona
C) photosphere
D) chromosphere
E) megasphere
For the given conditions, what would happen to the relative humidity value if the
temperature increased from 25oC?
A) It would increase.
B) It would decrease.
C) It would remain the same.
D) It depends on the dew point temperature.
A blue star is ________ our Sun.
A) hotter and smaller than
B) hotter and larger than
C) colder and larger than
D) colder and smaller than
E) approximately the same temperature and size as
The southeastern United States lies in the heart of the “horse latitudes” where normally
we would expect desert conditions. Why isn’t this area a desert?
A) Continental polar air masses disturb the pattern by periodic influxes of cold air.
B) Maritime polar air masses disturb the pattern by driving pacific moisture across
North America.
C) Continental tropical air masses derived from Mexico disturb the pattern when these
air masses are drawn northward by cyclonic storms.
D) Maritime tropical air masses derived from the Gulf of Mexico disturb the pattern
when these air masses are drawn northward by cyclonic storms.
Vast, circular to elliptical dark-colored areas on the moon called maria represent
________.
A) large volcanos
B) remnant highlands produced from a time when the moon was entirely molten
C) very large impact craters filled with basaltic lava
D) large lowlands that were sea-beds when the moon had water
In the outer most layer of the atmosphere, gas molecules can have a temperature of
1000C because ________.
A) that is the temperature of an object that is entering the earth’s atmosphere at a high
speed
B) that is the temperature of the solar radiation
C) that is the speed of the individual molecules
D) there is no filter to keep the sun from heating the outer atmosphere
E) none of the above
Which of the following is not true of peridotite?
A) It is rarely found at the Earth’s surface.
B) It is denser than basaltic rocks.
C) It is composed almost entirely of olivine and pyroxene.
D) It is the main constituent of the Earth’s crust.
Silicates most commonly form ________.
A) at the surface of the earth
B) from other silicates
C) from cooling molten rock
D) under extreme pressure
A geologist is studying sediments on land that were originally deep sea sediments. She
finds the minerals zircon and garnet in the sediments, which could only come from a
continental region. These sediments must be ________.
A) terrigenous sediment
B) biogenous sediment
C) hydrogenous sediment
D) both terrigenous and biogenous sediment
You land your inflatable boat on a sandbar at high tide in Southeast Alaska, which has a
large semi-diurnal tide. You intend to be away from the boat for 12 hours, but come
back early after only 8 hours. Your boat is, unfortunately, 400m from shore. How long
will you have to wait to be able to use your boat (assuming you can’t carry it)?
A) 12 hours and 25 minutes
B) 6 hours and 12 minutes
C) 6 hours
D) 4 hours and 25 minutes
This scientist wrote a book entitled Dialogue of the Great World Systems that compared
the Earth-centered system with the Sun-centered system.
A) Sir Isaac Newton
B) Galileo
C) Tycho Brahe
D) Nicolaus Copernicus
E) Johannes Kepler
The presence of which one of the following would indicate that the land had been
uplifted or that sea level had fallen?
A) an estuary
B) a sea stack
C) elevated marine terrace
D) a tombolo
The suspended load of a stream ________.
A) is deposited before the bed load
B) is highly soluble substances
C) moves along the bottom
D) usually consists of fine particles
The figure below shows the intensity of an Earthquake in northern California that
affected much of the same areas that were damaged by the 1906 earthquake in a very
similar manner. Based on this information, ________.
A) people should not be allowed to build homes in the intensity VIII regions because
the U.S. taxpayer has to pay to rebuild after such an earthquake
B) people who live in the high intensity regions should be required to carry earthquake
insurance
C) construction methods are clearly inadequate in the high intensity areas, and all
homes in those areas need to be reinforced
D) in general, the current building codes are adequate, but people should be aware of
the hazards in this area
You are on a boat in a fiord in Glacier Bay, Alaska. It is a clear sunny day with
temperatures near 20C with no wind. Within 5 minutes the sky is still clear but the wind
is blowing at 30 knots down valley, the sea is filled with whitecaps, and the temperature
drops to 5C. What just happened?
A) You experienced a Chinook wind.
B) You experienced a valley wind, caused by cold air spilling off an ice cap down the
valley.
C) You experienced an afternoon sea breeze, blowing cold air off the ocean.
D) A storm front must have passed.
S waves can travel through solid and liquid media.
Which of the following is not evidence collected by the Glomar Challenger in support
of the Plate Tectonic model?
A) Fossils increase in age with increasing distance from the ridges.
B) Continental crust is typically several hundred million years old or older.
C) Oceanic crust is less than 180 million years old.
D) Sediments get thicker with increasing distance from the ridges.
If you want to buy a house in an area and you are worried there may be an earthquake
hazard, who would be the best person to ask for advice on this hazard?
A) a civil engineer
B) a geologist
C) a physicist
D) an astrologer
________ are usually the most abundant gases emitted during basaltic volcanism.
A) Chlorine and sodium
B) Neon and ammonia
C) Oxygen and nitrogen
D) Water and carbon dioxide
In thrust faulting, ________.
A) grabens develop on the footwall block
B) the crust is shortened and thickened
C) horizontal, tensional stresses drive the deformation
D) the hanging wall block slips downward along the thrust fault
By the close of the Paleozoic, all the continents had fused into the single super
continent of ________.
A) Laurasia
B) Pangaea
C) Appalachia
D) Gondwanaland
E) Europa
Karst topography is most commonly associated with areas underlain by massive
sandstone strata.
Landslides commonly occur when hurricanes hit steep terrain. Why?
A) Heavy rain from the tropical system can saturate slopes, triggering mass wasting
events like mudslides.
B) The high winds produce a shear stress on the slopes, triggering mass movements.
C) The high winds uproot trees, weakening the slope and inducing mass wasting.
D) The correlation with hurricanes is coincidental.
Density in seawater is determined by ________.
A) temperature
B) salinity
C) both temperature and salinity
D) none of these