In what part of a subduction margin might you find rocks deposited on the abyssal
plain, far from land?
A) Accretionary Wedge
B) Volcanic Arc
C) Forearc Basin
D) Cratonic Basin
Glacial ice sheets are the largest glaciers and they currently cover ________.
A) Antarctica, Greenland, Alaska, the Andes Mountains, the Arctic Sea, and the Alps
B) The Arctic Sea, the Alps, Greenland, Antarctica, and Alaska
C) Alaska, Antarctica, and Greenland
D) Greenland and Antarctica
E) only Antarctica
The greatest loss of life during a natural disaster occurred during ________.
A) Hurricane Katrina
B) a tornado in the Midwest
C) the 1900 Galveston hurricane
D) a 1959 blizzard in the Midwest
Water runoff is a major factor in soil erosion, what is a common land use practice on
slopes to minimize soil erosion?
A) planting trees
B) adding a rock mulch layer to slow water runoff
C) planting row crops with rows running downhill, to minimize channelization of flow
D) terracing slopes to stop downslope runoff and rill formation
The major source of free oxygen in the atmosphere is from ________.
A) molten rock
B) water
C) green plants
D) silicate minerals
E) glaciers
The discovery that the universe appears to be expanding led to a widely accepted theory
called ________.
A) the Big Bang
B) Hubble’s Law
C) Einstein’s Law
D) the Doppler effect
The rock pumice often floats yet the density of the rock is greater than water. Why does
it float?
A) Pumice is a pyroclastic rock derived from rhyolite glass, and rhyolite glass has a
lower density than water.
B) Pumice is a pyroclastic rock comprised largely of open voids formed by gases
released when the magma solidified as froth-like material.
C) Pumice is a rock made of rhyolite glass that erupts into water, which traps water in
voids and makes the material less dense than water.
D) Pumice is another name for dacite, a low-density rock that floats in water.
In the present day, what is the most valuable non-living commodity obtained from sea
floor?
A) sand and gravel
B) gold
C) oil and gas
D) gas hydrate
A stream meanders across a broad, flat valley with numerous swamps and lakes. This
stream is ________.
A) running well above base level
B) running at base level or below base level
C) running on bedrock
D) responding to a fall in base level
If you determine the number of days in a year with solar time and sidereal time how
would they vary?
A) They wouldn’t; a year is always about 365 1/4 days, and the 1/4 day is taken up with
leap years.
B) A year measured in sidereal time would be about one day longer than a year based
on solar time.
C) A year measured in sidereal time would be about one day shorter than a year based
on solar time.
D) A year measured in sidereal time would be about 15 minutes different than a solar
day, so the difference only accumulates over time.
Most ________ rocks are devoid of fossils, which hinders correlation of rocks.
A) Precambrian
B) Paleozoic
C) Mesozoic
D) Cenozoic
E) Mesozoic and Cenozoic
The first telescopes, and most amateur telescopes, rely on the human eye to observe
objects. The first improvement on this observation method used ________.
A) projection systems
B) digital cameras
C) photographic film
D) polyspectral scanners
Which of the following is not a dark silicate mineral?
A) biotite
B) amphibole
C) quartz
D) pyroxene
Which of the following is not a system?
A) the biosphere
B) soil, plants, rock, soil organisms, and animals
C) the study of minerals
D) the Pacific Ocean and the west coast of North America
In the Northern Hemisphere, winds associated with a high pressure system blow
________.
A) clockwise and toward the center
B) counterclockwise and toward the center
C) clockwise and outward from the center
D) counterclockwise and outward from the center
During the Cambrian, Trilobites developed a flexible exoskeleton which allowed them
to ________.
A) avoid being eaten by other creatures
B) climb trees and find food
C) burrow in soft sediment to find food
D) eat smaller life forms by crushing them in their jaws
E) sink to the bottom of shallow ponds to find food
A transform boundary is characterized by ________.
A) a deep, vertical fault along which two plates slide past one another in opposite
directions
B) stratovolcanoes on the edge of a plate and shield volcanoes on the adjacent plate
C) two converging oceanic plates meeting head-on and piling up into a mid-ocean ridge
D) a divergent boundary where the continental plate changes to an oceanic plate
Which of the following is not a planet?
A) Europa
B) Venus
C) Saturn
D) Neptune
The ________ is (are) characterized by terrane accretion that has been active
throughout most of Mesozoic and Cenozoic time.
A) western margin of Africa
B) southern margins of India and Australia
C) western margin of North America
D) western margin of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Why is it important that we have a rigid lithosphere overlying a weak asthenosphere?
A) If we did not have the rigid lithosphere and weak asthenosphere, the earth would not
have plate tectonics and would be covered entirely by water.
B) If we did not have the rigid lithosphere and weak asthenosphere, the atmosphere
would be very different with either too much ammonia and methane or too little oxygen
and water.
C) If we did not have the rigid lithosphere and weak asthenosphere, we would be
bombarded by cosmic rays that would strip away our atmosphere.
D) If we did not have the rigid lithosphere and weak asthenosphere, we would be
bombarded by meteorites and we would not be able to hold the moon in orbit.
One of the primary goals of geology is to ________.
A) identify all of the rocks on the surface of the earth
B) develop a comprehensive relationship between fossils and geologic formations
C) understand the role of plate tectonics in the earth’s evolution
D) understand the history of the earth
E) determine the role of meteorites in the decline of species over time
What is the difference between an active continental margin and a passive continental
margin?
A) A passive margin is the site of an ancient continental rift, left behind when seafloor
spreading moved offshore, whereas an active margin is an active plate boundary.
B) A passive margin is passively carried along by plate tectonics in a transform system,
like the San Andreas whereas an active margin is a trench.
C) An active margin receives large amounts of sediment whereas a passive margin is
sediment starved.
D) An active margin has earthquakes whereas a passive margin has quiet erupting (aka
passive) volcanos.
Which one of the following statements is correct?
A) P waves travel through solids; S waves do not.
B) P and S waves travel through liquids, but P waves do not travel through solids.
C) P and S waves travel through solids and P waves travel through liquids.
D) P and S waves travel through liquids, but S waves do not travel through solids.
Megathrusts between subducting oceanic crust and an overriding plate are a potential
source of tsunamis because ________.
A) the earthquakes on these faults are underwater and could displace large amounts of
water from the oceans
B) the earthquakes on these faults are underwater and could release large amounts of
water from the asthenosphere
C) one side of the fault is on land and the other is underwater so an earthquake could
cause a landslide or tsunami depending on which side moved
D) oceanic crust is “thrust” over the continent along a megathrust so that forces the land
downward producing a tsunami
Plate Tectonic boundaries were first identified by ________.
A) mapping the mountain chains
B) mapping subduction zone
C) mapping earthquakes and volcanoes
D) mapping continental margins
The best building material to use in an earthquake prone region is ________.
A) brick
B) concrete
C) wood
D) stone
A major cause of the differences in elevation between ocean basins and continents is
________.
A) viscosity
B) temperature
C) density
D) mass
In the last 20 years geologists have begun measuring accumulation of Helium (He) in
some minerals because these minerals can retain He at temperatures up 100-200C. The
“date” gives a time when the material cooled below the temperature where the helium
began to be retained, which is related to the depth of the material. Where do you think
the He comes from that allows this technique to work?
A) the atmosphere, like carbon-14
B) the sun
C) beta decay of some radioactive element
D) alpha decay of some radioactive element
________ involves movement on a zone of compressed air.
A) A slump
B) A mudflow
C) A rock avalanche
D) Soil creep
Polar climates get most of their precipitation in the ________.
A) winter
B) spring
C) summer
D) fall
E) It is uniform throughout the year.
Sediments derived primarily from the products of weathering on the continents are
called ________.
A) terrigenous sediment
B) biogenous sediment
C) hydrogenous sediment
D) both terrigenous and biogenous sediment
In a(n) ________ fault, the hanging wall block moves up with respect to the footwall
block.
A) normal
B) strike slip
C) reverse
D) abnormal