The large size of insects and amphibians during the Pennsylvanian period has been
suggested to be due to ________.
A) a lack of predators for early land forms
B) an excess of sunlight and water during that time
C) an excess of oxygen during that time
D) a decrease in methane in the atmosphere during that time
E) the emergence of a super continent that allowed greater areas for animals to evolve
If stormy weather were approaching, the pressure tendency would probably be
________.
A) steady
B) rising
C) falling
D) none of these
The Laramide Orogeny at the end of the Mesozoic produced ________.
A) the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern U.S.
B) the Ural Mountains in Russia
C) the Alps in Europe
D) the Rocky Mountains in the western U.S.
E) the Himalayan Mountains in Asia
The Morrison Formation is exposed in the western United States and represents a
nonmarine deposit with abundant dinosaur fossils. Much of the Morrison is pure
mudstone, yet it is common to find highly polished pebbles and cobbles in the mud.
Which of the following do you think is the best explanation of these cobbles?
A) They were placed in the mud by space aliens.
B) They represent meteorites that killed the dinosaurs.
C) They are impossible; people must have put them there.
D) They are gastroliths, a trace fossil.
If you heat a jar with water in it, the amount of water vapor that will go into the air in
order to reach saturation will ________.
A) lower the temperature of the water
B) raise the temperature of the water
C) increase in amount
D) decrease in amount
E) Everything will stay the same.
Atoms of the same element, zinc for example, have the same number of ________.
A) electrons in the nucleus
B) protons in the nucleus
C) neutrons in the outer nuclear shell
D) electrons in the valence bond level
The updrafts in thunderstorms are initiated by thermal instabilities at the surface. What
process tends to increase the vertical instability that feeds the thunderstorm
development?
A) low pressure aloft
B) a jet stream aloft
C) release of latent heat by condensation
D) Coriolis forces
Mammals replaced reptiles as the dominant land animals in the Cenozoic era.
________ meteorites are thought to be analogous in composition to Earth’s core.
A) Calcareous
B) Iron
C) Stony
D) Ammonical
Which of the following is not a mechanism for heat transfer?
A) conduction
B) contraction
C) radiation
D) convection
E) They are all mechanisms for heat transfer.
Why are there only 4-7 eclipses per year?
A) There are more, they just aren’t visible on both sides of the earth.
B) The moon’s orbit is inclined to the ecliptic and only crosses the ecliptic twice per
year.
C) The moon’s orbit is inclined to the ecliptic and only crosses the ecliptic 3-4 times per
year.
D) There are only 4 full moons and 4 new moons per year, so no more than 4-7 are
possible.
Which one of the following is an igneous rock?
A) limestone
B) rhyolite
C) slate
D) shale
The layer of the solar atmosphere directly above the photosphere is referred to as the
________.
A) ionosphere
B) corona
C) chromosphere
D) solarsphere
E) megasphere
Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay are ________.
A) associated with a submergent coast
B) former river valleys that were flooded by a rise in sea level
C) excellent examples of large estuaries
D) all of the above
Aerosols are ________ in terms of global change due to greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere.
A) a positive feedback mechanism
B) a negative feedback mechanism
C) neither a positive nor a negative feedback mechanism
D) an absorber
E) a reflector
In the mid-1600s, James Ussher determined that the earth was created in 4004 BC
based on ________.
A) ancient records from the Egyptians
B) Biblical passages
C) fossils
D) rates of deposition and erosion of earth materials
E) none of the above
A major site of sediment deposition during the Cenozoic was ________.
A) the Gulf of Mexico
B) the Rocky Mountains
C) the western coast of the U.S.
D) the central U.S.
E) central Texas
During periods of high solar activity, huge cloudlike structures that appear as great
arches extending from the Sun are often produced. These solar features are called
________.
A) quasars
B) the solar wind
C) spicules
D) plages
E) prominences
Which of the following must result in a lower base level for rivers and streams?
A) sea level drops; land subsides
B) sea level falls; land rises
C) sea level rises; land subsides
D) sea level rises; land rises
________ generally constitutes the highest percentage of the annual sediment load
moved by a stream.
A) Bed load
B) Dissolved load
C) Suspended load
D) Saltation load
The ________ is the idea or concept that ancient life forms succeeded each other in a
definite, evolutionary pattern and that the contained assemblage of fossils can
determine geologic ages of strata.
A) principle of cross correlation
B) law of fossil regression
C) law of correlative indexing
D) principle of fossil succession
A red giant has ________.
A) a hydrogen-rich core
B) a helium-rich core
C) an iron-rich core
D) no outer shell
E) high gas pressure
A wind shift from south or southwest to northwest is commonly associated with the
passage of a ________ front.
A) warm
B) cold
C) neither warm nor cold
D) stationary
The major absorber of terrestrial radiation is ________.
A) oxygen
B) ozone
C) water vapor
D) carbon Dioxide
E) none of the above
The Sun belongs to this class of stars.
A) black hole
B) main-sequence star
C) red giant
D) white dwarf
This scientist was the first to use the telescope in astronomy.
A) Sir Isaac Newton
B) Galileo
C) Tycho Brahe
D) Nicolaus Copernicus
On the AVERAGE, for every 1 km increase in altitude in the troposphere, the air
temperature ________.
A) drops about 6.5oC
B) rises about 6.5oC
C) remains constant
D) rises only during the day
Which one of the following represents the greatest expanse of geological time?
A) Mesozoic
B) Cenozoic
C) Precambrian
D) Paleozoic
Most sediment is formed by ________.
A) settling out of a fluid
B) the downhill movement of material during mass wasting
C) the rapid distribution of material in a mountain stream
D) rocks that erode from the bottoms of glaciers
Most of an iceberg is under water because ________.
A) ice is more dense than seawater
B) seawater is more dense than ice
C) the mass of an iceberg is concentrated in the zone of wastage
D) the mass of an iceberg is concentrated in the zone of accumulation
You go for a hike across an outcropping of sandstone and you see large footprints in the
sandstone. You have just found ________.
A) Bigfoot
B) a trace fossil
C) proof of an ancient flood
D) a mold
The subdivision of the geologic time scale that represents the longest time span is called
a(n) ________.
A) epoch
B) era
C) period
D) eon
Pillow lavas are ________.
A) basaltic magmas erupted on the seafloor as magma blobs from an explosive,
submarine eruption
B) basaltic lava tubes erupted on the seafloor in volcanic piles analogous to toothpaste
extruded from a tube
C) andesitic bombs erupted from a cinder cone that accumulate as pillow-like masses
around the cone
D) rhyolite glasses that develop a banding that resembles a pillow case with internal
snowflake obsidian that looks like feathers
The ________ climates are land-controlled climates, the result of broad continents in
the middle latitudes.
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) E
Chemically active fluids are ________.
A) fluids that readily change to gases at surface conditions
B) fluids that contain large quantities of oxygen which reacts with most minerals to
form new minerals during metamorphism
C) more acidic than regular fluids
D) more basic than regular fluids
Observe the desert and steppe climates on Figure 20.8 below. How are these climates
distributed relative to latitude? What is the relationship of dry climates to global
circulation discussed in chapter 18?
Considering the albedo of various surfaces, compare daily temperature ranges and
means for an urban area to a more rural setting of crops and forests. Also, are there any
other factors other than albedo that might affect these temperature variations?
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.
A large body of air that is characterized by a homogeneity of temperature and moisture
at any given level is a(n) ________.
Following the reptilian extinctions at the close of the Mesozoic era, two groups of
mammals, the marsupials and ________, evolved and expanded.
The lowest elevation limiting stream erosion is called ________.
What were the three gases that made up Earth’s original atmosphere?
What term denotes a glacial valley that was partly flooded as sea level rose?
Winterless climates with all months having a mean temperature above 18C are called
________ climates.
________ level refers to each of the feeding stages in the food chain.
What type of stress (pressure) is illustrated in the diagram below?
Which is more dense, seawater or freshwater?
Compare and contrast Bergeron Process with the Collision-Coalescence Process.
A star in which light cannot escape because of the immense gravitational pull is called
a(n) ________.
What term describes a groundwater system in which water in a well rises above the top
of the aquifer without use of a pump?
When the hinge line of a fold is not horizontal the fold is said to ________.
An igneous rock that cools deep inside the Earth is called a(n) ________ igneous rock
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.