Preserved rocks in North America are generally less than ________.
A) 20 km wide
B) 10 km thick
C) 50 km long
D) 3.5 billion years old
E) 2.7 g/cm3 in density
If you just want to go for a swim in a meandering river and want to find a sandy beach,
where is the best place to look for your swimming hole?
A) a point bar on the inside bend of a meander
B) outside bend of the meander loops
C) straight stretches between meander loops
D) It isn’t easy to predict, you’ll just have to look around.
Convective cooling cools rocks much more rapidly than heat conduction. Hydrothermal
circulation represents convective cooling at ocean ridges and is well known from things
like black smokes, but only occurs close to the spreading ridge axis. When
geophysicists measure the geothermal gradient in areas along ridges where there is no
hydrothermal activity, the thermal gradient is far below what you would predict
theoretically, but near hydrothermal vents it is far more than you would predict. Why
would this be?
A) The measurements are incorrect because it is too hot to measure thermal gradient in
molten rock.
B) Most of the heat is carried away by convection as hydrothermal systems, so the
average geothermal gradient away from the hydrothermal circulation is depressed.
C) Organisms growing around hydrothermal vents disturb the thermal properties,
insulating the surface, to make an apparent high thermal gradient.
D) The thermal gradient in water represented by the hydrothermal system must be
different than the rock, so it is measurement artifact.
The fall equinox in the Southern Hemisphere occurs on this date.
A) June 21
B) March 21
C) September 21
D) December 21
Atoms that have an electrical charge due to a gain or loss of electrons are called
________.
A) isotopes
B) ions
C) isochrons
D) periodic elements
A map of the ages of the sea floor shows ________.
A) the direction of the plate motions
B) the location of modern plate boundaries
C) how much material was produced at the ridges during a given period of time
D) how fast the plates are moving
Which type of basaltic lava flow has its surface covered with sharp-edged, angular
blocks and rubble?
A) scoria
B) pahoehoe
C) pillow lava
D) aa
Climate change is a well-known human problem and remains controversial despite
widespread scientific agreement on the issue. Although most scientists are familiar with
the issues, if you were a congressman and wanted an informed analysis of the problem,
which of the following would be most likely to give you the most complete analysis?
A) an astronomer
B) a meteorologist with knowledge of oceanography
C) a geologist with knowledge of astronomy
D) a physicist
A stream begins at an elevation of 200 meters and flows a distance of 400 kilometers to
the ocean. What is the average gradient?
A) 2 m/km
B) 2 km/m
C) 0.5 m/km
D) 0.5 km/in
Why would a large concrete producing company be interested in the sea bed?
A) as a source of lime from sea shells
B) as a source of mud to mix with limestone to make Portland cement
C) They can rape the sea bed without being prosecuted like they would in operating a
quarry or gravel pit improperly.
D) as a source of sand and gravel
Cold fronts and warm fronts in the middle latitudes are often associated with a
________.
A) hurricane
B) middle-latitude cyclone
C) low pressure
D) both B and C
Productivity is the amount of carbon fixed by organisms through the synthesis of
organic matter using energy derived from ________ and ________.
A) chemosynthesis, photosynthesis
B) chemosynthesis, hydrothermal
C) photosynthesis, hydrothermal
D) hydrothermal, available nutrients
E) none of these
The beginning of the Phanerozoic is marked by the ________.
A) evolution of land plants and animals
B) development of hard body parts, such as shells and bones
C) abundant life forms compared to earlier times
D) formation of large land masses
E) existence of a modern atmosphere
In the Northern Hemisphere, tornadoes are most frequent during the ________.
A) January-March period
B) April-June period
C) October-December period
D) month of September
Continental crust is formed by ________.
A) melting and differentiation of oceanic crust at subduction zones
B) partial melting of mantle rocks
C) plumes of hot igneous material that rise from the core-mantle boundary to form hot
spots
D) the original planetary accretion that also led to the formation of the earth’s other
layers
E) recycling of material in giant lava lakes in the early earth history
All of the following are possible steps of scientific investigation except for ________.
A) the collection of scientific facts through observation and measurement
B) assumption of conclusions without prior experimentation or observation
C) the development of one or more working hypotheses or models to explain facts
D) development of observations and experiments to test the hypotheses
The cloud form that is best described as sheets or layers that cover much or all of the
sky is termed ________.
A) cumulus
B) stratus
C) cirrus
D) alto
Which of the following is a renewable resource?
A) coal
B) ice
C) helium gas
D) rock salt
What would have happened to the earth if the Sun were significantly larger than it is?
A) Our atmosphere would consist mainly of carbon dioxide.
B) Our atmosphere would consist mainly of nitrogen.
C) Liquid water and the water cycle would not exist.
D) Our Sun would have burned out after a few hundred million years so life would not
evolve.
________ was (were) never proposed as evidence supporting the existence of Pangaea.
A) Geometrical fit between South America and Africa
B) Islands of Precambrian rocks along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
C) Late Paleozoic glacial features
D) Similar fossils on different continents
One measurement that is widely used to determine how far the focus of an earthquake is
from the seismograph where it is recorded is ________.
A) the amplitude of the P-wave
B) the amplitude of the S-wave
C) the difference in travel time between the P and the S wave
D) the difference in amplitude between the P and the S wave
Astrology is the folklore that arose from watching alignments in the night sky and the
belief that these “celestial events” controlled human events. A 1960’s folk song, “The
Age of Aquarius” has numerous astrology references that relate to the positions of
objects in the sky. The song has a line: “When the moon is in the 7th house, and Jupiter
aligns with Mars, then peace will guide the planet…” From your knowledge of the
stellar constellations and the celestial coordinate system, what does this line mean?
A) When Jupiter and Mars align in the sky, and the moon is in the 7th constellation of
the zodiac, then
B) When Jupiter and Mars align with the sun, and it is the 7th full moon of the year,
then peace…
C) When the moon crosses the zodiac in the 7th month of the year, and Jupiter and Mars
align with the moon, then peace…
D) It is just a nonsense line with no meaning.
The Coriolis effect influences ________.
A) only wind speed
B) only wind direction
C) both wind speed and wind direction
D) neither wind speed nor wind direction
You are walking along the shoreline but the material under your feet isn’t sand, but
instead is large cobbles and you occasionally have to scramble around small boulders.
You are on ________,
A) a beach
B) a coastal dune
C) a wave cut terrace
D) a coral reef shoreface
The Kppen classification system for climate is widely used because _______.
A) it is easy to use, and it covers the most affluent parts of the world, including Europe,
the U.S. and north Africa
B) it is easy to use, and it covers the most populated areas of the earth and the oceans
C) it uses easily obtained data, and the system is relatively unambiguous
D) it uses easily obtained data and can cover a large area with a single classification
E) it is a highly evolved classification system that has been carefully refined and
improved over more than a century so that it meets the complex needs of a modern
society
What is the age of the Earth accepted by most scientists today?
A) 6.4 billion years
B) 4.5 million years
C) 4.5 billion years
D) 6.4 million years
Which of the following is not a factor influencing a stream’s flow velocity?
A) channel slope
B) channel sinuosity
C) channel roughness
D) channel width and cross sectional shape
E) the amount of water in the channel
When Calcium (Ca) bonds with oxygen, it gives up two electrons. What is the charge of
the Ca ion in this compound?
A) +1
B) -1
C) +2
D) -2
Which of the following is not considered pyroclastic debris?
A) ash
B) cinders
C) bombs
D) pahoehoe
The basic building block of a silicate is composed of ________.
A) 1 oxygen and 1 silicon
B) 2 oxygens and 1 silicon
C) 3 oxygens and 1 silicon
D) 4 oxygens and 1 silicon
When sand lithifies, the resulting rock is commonly called ________.
A) sandstone
B) shale
C) conglomerate
D) breccia
Which one of the following is an important fundamental assumption underlying the
plate tectonic theory?
A) Earth’s magnetic field originates in the outer core.
B) Earth’s surface area has been essentially constant over time.
C) Radioactive decay slows down at the extreme pressures of the inner core.
D) Earth’s ocean basins are very old and stable features.
One of the discoveries which led to the modern view of the solar system was that the
orbits of the planets are ________.
A) circles
B) ellipses
C) hyperbolas
D) parabolas
The former late Paleozoic supercontinent is known as ________.
A) Pandomonia
B) Pancakea
C) Pangaea
D) Panatopia