Folds are an example of ________.
A) brittle deformation
B) ductile deformation
C) elastic deformation
D) shear deformation
A major obstacle the first land plants had to overcome was ________.
A) finding food on land where there were no organic compounds
B) staying upright despite gravity and wind on land
C) their lack of mobility because they needed water access
D) the large number of plant eating organisms on land
E) eliminating waste materials in the atmosphere
The most prominent features on the ocean floor are the ________.
A) deep-ocean trenches
B) oceanic ridges
C) seamounts
D) lava plateaus
A worm would stand a poor chance of being fossilized because ________.
A) worms have been rare during the geologic past
B) worms have no hard parts
C) worms contain no carbon-14
D) all of these
Earthquake prediction is ________.
A) not possible
B) possible for short times before some earthquakes based on things like animal
behavior, but the U.S. does not make use of this method.
C) somewhat good for very long term statistical analyses based on ideas like mapping
seismic gaps
D) generally good if you live in an area along a plate boundary because we know how
fast the plates are moving and can measure the stress accumulation
Which of the following is not a Jovian planet?
A) Pluto
B) Neptune
C) Saturn
D) Jupiter
Which of the following physical properties is not generally used to identify most
minerals?
A) luster
B) smell
C) cleavage
D) hardness
The apparent path of the Sun upon the celestial sphere is called the ________.
A) parallax
B) ecliptic
C) precession
D) declination
E) sidereal
You are watching the local weatherman on TV. You live in mid-latitudes in North
America, and the weatherman says the winds aloft are blowing toward the northwest. Is
this reasonable?
A) Yes, southeast winds are common at mid latitudes in North America.
B) Yes, northwest winds are common at mid latitudes in North America.
C) No, Northern Hemisphere winds aloft always move from west to east because of the
Coriolis force.
D) No, mid-latitude winds always move from east to west because of the Coriolis force.
If the glacial budget is balanced (accumulation equals wastage), then ________.
A) the terminus of the glacier is stationary
B) the ice front will retreat
C) the glacier will not flow downhill
D) the ice front will advance
A microwave oven is a good example of a familiar device that relies on absorption of
electromagnetic waves at fixed frequencies by specific elements or compounds. In this
case, water absorbs strongly in the microwave band used by the device, heating water
molecules in food. What might a microwave oven imply about measuring microwaves
emitted by the Sun on Earth?
A) It is irrelevant; the Sun does not emit microwaves.
B) Microwaves must be the major reason for global warming.
C) Microwave radiation will be heavily absorbed in the earth’s atmosphere, particular if
humidity is high.
D) Microwaves will never make it to Earth because they will get absorbed by hydrogen
between Earth and the Sun.
A distinctive characteristic of prokaryotes is ________.
A) their thick cell walls that separate the DNA from the rest of the cell
B) their lack of a separation between the DNA and the rest of the cell
C) their oxygen based metabolism
D) their methane based metabolism
E) their ability to produce sugars
Which one of the following statements is believed to be true of comets?
A) They have highly elliptical orbits around the Sun.
B) They are composed mostly of dense rock particles.
C) They may gain slightly in mass with each orbit around the Sun.
D) Their bright, glowing appearance in the night sky is due to frictional heating in
Earth’s atmosphere.
What is the main factor that determines what will happen to a star after it consumes all
of its nuclear fuel?
A) temperature
B) size
C) mass
D) velocity
E) composition
The tropopause is the boundary between ________.
A) the troposphere and stratosphere
B) tropical and polar air masses
C) the troposphere and mesosphere
D) two layers of high ozone concentration
After the center of a mature wave cyclone passes, you should expect ________.
A) barometric pressure to rise
B) warmer temperatures
C) barometric pressure to fall
D) barometric pressure to remain steady
________ is an erosional contact between tilted, older strata below and horizontal,
younger strata above.
A) Inverse bedding
B) An angular unconformity
C) A disconformity
D) Cross cutting
What is the major distinction between internal and external Earth processes?
A) Internal processes involve heat, and external processes involve oxygen.
B) Internal processes are driven by things like Plate Tectonics, and external processes
are driven by the sun.
C) Internal processes can only occur inside the Earth, but external processes can occur
inside or outside the Earth.
D) Internal and external processes can occur inside and outside the Earth, but external
processes must also include the oxidation of Earth materials.
You are in mid-latitudes in winter. You experience heavy snow followed by a dramatic
drop in temperature as a cold front passes, but for almost 24 hours the weather is clear.
Then, high clouds appear in the west, thicken to stratus clouds and you receive a light
new snowfall (aka snow flurries) but the temperature remains cold. You have just seen
the passage of ________.
A) a second cold front
B) a warm front
C) an occluded front
D) a stationary front
A weather system is moving from west to east. You look at a weather map and see that
you are in an area of closely spaced isobars with the center just to your east, but the
spacing of the isobars increases away from you. What would you forecast for wind
conditions?
A) Winds will stay the same.
B) Winds will increase.
C) Winds will decrease.
D) Winds will increase then decrease.
When two plates move together, lithosphere is ________.
A) not changed
B) destroyed
C) created
D) melted
In the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, much of the damage was due to fires because
________.
A) a cow kicked over a lantern in a barn and started the fires
B) water lines were badly damage so that firemen could not put out the fires
C) electric power lines fell and caused sparks that started fires
D) the shaking caused gas lines to rupture everywhere and these ignited to cause huge
fire storms in the city
Which magma type would generally have the lowest viscosity?
A) basalt
B) andesite
C) dacite
D) rhyolite
Which of the following mass movements is most likely to occur in a geologic setting
where the rock strata are inclined?
A) debris flow
B) slump
C) creep
D) rockslide
When the center of circulation of a midlatitude cyclone just passes to your south, you
expect ________.
A) a constantly rising barometer until the cyclone passes then falling barometer
B) winds shifting from the east or northeast to northwest during rainy (or snowy)
weather
C) winds shifting from the south or southeast to the west or northwest with abrupt
cooling at the passage of a cold front
D) warming conditions during light to moderate rain with a falling barometer followed
by a northwest wind and rising barometer
Seaweed (large marine algae) grows in shallow coastal regions because ________.
A) they feed on the organisms washed into the ocean from nearby land
B) they require fresh water to reproduce
C) there is more sunlight reaching the seafloor in those regions
D) the surf is an important part of their mobility
You are body surfing in modest waves that are breaking just offshore. A particularly big
one catches you off guard, flips you over and over, and deposits you on the shore. As
you lie there in the sand, you think, hey, I just landed on ________.
A) the backshore
B) the beachface
C) a coastal dune
D) a nearshore bar (not the kind that serves drinks)
Which one of the following applies to a valley glacier that lengthens (extends the
position of its terminus downslope) over a period of many years?
A) wastage exceeds accumulation
B) accumulation exceeds wastage
C) accumulation and wastage are about equal
D) none of the above
Irregularities in brightness on the Sun’s photosphere (granules) are produced by
________.
A) large convective cells within the photosphere
B) different elemental abundances being stirred within the photosphere, to produce
variable brightness
C) pods of solid mass ejected to the photosphere by violent explosions within the Sun’s
interior, hence the name granule
D) local violent explosions within the photosphere equivalent to a hydrogen bomb
explosion
Looking at a world map of temperatures, you would see that isotherms deflected toward
the poles over seas are an indication of ________.
A) warm currents
B) cold currents
C) horizontal currents
D) diving currents
E) none of the above
Use one of the following five terms to fill in the blanks for the questions below:
Continental crust, Asthenosphere, Mantle, Lithosphere, Oceanic crust
________ is the weak layer.
Give the term that best answers each phrase.
the big volcanoes of Hawaii
The Cenozoic era is often called the “age of ________.”
In 1811 and 1812 three large earthquakes (Magnitude 7.7, 7.5, 7.7 ) hit the New Madrid
area near what is now St. Louis, Mo and Memphis, TN. If those cities had their current
population and infrastructure when those earthquakes occurred, hundreds of thousands
of people might have been killed or injured. Should that region have essentially the
same types of building codes and rules that exist in California and Japan today despite
the fact that there have not been any large earthquakes in the area since 1812 and it is
not located near a plate boundary?
As a deep-water wave enters shallow water, the wave slows down and rotates toward
being parallel with the shoreline. This process is known as ________.
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.
What physical property denotes the color of a powdered mineral?
The thin, outer layer of Earth, from 7 to 40 km in thickness, is called the ________.
Hubble’s law states that galaxies are receding from us at a speed that is proportional to
their ________.
The most important economic resource in the ocean today is ________.
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.
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.
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.
mountain belt shield continental interior
stable platform
The first scientist to use a telescope for astronomical purposes was ________.
What type of front is illustrated in the diagram below?
What is the role of density in the changes to the earth’s atmosphere over time?
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.
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.
Label the planets on the diagram below.
When supercooled raindrops freeze on contact with solid objects, ________ forms.