The most abundant chemical sedimentary rock is ________.
A) limestone
B) dolomite
C) chert
D) rock salt
In the Ptolemaic (Greek) model of the universe, the ________.
A) earth was flat
B) earth was in the center of the universe
C) Sun was in the center of the solar system
D) earth rotated on its axis to produce night and day
Radiolarian chert is a common sedimentary rock accreted along active margins in the
circum-pacific. It is produced in the deep sea by the accumulation of siliceous
radiolarian shells. What kind of sediment is radiolarian chert?
A) terrigenous sediment
B) biogenous sediment
C) hydrogenous sediment
D) both terrigenous and biogenous sediment
Which of the following is not a mechanism that will cause air to rise?
A) convective cooling
B) conduction cooling
C) orographic lifting
D) frontal Wedging
E) convergence
The term karst topography was first used in ________.
A) the Republic of Slovenia, a province of the former Yugoslavia
B) eastern Canada in areas of fractured igneous and metamorphic rocks
C) India, near the southern foothills of the Himalayan Mountains
D) Australia for the extremely dry interior area near Ayres Rock and Alice Springs
The leeward sides of mountains are typically dry and are often arid enough to be
referred to as ________.
A) rain shadow deserts
B) steppes
C) a Mediterranean climate
D) taigas
E) tundra
________ magma is the most abundant type of magma erupted on Earth.
A) Basaltic
B) Granitic
C) Andesitic
D) Pegmatitic
To determine whether a celestial body is approaching or receding from Earth,
astronomers employ ________.
A) the Stefan-Boltzmann law
B) Einstein’s equation
C) the Doppler principle
D) high speed radar
E) telescopic imaging
The two types of dry (B) climates are desert and ________.
A) tundra
B) taiga
C) steppe
D) highland
The ________ climate is located on the eastern sides of continents, in the 25- to
40-degree latitude range.
A) dry-summer subtropical
B) humid continental
C) humid subtropical
D) Mediterranean
E) marine west coast
An important geochronometer is the decay of 147Sm to 143Nd. What type of radioactive
decay is involved in this parent-daughter pair?
A) beta decay
B) electron capture
C) alpha decay
D) a positron capture
From the land surface downward to the unweathered bedrock, which of the following is
the correct order of the different soil horizons?
A) 0, A, E, B, C, bedrock
B) A, B, C, D, E, bedrock
C) E, A, B, C, 0, bedrock
D) D, E, C, B, A, bedrock
This pressure zone is associated with abundant precipitation and warm temperatures.
A) subtropical high
B) equatorial low
C) subpolar low
D) polar high
Halides always include ________.
A) SiO4
-4
B) SO4
-2
C) CO3
-2
D) Cl-1, F-1, or Br-1
Which one of the following is not found on Mars?
A) polar ice caps
B) H2O-rich atmosphere
C) sand dunes
D) extinct volcanoes
The continental rise is located ________.
A) at the top of a mid-ocean ridge
B) at the top of the continental slope
C) between an abyssal plain and continental slope
D) at the seaward edge of a deep ocean trench
The name ________ climate is often used as a synonym for the dry-summer subtropical
climate.
A) Australian
B) Indian
C) Mediterranean
D) African
E) European
Pyroclastic flows move ________.
A) very rapidly, too fast to outrun on foot
B) as gravity flows similar to snow avalanches
C) as a dense cloud that contains hot magma particles suspended in hot gases and
moves rapidly downhill
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
Use the figure below to answer the following questions.
In the figure, which of the deformations appears most similar to what might be expected
along a divergent plate boundary?
A) original
B) X
C) Y
D) Z
Permeable rock strata or sediment that transmit groundwater freely are called
________.
A) perched water tables
B) aquitards
C) springs
D) aquifers
Cloud water droplets remain a liquid to temperatures as low as ________.
A) 0oC
B) 0oF
C) -10oC
D) -40oC
E) -25oC
In the Mississippi River delta in south Louisiana shallow subsurface imaging of the
sediments reveal buried channels beneath delta sediments that are less than 10,000
years, and these channels extend offshore to the edge of the continental shelf. What is a
simple explanation for these buried channels?
A) They represent giant flood events before the delta was formed and before the river
formed.
B) They represent channels of the Mississippi river delta when sea level was lower,
during the ice age.
C) The river must have been bigger in the past, cutting a channel clear to the edge of the
shelf below sea level.
D) Turbidity currents cut a submarine canyon on the shelf before the delta buried them.
An altimeter is an adaptation of the ________.
A) mercurial barometer
B) aneroid barometer
C) barograph
D) anemometer
If you observe a nonconformity, you would infer that the region had experienced
________.
A) deposition in shallow water, uplift or lowering of sea level enough to expose the
rocks to erosion and non-deposition for a period of time, and subsequent resubmergence
of the remaining sedimentary units where they experience new deposition
B) uplift and tilting of sedimentary units that exposes them to erosion over a period of
time with subsequent renewed deposition
C) intrusion of igneous rocks into a depositional setting, forcing the sedimentary layers
upward and possibly deforming them, followed by subsidence of the remaining
sedimentary layers and renewed deposition
D) deposition of sedimentary layers on crystalline igneous or metamorphic rocks that
are exposed at the surface of the earth
Ozone is concentrated in the ________.
A) troposphere
B) mesosphere
C) stratosphere
D) ionosphere
A small town in New Mexico discovers that a chemical plant outside of town recently
learned that one of their underground pipelines had broken without their knowledge and
had been leaking a toxic organic compound for over a month. The spill occurred 5m
below the surface in a sandstone above a thin shale bed in the local bedrock. The beds
are flat lying and this shale crops out 200m from the chemical plant. The town gets is
water from deep wells, about 300m deep. What should the town worry about from this
spill?
A) There is an immediate threat of contamination of the city water supply.
B) There is a threat by the company to move because they do not want to clean up the
damage.
C) There is no immediate worry, but in the long term their city water will almost
certainly be contaminated.
D) There is no threat to the city water, but there is a likely health threat when the
chemical moves to the surface outcrops of the layers the spill occurred in.
Hurricane Sandy produced some of the greatest destruction along the New Jersey coast
in communities situated along narrow strips of land between the beach and a coastal
lagoon to the west. These communities were vulnerable because they were built on
low-lying terrane of ________.
A) a barrier island
B) a wave-cut platform
C) an eroding sea cliff
D) spits and tombolos
The ________ west coast climate is situated on the western (windward) side of
continents from about 40 to 65 degrees north and south latitude.
A) Mediterranean
B) marine
C) humid
D) continental
E) subtropical
A scientific theory is the first step in developing an idea. It is not very well tested.
Major earthquakes are often followed by somewhat smaller events known as ________.
A) aftershocks
B) foreshocks
C) tremors
D) hyposhocks
The ________ means “the Sun in the making.”
A) solar disk
B) presun
C) nebular Sun
D) sol
E) protosun
You are in a boat and concerned about shallow water in a meandering river. Where
should you aim your boat to find the deepest water?
A) along the inside of the curve
B) midchannel
C) on the outside of the curve, close to the cut bank
D) It doesn’t matter, as long as you remain a meter or two from either bank