The depth of deep-ocean trenches is closely related to age: the younger the subducting
plate, the deeper the trench.
Dikes tend to form as solitary structures.
Aquitards are made of high-conductivity materials such as clay.
The sun emits slightly more solar radiation during a period of high sunspot activity.
Because sea level does not act like base level with glaciers, a glacier can erode its bed
below sea level.
When discharge increases, the flow velocity will increase. However, the width and
depth of the stream will decrease because the stream downcutting.
Normal faulting is generally not associated with massive earthquakes.
Continental shelves on active margins are larger and broader than those on passive
margins.
Sedimentary rocks are always the parent rocks for metamorphic rocks.
Running water is the single most important erosional agent sculpting Earth’s land
surface.
Moving wind that is free of sediment is enough to create a ventifact.
Most cinder cones have eruptive phases that last for centuries.
The weathering process of frost action can make a slope less stable.
A cap rock is a porous, permeable rock that will yield petroleum and natural gas.
Because the period of rotation on its axis equals its period of revolution around Earth,
the same side of the moon always faces Earth.
Mammals did not evolve until the beginning of the Cenozoic and then did so to fill an
evolutionary niche left behind by the dinosaurs.
Seismic events called moonquakes occur in the moon.
All minerals have cleavage.
Tilted retaining walls are a sign of a landscape undergoing creep.
The Nile River in Africa is a stream.
Hard stabilization methods of protecting beaches from erosion are ultimately only a
form of temporary protection.
Middle-latitude deserts and steppes are more numerous and extensive in the Northern
Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere.
Small sea level rise on a shore with a gentle slope will cause a substantial shift in
shoreline location.
Abyssal plains are flat areas of the ocean floor that are likely the most level places on
Earth.
Oceanic crust is compositionally more similar to the mantle than to continental crust.
As stream velocity slows, the smallest particles get deposited first.
Dust storms can carry enough dust into the atmosphere to create aerosols.
Black smokers are results of hydrothermal activity at ocean ridges.
Land on the margins of continents that is presently under water would have been
exposed to the atmosphere during glaciations because sea level would have been dozens
of meters lower at that time.
Crushed stone, sand, and gravel are three examples of nonmetallic mineral resources
that are building materials.
What feature is present in this image?
A) Blowout
B) Yardang
C) Desert pavement
D) Dune
What is a flood?
A) When dry weather results in a high discharge
B) When discharge in a river exceeds the river’s capacity
C) When a dam is constructed and forces sedimentation
D) When changes in gradient result in the abandonment of meander loops
Why would construction businesses find eskers to be economically important?
A) They provide flat areas for transportation routes.
B) They provide nutrient-rich farmland.
C) They provide easy access to water sources.
D) They provide easily accessible sand and gravel deposits.
Which of these four images would accurately demonstrate the path seismic rays would
take through the interior if the interior of Earth was made of uniform materials?
A)
B)
C)
D)
When did the ice-free corridor open in North America, allowing a path for human
migration from Asia?
A) 12,500 years ago
B) 9,000 years ago
C) 100,000 years ago
D) 7,500 years ago
Heat will transfer by ________ in the outer core.
A) radiation
B) convection
C) conduction and convection
D) conduction
Which coastline will be more significantly impacted by sea level change: the Pacific
Coast or the Atlantic Coast?
A) The Pacific Coast there are more people living there
B) The Atlantic Coast it has a gently sloping shoreline
C) The Pacific Coast it has a steeply sloping shoreline
D) The Atlantic Coast there are more buildings along the shoreline
Which of the following can be used as a marine paleothermometer?
A) Tree rings
B) Pollen
C) Coral
D) Aerosols
What kind of volcanic hazard can be triggered by the collapse of a lava dome?
A) Pyroclastic flow
B) Lava flow
C) Ash fall
D) Earthquake
What is the minimum depth at which subduction zone metamorphism will occur?
A) 0 km
B) 30 km
C) 25 km
D) 13 km
What kind(s) of lava generate a cinder cone?
A) Andesite
B) Andesite and rhyolite
C) Basalt
D) Basalt and andesite
E) Andesite, basalt, and rhyolite
Which of the following is not part of the Milankovich Cycle, which would affect
climate change by reducing the distribution of incoming solar radiation?
A) Obliquity
B) Accretion
C) Eccentricity
D) Precession
Match the soil order with the environment in which it will form.
1. Oxisol
2. Histosol
3. Spodosol
4. Mollisols
A) Tropics
B) Wetlands/bog
C) Humid/conifer forest
D) Grasslands/prairie
Which ship was involved in the first global, comprehensive study of the Earth’s oceans
starting in 1872?
A) U.S.S. Cyclops
B) H.M.S. Challenger
C) R.M.S. Titanic
D) The Glomar Explorer
Which part of a passive continental margin is built up by repeated deposition from
turbidity currents?
A) Abyssal plain
B) Continental shelf
C) Continental slope
D) Continental rise
What is the scientifically accepted age of the formation of the universe?
A) 4.6 billion years
B) 10 billion years
C) 13.7 billion years
D) 8.7 billion years
What are fault-block mountains?
A) Mountains formed through folding and thrusting of the crust
B) Mountains consisting of exposed batholiths
C) Mountains that form by erosion of streams
D) Mountains formed through crustal extension and normal faulting
Which oxygen isotope would be concentrated in glacial ice?
A) 16O
B) 17O
C) 18O
Which of the following is the definition for a scientific hypothesis?
A) The gathering of data through observations
B) A tentative explanation used to explain observed activities
C) A well-tested and widely accepted view that explains observable facts
D) An educated guess
India has been colliding with Asia for roughly 50 million years, a process that has
uplifted the Tibetan Plateau. However, although the margin of Asia has been intensely
deformed, India has remained largely intact. Why is this the case?
A) Asia’s margin is composed of soft materials such as shale and sandstone
B) There is a mantle plume beneath the Asian continent that softens the plate,
permitting deformation
C) Asia’s rocks are over 2 billion years old and are so dense they are sinking back into
the mantle
D) Most of India is tough, durable, ancient shield material and is harder than the newer
Asian material
A ________ slide is a type of mass wasting process where a mass of material moves
along relatively flat surfaces such as joints, faults or bedding planes.
A) translational
B) fall
C) rotational
D) horizontal
________ is the upper few feet of regolith that contains minerals and organic matter,
water, and air and is capable of sustaining life.
A) Horizon
B) Humus
C) Soil
D) Sediment
Match the name of the sand dune to the correct image.
A) Transverse dune
B) Longitudinal dune
C) Parabolic dune
D) Barchanoid dune
E) Star dune
F) Barchan dune
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Match the major event in the fossil record to the correct geologic time period.
A) Triassic to Cretaceous
B) Tertiary
C) Mississippian to Permian
D) Early Cambrian
E) Silurian to Devonian
F) Cambrian to Ordovician
1. Age of Fishes
2. First life forms with hard parts
3. Age of Invertebrates
4. Age of Mammals
5. Age of Reptiles
6. Age of Amphibians
This figure shows what will happen as a seismic wave moves from a material of one
density to a material of a different density. Indicate which rock is a high or low density
material by matching the correct choice to the correct material based on the refraction
of the seismic wave.
A) Low density material
B) High density material
1. A
2. B
At approximately what velocity will a 0.1 mm sediment particle begin moving in the
stream?
A) 5 cm/sec
B) 1 cm/sec
C) 0.6 cm/sec
D) 0.001 cm/sec
Of the three mechanisms of heat transfer, which is the only one that does not operate in
the interior of Earth?
A) Convection
B) Radiation
C) Conduction
Which household function has the highest daily water consumption?
A) Dishwashers
B) Showers and baths
C) Clothes washers
D) Toilets
Which of the following scenarios is not related to wave refraction?
A) Waves approach the shore at an angle.
B) Sediment deposition will be concentrated in quiet areas such as bays and protected
water.
C) Erosion is focused on the front and sides of headlands.
D) Large quantities of sand are carried from estuaries and deposited on the seacoast side
of a barrier island system.
Which two conditions are the most important in order for an organism to become
fossilized?
A) Rapid death and oxygen-free environment
B) Rapid burial and possession of hard parts
C) Rapid mineralization and rapid desiccation
D) Rapid decay and possession of soft tissues
How did the underlying geology contribute to the Gros Ventre Landslide of 1925?
A) Rains saturated the sandstone and clay that make up the slope.
B) Creep weakened the sandstone making up the slope.
C) Vegetation was removed from the slope.
D) The river that flowed through the valley dissolved the limestone.
Which of the following mass wasting disasters was triggered by an earthquake?
A) Storm King Mountain, Colorado, 1994
B) Colorado Front Range, Colorado, 2013
C) Chengdu, China, 2008
D) Oso, Washington, 2014
Why does the lithosphere thicken as it moves away from a mid-ocean ridge?
When Europeans moved into the region along the Lower Mississippi River around three
hundred years ago, they often settled on the floodplains of the river and set up farms.
Geologically, what aspect of the floodplain impacted their choice to settle there?
Explain how geologists regarded the positions of the ocean basins and the continents
prior to the advent of plate tectonics and how that perspective differs from how modern
geologists regard those same features.
Explain how the construction of a hard stabilization feature (i.e., groin) will force the
deposition of sediment on a coastline.
What materials make up a pyroclastic flow?
Decades ago, a brick factory used to be located along a river. Waste materials and faulty
bricks were piled along the banks of the river, and some of them fell into the water.
Years later, some of these materials were removed. The bricks were still recognizable as
bricks, some with the manufacturer’s mark clearly visible on the front, but the edges and
corners were rounded over. Why were the edges and corners of the bricks so rounded
over while the faces of the bricks were largely untouched?
Why do atoms exchange or share electrons?
Undulations of the water table mimic those of the ground surface. What would happen
to those undulations in the water table if all rain were to cease?
Explain how sulfur dioxide gas erupted from a volcano can affect global climate.
Explain how stress is different from strain.
What is gneissic banding, how does it form, and how does it compare to the color
banding that is often found in marble?
Marble and quartzite can be similar in appearance. Name two simple ID techniques that
can be used to differentiate between the two.
What effect would the release of carbon sequestered in carbonates and organic
sedimentary rocks have on the planet?
Assume the Mid-Continental Rift were to reactivate and divergence were to occur.
What sequence of events would unfold as rifting began and what would eventually
happen to the landmass?
How are humans agents of weathering and erosion?
Is water a renewable resource, nonrenewable resource, or both? Explain.
Pahoehoe and Aa can form in the same lava as it flows away from the eruptive vent.
How does each form? What role does temperature play?