Earth Science Exam Two
A planetary object that orbits a star other than the Sun is called
Exoplanet
It is out of place from the surrounding terrane and is known as an "erratic". Knowing that glaciers passed through this area, how did it get here?
It was carried in glacial ice from far away.
As they formed, due to their high temperatures and comparatively weak gravitational fields, which planets were unable to retain appreciable amounts of hydrogen, helium, and ammonia?
Mercury and Earth
Which of the following statements concerning mudflows is not true?
Mudflows create talus slopes
The rock pumice often floats yet the density of the rock is greater than water. Why does it float?
Pumice is a pyroclastic rock comprised largely of open voids formed by gases released when the magma solidified as froth-like material.
Hot springs are most numerous in which region of the United States?
West
_____ involves movement on a zone of compressed air
a rock avalanche
Assuming rivers of comparable discharge, which type of stream would most likely be crossable by wading rather than having to swim?
braided stream
Bajadas develop from ________.
coalescence of alluvial fans
In the figure, the stress on block 'X' is ________.
compressional
Subduction occurs when __ rocks are forced beneath __ rocks
oceanic; continental or oceanic
What is the modern theory for orogenesis (mountain building)?
plate tectonics theory
When the hinge line of a fold is not horizontal the fold is said to ________.
plunge
Glacial sediments or tills are characterized by ________.
wide variations in sizes of clasts
A stream begins at an elevation of 200 meters and flows a distance of 400 kilometers to the ocean. What is the average gradient?
0.5 m/km
Today, glaciers cover approximately ________ percent of the earth's surface.
10
Arid and semiarid climates cover about ________ percent of Earth's land surface.
30
Earth formed approximately ________ years ago.
4,600,000,000
Which radioactive decay used for radiometric dating is not an isotope that was generated during nuclear synthesis in the star that went supernova and its products became our solar system?
40K
If you fall into a crevasse, what is the maximum depth you are likely to fall?
50 meters
The decay of 40K has a half of 1.3 × 109 years. The age of Earth is estimated at 4.6 × 109 years. The decay of 40K is a major heat source for Earth's interior. Relative to today, how much more heat was produced by 40K in the early Archaeon era or 3.9 × 109 years ago?
8x
In the figure above, identify the letter corresponding to an alluvial fan.
A
Which letter in the figure above corresponds to a "syncline"?
A
What is the difference between a hanging wall and a footwall?
A hanging wall is the overhanging rock unit on the slant that separates the two slabs, while the footwall below the slant
The below image is a picture of an incised meander. What process would have formed this?
A stream becoming more mature and remaining that way.
During the early Paleozoic era, the continent of Gondwanaland included
Africa
Why is wind less effective than moving water at picking up and moving materials?
Air is less dense than water.
What is Supernova?
An exploding star that increases in brightness many thousands of times.
________ is an abandoned, cutoff, meander loop.
An oxbow
Mountain building in the western margin of North America records a history of both
Andean type subduction and terrane accretion
In the figure above, identify the letter corresponding to a playa lake.
B??
The universe began about 13.8 billion years ago with an event named as the ______ _______ when all matter and space came into existence.
Big Bang
In the figure above, identify the letter corresponding to a bajada.
C
On the diagram below, which letter refers to a horn?
C
Which of the following countries was almost entirely covered by ice during the last ice age?
Canada
During the ________, Earth developed its modern landscape and life forms.
Cenozoic
The rock formations of the ________ era are more widespread and less disturbed than those of any other time.
Cenozoic
In the figure above, identify the letter corresponding to a playa or salt flat.
D
Much of the city of New Orleans is below sea level, yet it was not an ocean when the city was first settled. How did it get below sea level?
Drainage canals and groundwater withdrawal produced subsidence that dropped the land below sea level.
Which statement about the May 1970 Eruption of Mt. St. Helens is false
During the eruptive period, the mountain peak was substantially built up by new lava flows and pyroclastic debris
You buy land in the tropics on steep mountain slopes covered by large trees and deep soil. You want to build a house on the land. Which of the following building plans is a not advisable because of the danger of triggering mass wasting?
Excavate a flat bench on the slope for the house, pushing the debris to the slope below and leave a cut bank above the flat bench with grass planted on the steep slope.
A child from down the street from your house brings an object that looks like a bone, and says "look, I found a dinosaur bone." Which of the following would not be useful in evaluating their claim?
Extract charcoal from the object and use carbon-14 dating.
Farmer Brown lives in a semi-arid part of the United States with numerous small lakes associated with glacial deposits of sand and gravel. He decides he needs to irrigate part of his land and drills a shallow well 100m from his property line with Farmer Smith who has a small lake just across the property line, and he depends on this lake to water his cattle. By late summer, Farmer Smith goes out to his lake and discovers it is dry. What happened?
Farmer Browns well has dropped the water table in the well's cone of depression, and the well has led to the lake drying up.
How does a permeable sandstone compare to a karst limestone in terms of groundwater flow?
Flow is faster in the limestone so pollution is more of a threat.
Molecular oxygen began to appear in significant amounts in the atmosphere around 2.3 billion years ago, and by 2.5 billion years, a significant amount of oxygen appeared in the atmosphere. This phenomenon is termed as the ________ __________ Event.
Great Oxygenation
Glacial ice sheets are the largest of the types of glaciers and currently cover_______.
Greenland and Antarctica
The first bacteria probably used ________ instead of water as a source of hydrogen.
H2S
The region around a star in which a planet with sufficient atmospheric pressure could maintain liquid water on its surface and thus might be hospitable to Earth-like life is called __________ _______________.
Habitable zone
Earth's core, mantle, and crust formed during the ________.
Hadean
Landslides commonly occur when hurricanes hit steep terrain. Why?
Heavy rain from the tropical system can saturate slopes, triggering mass wasting events like mudslides.
Note the picture below from a desert setting. What is illustrated in the photograph?
How effective vegetation is at anchoring sediment.
Shortly after the Big Bang, only the two simplest elements formed in this universe, namely ___________ and ________.
Hydrogen, Helium
Why is it important that we have a rigid lithosphere overlying a weak asthenosphere?
If we did not have the rigid lithosphere and weak asthenosphere, the earth would not have plate tectonics and would be covered entirely by water.
The Mississippi River today is a classic meandering river. 20,000 years ago the Mississippi River was a major outwash channel for the Laurentide ice sheet. What does this suggest about the ancient Mississippi?
It probably resembled modern rivers in Alaska with a broad braided stream valley that dried up during the winter months, producing winter dust storms.
The Rocky Mountains of western North America were produced in an orogeny called the
Laramide orogeny
Pangea formed with the collision between __________ and _________.
Laurasia, Gondwana
As an erosional process, how is mass wasting unique compared to wind, water, and ice?
Mass wasting does not require a transporting medium.
The ________ River is North America's largest river in terms of discharge.
Mississippi
Which American state is entirely made up of Basin and Range desert?
Nevada
In deserts of southwestern North America developers often build houses in dry stream beds and build only minimal subsurface drainage systems to handle a flow of water comparable to the size of the dry stream channel. Is this a reasonable development model in the interest of public safety?
No, flash floods can produce high viscosity mudflows that would not be captured by the drainage system and could flow out over the valley, destroying everything in its path.
Which of the following is not a fossil? -imprint of an invertebrate shell in a mudstone -a tooth from an early man site in a lake sediment deposit -a mummified sloth in a cave
None of the above-these are all fossils.
Western North America is the leading edge of the ________ plate.
North American
In the Rocky Mountain region of the United States, north-facing slopes (downhill direction is toward the north) are typically moister and more heavily forested than south-facing regions. Why?
North-facing slopes receive about the same amount of precipitation as south-facing slopes; less moisture evaporates from north-facing slopes
From the land surface downward to the unweathered bedrock, which of the following is the correct order of the different soil horizons?
O, A, E, B, C, bedrock
What would have happened to Earth if it were 10% closer to the sun?
Our atmosphere would consist mainly of carbon dioxide.
Earth's earliest atmosphere was enhanced by a process called_______________, in which of gases dissolved in magma escape.
Outgassing
Which of the following is not a hypothesis for how life began?
Outgassing and related volcanic materials brought proto amino acids to the surface of the earth.
About 88 percent of geologic time is represented by the time span called the ________ era.
Precambrian
Most ________ rocks are devoid of fossils, which hinders correlation of rocks.
Precambrian
Southwestern North America contains a large area called the Basin and Range province. What is the origin of this name?
Ranges are uplifted horst blocks while basins form as grabens.
________ are characteristics of downcutting streams and a youthful stage of valley evolution.
Rapids and lots of whitewater
Note the diagram below, which depicts a dune setting. Based on the diagram, which of the following statements is true?
Sand is moved up the left side of the dune and slips down the right side.
Which one of the following statements is correct?
Sea level drops when water is stored in expanding ice sheets and continental glaciers.
If all of the ice now stored in Antarctica's glaciers melted, what would happen?
Sea level would rise flooding many coastal cities.
Which of the following is not a typical stage in the evolution of a Basin and Range type region?
Sediment moves downhill to the sea.
How do glaciers acquire their load of sediment?
Sediments and rocks are plucked off the ground surface at the base and sides of the glacier.
________ would have the largest capacity to naturally remove sewage pollutants.
Slightly clayey sand
People learned by trial and error years ago how to paddle a canoe upstream in meandering rivers, knowing where the strongest currents were located. Assuming you don't want to go backwards, what is the best paddling route to maximize your speed upstream?
Stay on the inside bend of meanders, crossing over whenever the meander turns so you can stay on the inside bend.
________ generally constitutes the highest percentage of the annual sediment load moved by a stream.
Suspended load
Under similar warm, moist climatic conditions, why would basalt and gabbro generally have higher chemical weathering rates than rhyolite and granite?
The ferromagnesian minerals in the gabbro and basalt are subject to oxidation and chemical breakdown.
A geologist observes abundant fossils of a distinctive trilobite species in a shale, but this trilobite disappears as she walks through the shale. In younger rocks, just above the horizon where the fossil disappears another species of trilobite becomes the prominent fossil in similar shales. Which conclusion is most logical for this observation?
The first trilobite species went extinct and its ecological niche was occupied by another species, which may have evolved from the first.
Note the two images below from the same location in Greenland in 1935 (on the left) and 2013 (on the right). What can you conclude about how this landscape has changed during that time period?
The glacier retreated greatly between 1935 and 2013.
The above figure shows a classic case where Swiss geologists placed stakes into a glacier and measured the outcomes a few years later. What did they conclude from the experiment?
The glacier's ice moved downslope the whole time.
Engineers modify a natural, meandering, river channel is modified into straight and smooth channel. Which of the following statements is correct?
The natural channel had a lower gradient and higher friction than the straight channel.
Most insurance companies will not insure property with a known landslide hazard. Why?
The risk is high on human life time scales, and the hazard is difficult to assess.
In the canyonlands of Utah and Arizona, canyon walls often support "hanging gardens" in which plants cling to sandstone cliffs and these hanging gardens are typically along shale beds in the sandstone. Why is this happening in a desert setting?
The shales trap groundwater along the shale horizons that helps aid plant growth.
Different periods of the geologic time scale are different in length. Why?
The time scale was developed ad hoc, as a relative time scale based on rocks and fossil succession with no reference to absolute time when it was developed.
A meandering river is flowing in a broad, alluvial valley and the river is silt-laden but also moves sand and a small amount of gravel. The government decides to build a dam across the valley for power and flood control. What will happen to the river downstream of the dam?
The trapping of silt in the reservoir will change the river to a braided stream because it will only have sand and gravel in its sediment load.
After the drought of the 1930's farmers in the Great Plains were encouraged to plant rows of trees across fields to decrease soil erosion. How would this reduce soil erosion?
The trees can serves as windbreaks to slow wind erosion.
Which of the following statements is true of desert landscapes, like the one pictured?
The vegetation in the photograph likely has adaptations to help it survive long periods without rainfall.
The dark lake is the Great Salt Lake and is the only lake still existing today. During the last ice ago all the lighter blue areas were there too. Why are they no longer there?
The weather today is warmer and dryer.
An ice skater's blade pushes down onto the ice very hard, creating water as a result of the pressure from the weight of the skater. How is her skate acting like a glacier?
The weight of the ice in the top part of the glacier melts some of the ice at the bottom of the glacier, allowing for of plastic flow.
In the late 1700s James Hutton published his important work entitled ________.
Theory of the Earth
In the last few years improvements in technology have allowed geologists to date single grains of some minerals in rocks. A geologist separates 5 grains of the mineral zircon, which can be dated by the Uranium-lead method, and the crystal retains parent and daughter through weathering, erosion, and deposition. Thus, dating each mineral grain only gives the age of the source rock that was eroded, to produce that sand, from which the zircon grain is derived. The 5 grains yield ages of 160, 110, 2020, 66, and 162 million years. What do these ages tell you about the age of the sedimentary strata?
They are younger than 66 million years.
Which one of the following is not true of glaciers?
They exist only in the Northern Hemisphere.
Based on your knowledge of isostasy, would you expect thicker or thinner crust beneath the Caribbean Islands than the continental region of Venezuela to the South?
Thinner - because the area is mostly above sea level
Assume that water filling a crack in a rock undergoes cycles of freezing and melting. Which of the following statement is true?
Water expands as it freezes, causing the crack walls to be pushed apart.
Which one of the following concerning artesian wells is not true?
When the well penetrates the aquifer, the water rises to the bottom of the aquitard above the aquifer.
See the image below. It is a dry desert stream bed. What would be good advice for someone who wants to go camping in the area shown in the photograph?
You would not want to camp there because of the possibility of a sudden flood.
In the figure, which of the deformations appears most similar to what might be expected along a transform plate boundary?
Z
Which of the following organisms would be most likely to be preserved in the geologic record?
a clam with a thick calcite shell that lived on a mudflat
Early Earth was hot because ________.
a combination of collisions and radioactive decay produced heat
When a large cloudburst creates a sudden flow of soil and regolith, we refer to it as _____
a debris slide
A natural levee is ________.
a depositional feature
In 2011 snow melt and heavy rains in the upper Missouri River drainage basin produced record runoff that led to extensive flooding in lower Missouri River valley, despite the construction of numerous large flood control dams built on the river in the mid 20th century. What type of failure in an artificial flood control system is this an example of?
a flood outside the design capabilities of the dam system overwhelmed the capacity of the reservoirs forcing opening of flood gates, exacerbating the downstream impact of the flooding
A mass wasting process that involves rotational motion of material sliding above a distinct slip surface is called ___
a slump
A transform fault is
a strike-slip fault occurring at the boundary between two plates of the earth's crust.
You go for a hike across an outcropping of sandstone and you see large footprints in the sandstone. You have just found ________.
a trace fossil
In what part of a subduction margin might you find rocks deposited on the abyssal plain, far from land?
accretionary wedge
An ____ is a thick accumulation of sediments and small, tectonic blocks formed of material scraped off a subducting oceanic, lithospheric at a convergent margin.
accretionary-wedge complex
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?
accumulation exceeds wastage
Which of these is considered to be "storage" part of the hydrologic cycle?
addition to a glacier
Our detailed knowledge of the glacial cycles and their duration is based primarily on ________. climate records seafloor sediments landscape features land sediments all of the above
all of the above
This image of the Valles Caldera in New Mexico...
all of the above are correct (it has volcanic rock, it is a crater, it is several miles across)
Which of the following is associated with areas of karst topography?
all of these (sinkholes, soluble rock, caverns)
Which of the following is not a major factor controlling glacial erosion?
altitude of the glacial ice
Rare, but complete preservation of organism occurs in ________.
amber
Refer to the figure below captured from Google Earth. This mountain belt would be called
an Andean mountain belt
The west coast of California is underlain by rocks that represent
an ancient Forearc Basin and accretionary wedge
All of the following are possible indicators that creep is occurring except for ________.
an extremely thick soil profile
Paleontology is the study of ________.
ancient life
What type of structure is shown below?
anticline
In terrain with steep hill slopes, which crop and cultivation technique will minimize soil erosion?
apples; land between the trees is planted in grass and not cultivated
Crevasses (deep fractures or cracks) form in glaciers because ________.
as the glacier moves over irregular topography, the brittle upper layer or zone of fracture is subject to tension and cracks above the ductile layer
Glaciers can form ________.
at high latitudes and/or high latitudes,, provided it is cold enough
Glaciation has been recorded ________.
at multiple times throughout Earth's history
A cirque represents an erosional feature formed ________.
at the head of a glacier
For a radioactive isotope like Uranium-235, what does the 235 indicate?
atomic mass
Over time as erosion lowers the landscape a river valley will typically ________.
become broader and lower gradient
Inselbergs are ________.
bedrock hills in a highly eroded desert landscape
The ratio of parent to daughter isotopes in a radioactive decay process is 0.40. How many half-lives have elapsed since the material was 100% parent atoms?
between 1 and 2
The half-life of carbon-14 is about 6000 years. Assume that a sample of charcoal formed by burning of living wood 15,000 years ago. How much of the original carbon-14 would remain today?
between one-fourth and one-eighth
Granitic batholiths typically form over time intervals of ________. These are normally formed below the surface of the earth
billions of years
Windblown loess typically ends up as as ________.
blanketlike layers
Which feature is labeled X in the diagram and shown in photograph B?
braided stream
Which of the following is not part of the water cycle?
calcium carbonate dissolving in soil water and groundwater
Melting and ________ are two forms of ablation.
calving
________ describes the total sediment load transported by a stream.
capacity
One type of fossil that can preserve details of organic soft parts is ________.
carbonized imprints
Deep soils are characteristic of tropical regions whereas thin rocky soils are characteristic of high latitudes. This is a natural demonstration that ________.
chemical wreathing rates are much higher in the tropics than high latitudes
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit the pattern. Calving Melting zone of wastage Cirque
cirque
Given enough time, what factor is typically most important in soil formation?
climate
Sea level has risen and fallen significantly in the past history of Earth due to ________.
climate change
The Appalachians were formed by three phases of ________ orogeny.
collisional
The Himalayas and Tibet are the archetypical example of a(n) ________ mountain belt.
collisional
The line of volcanoes at C is called
collisional mountain chain or continental volcanic arc??
What stream characteristic is measured by the size of the largest particle that a stream can move?
competence
Terrane accretion generally occurs along a ________ boundary between a continental plate and an _______ plate.
convergent; continental
The weather and conditions that least favor chemical weathering are ___ and ____
cool; dry
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option that does not fit the pattern. core lithosphere mantle asthenosphere
core
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option that does not fit the pattern. correlation original horizontality superposition inclusions
correlation
The Tibetan plateau is high above sea level because...
crustal thickening over millions of years has produced a thick crust that stands high due to isostasy
Desert streams are characterized by ________.
decreasing discharge downstream
Desert pavement is the result of ________.
deflation by wind
When subjected to a differential stress a very "brittle material, like glass, will _______.
deform by breaking or elastic bending
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option that does not fit the pattern. alpha emission beta emission electron capture delta capture
delta capture
If you observe a nonconformity, you would infer that the region had experienced ________.
deposition of sedimentary layers on crystalline igneous or metamorphic rocks that are exposed at the surface of the earth
Deserts occur primarily in the Africa, Arabia, and Australia because of ________.
descending air currents
The beginning of the Phanerozoic is marked by the ________.
development of hard body parts, such as shells and bones
A(n) ________ is an erosional unconformity with parallel beds or strata above and below.
disconformity
At the head of a delta, the major channel splits into smaller channels that follow different paths to the sea. These smaller channels are known as ________.
distributaries
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit the pattern. lateral moraine drumlin arête horn
drumlin
The material in the figure exhibited ________ behavior when the folding occurred.
ductile
__ and ___ generally involve movement of unconsolidated or weakly consolidated soil and regolith
earthflows; slumps
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option that does not fit the pattern. liquefaction earthquake lahar landslide
earthquake
Most active faults pose a risk to society because they can potentially produce ________.
earthquakes
A good example of a present-day, passive continental margin is the ________.
east coast of North America
When the differential stress exceeds the strength of the material, the material will begin to undergo
elastic strain
Arêtes, horns, and U-shaped valleys are ________ features of ________ glaciers.
erosional; alpine
A(n) ________ is a deposit created by a former meltwater channel or tunnel in glacial ice that was filled with sand and gravel.
esker
Which feature is labeled Y in the diagram and shown in photograph A?
esker
More water is ________ from the ocean than is returned to the ocean by precipitation.
evaporated
James Hutton stated "We have a chain of facts which clearly demonstrates that the materials of the wasted mountains have traveled through the rivers". He was referring to ________.
evidence Earth having plenty of time for weathering and erosion
The figure above is an oblique Google earth image form southwestern North America looking approximately north. The view is approximately 50km across. The area is a classic area of normal faulting. This area represents what type of mountain system?
fault block mountains
The Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, and the Teton Mountains of Wyoming ranges are examples of
fault blocks uplifted by late Tertiary to Quarternary normal faulting
The Columbia Plateau in the northwestern United States is an excellent example of
flood basalts
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option that does not fit the pattern. artificial levees dams floodplains channelization
floodplains
As a stream changes from its headwaters to its mouth, which of the following is not likely to occur?
flow velocity decreases
Ice Age glaciers had many indirect effects. Which one of the following was not such an effect?
formation of mountains
Flowing water experiences ________ when it flows along the sides and bottom of its channel.
friction
All of the following are factors that affect rates of weathering except for
geologic age of Earth minerals
The basic concept of Uniformitarianism is ________.
geology changes constantly but the rules that control those transformations do not change
Fiords ________.
glacier-cut valleys that flooded as sea level rose in post-glacial times
Which of the following was an important factor in determining where the small rocky planets formed as opposed to where the light, gaseous planets formed?
gravity
The main source of the dissolved load in a stream is ________.
groundwater (material along the bottom of the stream channel??)
A(n) ________ is likely to host a waterfall or steep rapids today.
hanging valley
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit the pattern. drumlin moraine esker hanging valley
hanging valley
What is amber?
hardened tree resin
____ tend to increase the explosive potential of a magma body beneath a volcano
high viscosity and high dissolved gas content
The source of heat for most hot springs is ________ beneath the surface.
hot igneous material
Human ancestors developed the tendency to walk on two legs instead of four in order to accommodate ________.
hunting and gathering food in grasslands
The large outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune contain huge amounts of ________ and other light materials as part of their composition.
hydrogen
As an erosional agent, running water in arid regions is ________.
important because there is relatively little vegetation to anchor the sediment
The major difference between floods in humid regions and in dry regions is ________.
in dry regions, flooding is a very fast process because there are fewer plants
See the image below of a subduction zone. What is the most likely area where you will see major earthquakes?
in the mountain belt
What term denotes blocks of older rock enclosed in a body of younger igneous rock?
inclusions
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit the pattern. arroyo nullah inselberg wadi
inselberg
Which of the following is determined by making direct observations in the area affected by an earthquake?
intensity
Which one of the following statements concerning mechanical weathering is not true?
involves a major change in the mineral composition
The principle of lateral continuity proposes that sedimentary rock layers continue in all directions until they grade into a different rock type or thin out on the edge of a basin is important because ________.
it allowed geologists to correlate sedimentary rock units over large distances
The principle of inclusions which states that the source of rock fragments found in a unit must be older than the unit with the fragments is important because ________.
it provided a tool for sorting out the relative timing of various geologic events
The principle of horizontality which states that sediments are usually deposited in relatively flat layers is important because ________.
it provided a way to recognize if rocks had been deformed
Fractures in rock with no offset (where there has been no motion) are called
joints
A ________ lake forms when a block of ice is buried in drift and subsequently melts, creating a pit.
kettle
Which feature is labeled T in the diagram and shown in photograph E?
kettle lake
A geologist is looking at deposits along a river below a large volcano. She finds large boulders mixed with sand and mud, and all of the material is comprised of volcanic rocks, particularly the mud which is volcanic ash. She quickly realizes these deposits represent an ancient ________.
lahar
Caves most commonly form in ________.
limestone
Limestone and marble weather faster than granite because ________.
limestone and marble can be dissolved by weak acids in rain
Which of the following is not a significant factor in determining whether precipitation will soak into the ground or run off on the surfaces?
lithology
A soil that has nearly equal amounts of clay, silt and sand is called
loam
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit the pattern. inselberg loess alluvial fan playa
loess
Which of the following is determined by measuring the amplitude of waves recorded from an earthquake?
magnitude
The Platte River crosses the Nebraska sandhills and carries large amounts of sand. It crosses relatively flat terrain that long ago was worn down. What kind of stream would you predict from this characteristic?
meandering stream
The term drift ________.
means any sediments of glacial origin
Studies of the chemistry of rocks from arc volcanoes indicate the main source of the magma is ________.
melting of the asthenosphere above the subducting oceanic plate by fluids acting as a flux to enhance melting
The most common Precambrian rock type is ________ rock.
metamorphic
Abundant ______ and ______ temperatures result in high rates of chemical weathering.
moisture; high
During the Ice Age, the climate was ________.
mostly much colder than today
Deserts are correctly characterized by being ________.
mostly shaped by water
The Basin and Range region of the western United States is an excellent example of a ________ desert landscape.
mountainous
Orogenesis refers to the formation of
mountains
Most of the deserts and steppes that occur at middle latitudes do so because of ________.
mountains that block the moisture and long distances from the oceans
When a glacier is retreating, the upstream ice is ________.
moving forward toward the downstream terminus of the glacier
The Mississippi is ________ than the Amazon river.
much smaller
Lahars are essentially ___ associated with volcanoes and volcanism
mudflows
Sediment deposition occurs primarily in what part of a river system?
near the outlet
When a rock first crystallizes it has unstable isotopes but as of yet no daughter products. After three half-lives, how much total mass has been lost due to decay?
none
Carefully study the illustration below to determine the type (s) of geologic structures (s) it shows
normal fault
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?
on the outside of the curve, close to the cut bank
Assume that man's recorded history can be stretched back to 4600 years before the present. This is approximately what fraction of geologic time?
one millionth
The formation of stalactites and stalagmites occurs in the ________.
open air (non-submerged) part of a cave
Examine the words and choose which does not fit organic matter core crust mantle
organic matter
Continental crust is formed by ________.
partial melting of mantle rocks
Which of the following is modern descendant of the Gymnosperm?
pine trees
Climatologists define a "dry climate" as a climate in which ________.
precipitation is less than expected evaporation
Red, brown, and yellow soil-coloring minerals originate by what process?
precipitation of iron oxides from chemical weathering
The ________ means "the Sun in the making."
protosun
What term describes a soil formed by weathering of the underlying bedrock?
residual
In a _____ fault, the hanging wall block moves up with respect to the footwall block
reverse
Of the following, which one would most likely be triggered by an earthquake?
rock avalanche
Which of the following poses the greatest risk of massive loss of life and property along its path due to how rapidly it moves?
rock avalanche
In the late 1950's the Hebgen Lake earthquake outside of Yellowstone triggered a mass wasting event. The landslide originated on steep mountains slopes where rocks slid off a surface and descended to the valley floor in a few seconds, burying a campground and many people staying there. This type of landslide would be called ________.
rockslide
The single most important erosional agent is ________.
running water
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit the pattern. desert pavement blowout sand dune deflation
sand dune
The North Pole is covered by ________.
sea ice
Most of an iceberg is under water but the top of the iceberg sticks out because ________.
seawater is more dense than ice so ice floats in water
The type and amount of material carried in the suspended load of a stream depends on ________.
settling and flow velocities
Ice sheets can be up ________.
several kilometers thick
Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, California, and Stone Mountain in Georgia, are shaped mainly by what mechanical weathering process?
sheeting
At the base of a glacier, the ice moves by ________.
sliding and ductile flow
The greater the channel roughness, the ________ the stream.
slower flowing
___ involves the downslope movement of a block or blocks of unconsolidated soil and regolith along a curved, slip surface
slump
Which of the following operates primarily in areas of permafrost?
solifluction
The term "cordillera" comes from a word meaning
spine
Which slender, conical speleothem grows from water dripping from the ceiling of a cavern?
stalactite
If you were to examine the profile of a typical river, you would probably find that the gradient is ________.
steepest near the head
Channelization involves making stream channels ________.
straighter
The concepts of "stress" and "strain" are related because ________.
stress causes strain
A __ fault has little or no vertical movements of the two blocks
strike slip
A thrust fault increases the thickness of the crust as it moves toward a continental interior in a mountain belt; yet the crust beyond the mountain front stays the same thickness. Isostasy would suggest that the area at the mountain front, where the thrust emerges, should ___ over time
subside
A thrust fault increases the thickness of the crust as it moves toward a continental interior in a mountain belt; yet the crust beyond the mountain front stays the same thickness. Isostasy would suggest that the area at the mountain front, where the thrust emerges, should ________ over time.
subside
In the interior of continents the earth's crust is typically about 40km thick and the elevation is near sea level. Most earth materials expand when heated, lowering their density. During rifting continental margins are heated but cool as sea floor spreading moves offshore from the continent. Thus, basic isostasy suggests that after rifting, a continental margin will ________.
subside
Examine the words and choose which does not fit body wave S wave P wave surface wave
surface wave
Which of the following is a lake that forms in a cirque?
tarn
In the figure, the stress on block 'Y' is
tensional
Any accreted crustal fragment that has a geologic history distinct from that of the adjoining fragments is termed a ________.
terrane
Island arc systems now on the Tibet plateau record subduction prior to the collision of India with Eurasia. Geologists would map these pre-collisional arc rocks as
terranes
The Laramide Orogeny at the end of the Mesozoic produced ________.
the Rocky Mountains in the western U.S.
Faunal succession recognized in the sequence of fossils in stratified sedimentary rocks was a key concept that led to ________.
the concept of evolution of life on Earth
In thrust faulting
the crust is shortened and thickened
Most granitic batholiths represent ________.
the exhumed roots of a subduction related magmatic arc
Which of the following geologic observations would not bear directly on working out the sequence of geologic events in an area?
the feldspar and quartz contents of a granite
Sediment production occurs primarily in ________ part of a river system.
the head waters
We know that the top layer is youngest. Which of the below is not one of the reasons we know this?
the principle of inclusions
The Colorado River still has water after it leaves the desert southwest region and enters the Gulf of California because ________.
the river began outside the desert, which is normally the only way streams that leave the desert will still have water in them
If the glacial budget is balanced (accumulation equals wastage), then ________.
the terminus of the glacier is stationary
In a dry climate, weathering is significantly less than in a humid climate because ________.
there is less moisture than in a humid region
For a well to be characterized as being artesian,________.
there must be water flowing upward due to pressure
Eruption columns, such as the one pictured above, are unstable and often collapse towards the ground because
they are propelled by the eruption, as in the case of Pompeii
Most geologists think the elevation of mountains above sea level is limited by earth's gravity because
thickening of the crust in the mountain belts produces a weak deep crust that spreads by gravity collapse, limiting the elevation
Location A would be an area where you would expect ________ faulting
thrust
Mountain building uplifts rocks against the force of gravity raising their potential energy, which requires work by the earth system. Based on the relative motion of fault blocks, what type of fault would you expect to require more energy than the others?
thrust
The release of water vapor to the atmosphere by plants is called ________.
transpiration
Which type of soil would typically be the richest soil?
transported
What general term denotes any buried, erosional surface where rock layers are missing?
unconformity
One of the primary goals of geology is to ________.
understand the history of Earth
Till is ________ glacial sediment.
unsorted
Centuries ago quarrymen learned that when quarrying granite it was usually easiest to break the rock along a nearly horizontal surface. We now know this arises because ________.
uplift and exhumation of granites produces an unloading, which produces sheeting joints like the quarrymen used
Downcutting (also known as rejuvenation) of a stream may be due to ________.
uplift of land
The suspended load of a stream ________.
usually consists of fine particles
Milankovitch cycles refer to ________.
variations in the earth's orbit about the sun and precession of the earth's axis
One method to obtain the absolute age of a sedimentary rock is to obtain a radiometric date on an interbedded ________ rock.
volcanic
Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option that does not fit the pattern. aa pahoehoe volcanic bomb pillow lava
volcanic bombs
The loess deposited in many parts of the Midwest ________.
was once glacial outwash deposits
Water plays an important role in sculpting the landscape of continents because ________.
water is a major cause of erosion on land
Most hot springs in the United States are located in the ________ United States.
western
The __ is characterized by terrane accretion that has been active throughout most of Mesozoic and Cenozoic time
western margin of North America
Exhumed basins contain ________ rocks in the center of the structure and domes contain ________ rocks in the center.
younger; older
A V-shaped valley and no floodplain indicate a ________ stream.
youthful, downward cutting