Exam 3 Study Guide

Using the geologic principles of relative dating, it is possible to tease apart rock outcrops and determine which are the oldest and the youngest beds in a sequence. In the cross-section below, identify the oldest bed in the sequence.

1 granite pluton 5 basalt dike

A radioactive isotope of the element potassium decays to produce argon. If the ratio of argon to potassium is found to be 7:1, how many half-lives have occurred?

1 half-life 3 half-lives 7 half-lives 8 half-lives

During the early formation of the crust of Earth, subduction led to the production of several volcanic arcs that collided to form part of our protocontinents. In the image below, which letters mark volcanic arcs?

A and B B and C A and D C and E

Identify the appropriate time period where vascular plants with woody tissues, seeds, and veins shared the land with spiders, scorpions, insects, and crustaceans, while jawed fish cruised the oceans and the first amphibians left water to visit land.

Middle Proterozoic Late Mesozoic. Early Cenozoic. Middle Paleozoic.

Which of the following is a general term used to describe all the physical, chemical, and biological processes that make a sedimentary rock from sediments?

diagenesis diamictite dolostone detritus

Formation of a clastic sedimentary rock involves five stages. which of the following describes erosion?

disintegration of bedrock into separate particles compaction and cementation of loose particles to form solid rock separation of rock or regolith from its substrate process by which particles settle out of transport medium

Choose the proper listing of names to fit the following three descriptions- Age of Mammals, Age of Dinosaurs, and longest geologic time period.

Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Paleozoic Cenozoic, Hadean, Paleozoic Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Proterozoic Cenozoic, Mesozoic, Precambrian

The image below shows the location of a large crater. What is the name of this crater, and what is its significance?

Meteor Crater—impact that created the moon Tambora Caldera—location of the largest volcanic eruption in human history Chicxulub Crater—impact believed to have contributed to the 66Ma mass extinction. Marianas Trench—deepest spot in the Earth's oceans

Which of the following lists properly identifies the following invertebrate fossils?

1. crinoid, 2. gastropod, 3. coral, 4. graptolite 1. trilobite, 2. crinoid, 3. gastropod, 4. ammonite (cephalopod) 1. bryozoan, 2. coral, 3. ammonite (cephalopod), 4. gastropod 1. bivalve, 2. bryozoan, 3. ammonite (cephalopod), 4. trilobite

Charcoal (burned wood) that was used to make prehistoric drawings on cave walls in France was scraped off and analyzed. The results were 4 mg carbon-14 (parent isotope) and 60 mg nitrogen (daughter isotope). The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years. How old are the cave drawings?

11,460 years 17,190 years 22,920 years The sample is too old to be analyzed by carbon dating.

When do fossils of archea and bacteria first appear in the rock record?

542 Ma 1.5 Ga 2.5 Ga 3.7 Ga

The following figure shows several different samples of sediments in optical microscope view. Which of the samples displays the BEST sorting?

A B C D

The textures presented in rock outcrops can tell us specific details about the paleoenvironment in which they were deposited. Which arrow BEST represents the dominant wind direction during deposition?

A B C D

The following image shows some of the most common types of invertebrate fossils. Which of the following fossils is a trilobite?

A B F H

The following image shows some of the most common types of invertebrate fossils. Which of the following fossils is a crinoid?

A C F H

On the diagram shown, several surfaces between rock layers are identified by letters. Choose the answer below that correctly identifies the unconformities.

A and E C and D C and E B and E

Which of the following statements is FALSE?

A formation is the name of a rock layer identified by such factors as rock type and approximate geologic age. An unconformity is a break in the rock record that indicates the area was underwater for millions of years. The generally accepted age of Earth is 4.54 billion years. Varieties of an element that differ only in the number of neutrons are called isotopes.

The roundness of individual grains can tell us much about a rock's depositional history. The image below shows relative levels of rounding that clasts can display. What is the primary difference between the depositional histories of the grain labeled A and the one labeled B?

A is more well sorted than B. B is more well sorted than A. A was transported a longer distance than B. B was transported a longer distance than A.

The image below shows a generalized geologic map of North America. Where could you travel to find Archean-aged rocks?

Alaska North Texas New York Ontario, Canada

The image below shows the super-continent, Gondwana, which existed around 510 Ma. Near which modern-day land mass was the South Pole located at this time?

Australia Antarctica Baltica North Africa

The image below shows the super-continent, Rodinia, which existed around 750 Ma. Near which modern-day land mass was the South Pole located at this time?

Australia India Baltica Siberia

Which statement is FALSE?

Both chert and limestone may have either chemical or biochemical origin. Dolostone and limestone are polymorphs—they have the same chemical composition. Gypsum and halite are evaporite minerals. Chemical sedimentary rocks are crystalline in texture.

Which of the following statements is TRUE?

Conglomerates consist of large, angular clasts. Pieces of broken rock are collectively called clasts or detritus. A well-sorted clastic rock is made up of different-sized particles. All clastic sedimentary rocks are cemented (held together) by calcite.

As Earth has cooled, continental crust has formed. The graph below shows the rate of continental crust growth on Earth through time. Which statement about continental crust growth, as shown on the graph, is FALSE?

Continental crust has been forming since Earth's formation. Continental crustal growth initiated about 3.8 billion years ago. Continental crust had the greatest increase in area between 3.5 and 2.5 billion years ago. The rate of continental crust growth has slowed somewhat in the last 2 billion years.

The principle of fossil succession states that each fossil species has a distinct range, an interval of time when it lived. According to the image below, which statement BEST qualifies what we know about the range of fossil F.

Fossil F is the oldest fossil in the sequence. The total range of fossil F is unknown because the outcrop ends. Fossil F's range is units 1-10. We cannot tell when fossil F first appeared in the rock sequence.

Identify the FALSE statement.

Geologists generally agree that plate tectonics activity began in the Archean Eon. The Moon formed from a collision between Earth and a large protoplanet. There was intense meteorite bombardment of Earth about 4 Ga that destroyed Earth's earliest crustal rock. About 80% of Earth's continental crust existed by the end of the Hadean Eon.

Which of the following is TRUE?

Geologists learned how to determine numerical age long before they could determine relative age. Specifying the age of one feature with respect to another is called its relative age. Saying that a fossil is 4 million years old reports its relative age. Specifying the date on which an event took place is an example of relative age.

Which geologic time interval saw the first continents, the first life, and possibly the first cratons?

Hadean Phanerozoic Proterozoic Archean

Which of the following statements is FALSE?

Human ancestors first appeared in the late Mesozoic. The human genus Homo first appeared around 2.8 million years ago. Fossils of modern humans (Homo sapiens) date back to about 200,000 years ago. The Cenozoic is known as the Age of Mammals.

Which of the following is NOT one of the smaller continents formed by the breakup of Pannotia?

Laurentia Siberia Laramide Baltica

Identify the FALSE statement about early geologic thinkers.

Nicolas Steno asserted that organisms could be incorporated into rock without losing their original shape. Robert Hooke was the first to develop a system to classify fossils, similar to modern organisms. Georges Cuvier demonstrated that the skeletons of fossil organisms differed from modern ones. William Smith determined that sequences of strata had a predictable succession of fossils.

The first feathered birds appeared in the

Paleozoic. Jurassic. Pleistocene. Cambrian.

Identify the FALSE statement about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

Populations of organisms cannot increase forever because of limited resources. As environments change, individual organisms choose to change to better suit the new environment. Those organisms that are able to survive will pass on their characteristics to their offspring. In each new generation, some individuals are more fit than other individuals.

Which of the following shows the four time divisions listed from oldest to youngest?

Precambrian, Mesozoic, Archean, Cenozoic Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic Phanerozoic, Precambrian, Mesozoic, Cenozoic Hadean, Cenozoic, Mesozoic, Proterozoic

According to the diagram below, which sediment sample has traveled the shortest distance and why?

Sample 3, because it contains small quartz grains. Sample 2, because it is very well sorted and contains feldspar. Sample 3, because it is poorly sorted but well rounded. Sample 1, because it contains both resistant and nonresistant minerals.

Which of the following statements is FALSE?

Scientists can date any radioactive material back only three half-lives; after this there's not enough parent material left to measure. Carbon-14 dating is used to date organisms, not minerals. Isotopic dating relies on the parent-daughter ratio. The "radiometric clock" starts when a radioactive mineral cools below its closure temperature.

A corpse with flesh intact, found in the Alps in 1991, was dated by the carbon-14 method and showed a parent-daughter isotope ratio of approximately 1:1, with slightly more parent material than daughter material. The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

Since the body was still organic and had not been petrified, it was inappropriate to use the carbon-14 process. The age could logically be 6,730 years. The age could logically be 5,300 years. The age could logically be 6,000 years.

Which of the following statements about extinction is FALSE?

Some species may become extinct because they evolve into a new species. At least 50 mass-extinction events have occurred during the last 500 million years. The movement of tectonic plates can cause a mass extinction as the distribution of habits shifts. Recent species are disappearing at such a rapid rate that researchers suggest our present time is another mass extinction.

The following map shows a hypothetical distribution of rocks around the world by geochronologic age. Based on this map and the geologic column, where are the representative Proterozoic rocks found??

South Africa Australia Central Asia Central North America

The image below tracks the species present on Earth through time. Which statement BEST interprets the data shown on the graph?

The number of genera has remained constant through time. There were fewer genera in the Tertiary than during the Late Devonian. There were more genera present in the Late Ordovician than in the Early Triassic. There has been a linear decrease in genera diversity through time.

The image below shows a generalized geologic map of the world. Focus on the oceanic crust. Which statement best describes the distribution of the crust based on age?

The oldest crust is found at mid-ocean ridges. Older crust is confined to the southern hemisphere. Young crust is found primarily along mid-ocean ridges. Young crust is confined to the northern hemisphere.

An area of slightly dipping sedimentary rock layers has large inclusions and is intruded by an igneous dike. Apply the basic principles for determining relative ages and identify the FALSE statement.

The sedimentary layers started out lying flat. The oldest sedimentary layer is the bottom layer. The igneous intrusion "baked" (metamorphosed) the sedimentary rock it touched. The dike is older than the sedimentary rock layers it cuts across.

A hominin (human family) skull was found in a shale layer between two fine-grained igneous rock layers. There were no baked zones on the rocks above the igneous layers. The skull had been 100% fossilized and changed to stone; there was no original skull material left. On the basis of this information and the diagram, decide which of the following statements is FALSE.

The skull should be dated by the carbon-14 method, since this is the method used for organic material older than 1 million years. The igneous layers can be dated by radiometric methods; the shale layers cannot be dated radiometrically. The skull itself cannot be dated, because it is no longer organic material and it is not igneous material. The age of the skull is determined by its position between the igneous layers. The igneous layers must be lava flows, because they are fine-grained rock and there are no baked zones on the rock above them.

Identify the TRUE statement about fossil preservation.

The slower an organism is buried with sediment after death, the more likely it is to become a fossil. A dead organism will most likely become a fossil if there is abundant oxygen in the depositional environment. Organisms with hard parts made of shell or bone are more likely to become fossilized. Low-energy environments are not suitable for preserving fossils.

The four columns in this diagram represent fossil-bearing sedimentary rock layers at four different sites. The sedimentary layers are continuous except at the zigzag lines, which represent unconformities. Compare the sites, determine the relative ages of the fossils, and then identify the FALSE statement.

Unconformities are breaks in the rock record that indicate missing time. Mammals are the youngest fossils shown. The reptile fossils are the second-youngest fossils shown. Trilobites are the oldest fossils shown.

The structure that may form where a stream enters a lake is called

a delta. till. an alluvial fan. a sedimentary basin.

Block diagrams allow for geologists to render rock units in three dimensions. Features such as unconformities and folds will look different from different angles. What features are shown in the block diagram below?

a fault and a nonconformity an anticline, syncline, and an angular unconformity a disconformity and a reverse fault a syncline and a nonconformity

When North America collided with northwestern Africa during the Alleghanian orogeny, a broad region of warped, faulted rocks formed—the remnants of which still underlie the valley and ridge province of the Appalachian Mountains. This broad region of deformed rocks is called

a fold-thrust belt. a transgression. an exotic terrane. the craton.

Sedimentary structures preserved in rock outcrops can give us insight into what the environment was like when the sediments were originally deposited. What type of environment created the bedding structure shown below?

a shallow ocean a desert with migrating dunes a down-cutting river system a swamp

Evidence of transgressions and regressions is preserved in the rock record. Based on the distribution of the deposits in the image below, which answer BEST describes the history of this shoreline?

a transgression only a regression only a transgression then a regression a regression then a transgression

Which of the following processes is associated with the formation of travertine?

deposition lithification compaction precipitation

The late-Devonian fossil shown in this image, Tiktaalik, is significant because it represents

a transition from fish to amphibians that could walk on land and breathe air. the first dinosaur species to evolve. the ancestor to all modern fish species. one of the few species to survive the mid-Paleozoic extinction event.

What is the most logical ancient environment to have produced a deposit consisting of laters of well-sorted sandstone with cross beds several meters high?

alluvial fan along a mountain front sand dunes shallow-water carbonate area glacial valley

The Great Oxygenation Event, which added abundant oxygen to the atmosphere beginning about 2.5 Ga, was due to the

appearance of Ediacaran fauna. evolution of photosynthetic organisms in oceans. emergence of multicellular organisms. appearance of photosynthetic plants on land.

Identify the FALSE statement. Generally speaking, fossils can form when organisms

are preserved in recrystallized limestone called marble. die and get buried by sediment. are trapped in amber. travel over sediments and leave imprints.

If you find quartz sandstone in the place where it formed, you know you are looking at an ancient

avalanche on a submarine slope. sand dune. swamp. alluvial fan.

The following image shows a stratigraphic section of the Grand Canyon. Between which two groups is there an angular unconformity?

between the Kaibab Limestone and the Toroweap Formation between the Muav Limestone and the Bright Angel Shale between the Unkar Group and the Tapeats Sandstone between the Zoroaster granite and the Vishnu schist

A clastic sedimentary rock composed of angular pebble-sized fragments surrounded by matrix is

breccia. conglomerate. shale. arkose.

Sedimentary rocks can form by each of the following processes EXCEPT

by the precipitation of minerals from water solution. by the cementing together of loose grains of pre-existing rock. from shell fragments or carbon-rich relicts of plants. solidification from a melt.

Identify the FALSE statement. Radiometric dating

can begin only when the isotopes cool enough to lock into the crystal lattice. can be used only if there is some uranium present in the rock. of sedimentary rock dates the time of crystallization of the sedimentary minerals, not the time of sedimentary rock formation. of metamorphic rock tells when the high temperatures of metamorphism cooled below the closure temperatures of the minerals involved.

Theoretically, "snowball Earth" conditions of the late Proterozoic Eon would have persisted forever were it not for greenhouse warming caused by volcanically derived

carbon monoxide. oxygen. carbon dioxide. ammonia.

Which of the following is NOT a method to determine numerical age?

carbon-14 dating radioactive decay of uranium to lead analyzing growth ring patterns in trees cross-cutting relations

The following image shows the fossilized footprints of a dinosaur. What type of fossil does this image represent?

chemical fossil permineralized organism carbonized body impression Trace fossil

Which of the following rock types does not contain the mineral calcite?

chert fossiliferous limestone chalk micrite

Which of the following is NOT one of the major classes of sedimentary rocks?

clastic biochemical chemical intrusive

Rocks formed dominantly from the calcium carbonate shells of marine organisms are classified as ___ and called ___.

clastic; arkose organic; coal biochemical; limestone chemical; travertine

The organic sedimentary rock that is composed of mud-sized particles and partially decayed organic matter (kerogen) derived from plankton and algae remains is

coal. fossiliferous limestone. chert. oil shale.

Identify the FALSE statement. During the Pleistocene Ice Age

continental glaciers in the northern hemisphere advanced and retreated at least 20 times. sea level fell because water was tied up as ice. a continental land bridge west of Alaska was exposed and allowed migration of animals and people from Asia to North America. continental glaciers covered all of North America.

Footprints, burrows, and feeding marks are all types of

coprolites. trace fossils. biomarkers. microfossils.

The image below tracks the species present on Earth through time. What event occurred at each of the indicated points in the graph?

creation of a new ocean a mass extinction a regression in evolution main advance in hominid evolution

Which of the following accurately ranks the subdivisions of geologic time in order from largest to smallest?

eon, era, period, epoch era, eon, epoch, period epoch, period, eon, era period, era, eon, epoch

Using the geologic principles of relative dating, it is possible to tease apart rock outcrops and determine which are the oldest and the youngest beds in a sequence. In the cross-section below, identify youngest event in the sequence.

erosion of the land surface the basalt dike the granite pluton folding

Punctuated equilibrium states that

evolution takes place very slowly but has short periods of rapid change. extinction events occur due to large catastrophic events such as floods. evolutionary change happens at a constant slow rate. we are not able to determine the rate of evolutionary change because of the incompleteness of the fossil record.

The image below shows the basin and range province in the American southwest. What type of geologic setting led to the production of this feature?

extension through rifting convergence subduction a transform-plate boundary

What is the most logical past environment to have produced a deposit consisting of layers of unsorted, unstratified sedimentary clasts, clay-sized to boulder-sized?

floodplain sand dunes shallow-water carbonate area glacial valley

Geologists believe the impact of an enormous meteorite 66 million years ago

generated 20-km-high tsunamis. generated a hot air blast and blaze that caused worldwide forest fires. ejected chemicals into the atmosphere that caused thousands of years of global warming. ejected debris into the atmosphere that produced acid rain.

In 1815, William Smith correlated strata from many locations and plotted it on paper to show the spatial distribution of rock units on Earth's surface. This document was the first modern:

geologic column. geologic map. stratigraphic column. geologic time scale.

The image below shows a geologic deposit that tells us a lot about the environment in which it was deposited. Which statement properly identifies the deposit and its significance?

glacial till—evidence of "Snowball Earth" coal seam—evidence of the first plant life banded iron formation—evidence of the "great oxygenation event" a fossiliferous limestone—evidence of first cellular organisms

Which of the following was NOT a component of Earth's Hadean atmosphere?

hydrogen oxygen methane ammonia

Banded-iron formations (BIFs) formed

in alluvial fans at the base of the proto-Appalachian mountains. in the Proterozoic deep ocean. beneath the Laurentide ice sheet. during uplift of the Himalayan plateau.

You should be able to number the events in the accompanying figure in the proper order of occurrence. If the first (oldest) event is number 1, and the last (most recent) is number 8, which occurred fifth in the sequence?

intrusion (batholith G) deposition of layer D deposition of layer E deposition of layer A

Which of the following has nothing to do with the K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary?

iridium glass spheres formed by sudden melting then freezing of rock Chicxulub Thomas Huxley

Identify the FALSE statement. Internal differentiation

is the process that resulted in Earth's interior having different materials at different depths. happened just before Earth's collision with a protoplanet that blasted away moon material. involved heavy molten iron sinking to Earth's center to become its core. "stirred" Earth's interior and thus hastened Earth's cooling.

The boundary surface between two stratigraphic formations is called a

key bed. marker bed. contact. nonconformity.

Which of the following features is a bed-surface marker, meaning it appears on the surface of a bed due to events during or soon after sediment deposition.

laminations cross beds graded bedding mud cracks

Gymnosperms (naked-seed plants like conifers) were widespread in the late Paleozoic, but angiosperms (flowering plants) gained dominance in the

late Mesozoic. early Paleozoic. latest Proterozoic. mid-Cenozoic.

The continents that comprised Pangaea began to split apart during the

late Paleozoic. mid Proterozoic. late Triassic / early Jurassic. early Devonian.

Uniformitarianism

means Earth's surface—its oceans, continents, and atmosphere—have always been the same and always will be the same. is an outdated theory that states catastrophes like major volcanic eruptions no longer happen. is illustrated by scientists' seeing pillow lava form only underwater, then theorizing that pillow lava found high in the mountains today did nevertheless form underwater. means neither the scientific past nor the future should be predicted because physical laws change over time.

The section below shows a series of graded beds superimposed on one another. What series of events could have produced this set of structures?

migrating sand dunes repetitious evaporation from a saline lake repeated turbidite currents oscillating ocean waves

Which of the following sedimentary structures indicated that the sediments were deposited in a moving fluid?

mud cracks fossil footprints ripple marks laminations

A clastic sedimentary rock with clay- and silt-sized grains that breaks in thin sheets is called

mudstone. shale. siltstone. wacke.

What type of unconformity forms when sedimentary rocks overlie either igneous or metamorphic rocks?

nonconformity angular unconformity disconformity baked contact

Geologists refer to the contact between two units as an unconformity when it represents a period of no deposition, or possibly erosion. What type of unconformity is illustrated by the time sequence illustrated below?

nonconformity disconformity lateral unconformity angular unconformity

Which of the following taxonomic hierarchies of a domain is CORRECT?

phylum, kingdom, order, class, genus, species, family order, phylum, kingdom, genus, class, species, family kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species species, order, class, phylum, kingdom, family, genus

Which of the following statements is FALSE? The first life forms

probably occurred in oxygen-rich, shallow, sun-lit ocean waters. may have been simple cells of bacteria and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). date back to between 3.5 and 3.8 billion years. likely evolved around submarine vents, called black smokers.

Geologists estimate that the age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years old, based on

radiometric age dates on rocks from the Canadian craton. isotopic dating of meteorites thought to be from primitive solids of the early Solar System. relative age dates on clastic zircons from Australia. age estimates of Moon rocks.

Which of the following methods of determining the age of materials is a radiometric dating technique?

rhythmic layering of snow layers in glacial ice dendrochronology (tree rings) seasonal changes in growth rings in shelled organisms carbon dating

A sedimentary basin that forms when continental lithosphere is stretched, causing down-dropped crustal blocks bordered by elongate mountain ranges, is called a

rift basin. passive margin basin. intercontinental basin. foreland basin.

When sea level rises (as shown in the image), the shoreline migrates inland, flooding the land and depositing coastal sediments over pre-existing terrestrial sediments. This process is called

rifting. uplifting. transgression. regression.

The following picture is an idealized sketch of a particular sedimentary structure. What is the name for this set of structures?

ripple marks graded beds cross bedding mud cracks

This diagram shown is a profile of

ripple marks created by water flowing from A to B. ripple marks created by water flowing from B to A. sand dunes created by wind blowing from A to B. sand dunes created by wind blowing from B to A.

This common and useful form of limestone consists of microscopic marine algae shells and shrimp feces. Thick Cretaceous-age deposits of limestone are common in southern England.

sand iron siliceous silt chalk

Which of the following lists accurately describes grain size increasing from smallest to largest?

sand, silt, pebbles clay, silt, sand silt, clay, sand sand, cobbles, pebbles

Clastic sedimentary rocks form in different depositional environments. The size and shape of the clasts are paramount to determining the type of rock that is formed upon lithification. What type of clastic sedimentary rock will form from the environment shown below?

shale breccia conglomerate siltstone

As sediment is transported downstream, away from its paint of origin, the particles become

smaller. more angular. poorly sorted. dominantly feldspar.

Which of the following has nothing to do with fossils of early life?

stromatolites Rodinia cyanobacteria Ediacaran fauna

Rodinia, Pannotia, and Pangaea are all names of

supercontinents. orogenies that occurred on the eastern margin of North America. geologic time periods. extinct marine organisms.

Which of the following statements is FALSE? The principle of

superposition says in a sequence of sedimentary beds, the youngest is on top. original continuity says sedimentary layers began as continuous expanses of sediment. inclusions says rock containing inclusions is older than the inclusions. cross-cutting relations says the feature doing the cutting is younger than the feature it cuts.

Examining stratigraphic sections from several different locations can determine, through stratigraphic correlation, the lateral extent of units. Which unit(s) are present in sections A and B, but not in section C?

the Oswaldo Sandstone the Rufus and Mils Limestones the Emma Shale and the Hamilton Conglomerate the Santuit Sandstone

The image below shows the breakup of the Pangaea super continent. Key to this phase of our landscape evolution was the rifting that is shown between North America and Africa. What feature was later produced by this rifting event?

the Pacific Ocean the Basin and Range Province the Atlantic Ocean the Canadian Shield

Which of the following statements is FALSE? On the diagram shown

the area under the curve represents the amount of parent material present. if the half-life of the parent material is 4,000 years, 3 on the horizontal axis of the graph represents 12,000 years. if 2 g of parent material is present after three half-lives, there will also be 14 g of daughter material present. there are equal amounts of parent and daughter material present after the passage of two half-lives.

The Paleozoic Era ended with a mass extinction event. Which of the following is hypothesized to be the cause of that extinction?

the breakup of Pannotia intense volcanic activity in Siberia the formation of high latitude ice sheets the evolution of land plants

Identify the FALSE statement. There is very little rock record for Earth's first 600 million years because

the surface then was one huge ocean basin filled with hot water and nothing else. intense meteorite bombardment may have destroyed most land surface. rocks of that age sank back down into the Earth. any rock that formed during that time was likely melted/recycled.

If you equate all Earth history to one calendar year, the history of our species (Homo sapiens) would occupy

the week from Christmas to New Year's Eve. from December 15 to New Year's Eve. from December 31 at 3 p.m. to New Year's Eve. the last hour before midnight on New Year's Eve.

The distribution of sedimentary rocks reflects the relative historical position of different depositional environments. The following two images show a change in the relative position of marine and terrestrial depositional environments. What is the name for this shift shown from time 1 to time 2?

transgression aggradation regression suppression

Which of the following are fossil plants?

trilobites gymnosperms and angiosperms brachiopods pterosaurs and sauropods

Which of the following sedimentary features is the surest indicator that the past environment was subaerial (under air), not submarine (underwater)?

turbidites mud cracks scour marks fossil marine clam shell imprints

The principle of fossil succession states that each fossil species has a distinct range, an interval of time when it lived.. According to the image below, what is the range for fossil E?

unit 6 units 1-10 units 6-8 units 3-6

ripple marks, dunes, and cross bedding are useful indicators of

water depth. flow velocity. sediment source. current direction.

Identify the FALSE statement. William Smith's observations

were made around 1800 in fresh exposures of sedimentary bedrock in the English countryside. recognized that groups of fossil species (fossil assemblages) occurred in limited intervals of strata. noted that a fossil species could disappear then reappear in much younger strata. lead to the principle of fossil succession.

Which of the following is considered a trace fossil?

woolly mammoths frozen in permafrost a dragonfly in amber mummified corpses in dry deserts fossilized dung