GEOL 110 Exam Review

As wind-driven waves enter shallow water adjacent to coasts: (check all that apply)

- A wave "breaks" due to the crest of the wave moving over the trough of the wave in front of it - They can drive longshore drift if they hit the beach at an angle - Friction with the sea floor causes the bottom of the wave to speed up relative to the crest - The wave energy can be dissipated by sea walls - They can cause beach erosion if they are strong enough

Coastal erosion can be decreased by:

- Building breakwaters - Installing groins

Which of the following are likely to decrease the stability of a slope?

- Building houses on the slope to add weight so that it doesn't slip - Exceeding the angle of repose

Rip currents: (check all that apply)

- Can be caused by retreating tides - Occur where there are either underwater sand bars or barrier islands - Can be caused by retreating storm surge - Are channelized water flow

Water on Earth: (circle all that apply)

- Can be in solid form and liquid form in the same place at the same time - Absorbs energy when converting from liquid to vapor - Is mostly salt water - Is a major factor in the hydrologic cycle - Can be drawn from the ground by wells

Which of the following is true of streams? Circle all that apply.

- Can be monitored using stream gauges - Clasts can be transported as bedload or suspended load - Can flood if the local inflow of water exceeds the local outflow

Estuaries:

- Can form when longshore drift forms a bar that isolates an area of the shore - May be affected by tides, longshore currents, and stream flow - Can form in the lower parts of streams as they are flooded by rising sea level - Are characteristic of submergent coasts - Can be fjords

Which of the following are used to purify freshwater for human use? Click on all that apply.

- Chemical treatment to remove or neutralize chemical contaminants - Filtering to remove large pathogenic organisms - Irradiation by ultraviolet light to kill pathogenic organisms - Filtering to remove sediment - Chemical treatment to kill pathogenic organisms

In which localities would you expect frost wedging would be a major physical weathering process?

- Chicago, Illinois - Rock Hill, South Carolina - Anchorage, Alaska

Which of the following are characteristic of unconfined aquifers? Click all that apply.

- Has a water table that moves up after rainfall - Is recharged from local water sources like rain

Which of the following increases the monetary value of coal as a fuel? (Choose all that apply)

- Having a high burn temperature - Being bituminous coal instead of lignite

Which of the following could lead to fresh water stress or scarcity in a town? Click all that apply.

- Industrial growth - Drought - Population growth - Diversion of rivers upstream from the town. - Pollution of local water sources - Exploration and development of oil fields

Which of the following is true of a confined aquifer? Click all that apply.

- Is confined on the top by an aquiclude or aquitard - Could support an artesian well - Has a recharge area at some distance from the local area

Which of the following is true of seismic belts? Click all that apply.

- Most correspond to tectonic plate boundaries - Most of the world's earthquakes occur within them

The slump and debris flows at La Conchita in 2005 killed people for which of the following reasons.

- People rebuilt houses at the base of the slope after 1995 - The toe of the slope bulldozed into homes, trapping and killing people - The retaining wall failed

An earthquake can produce:

- R-Waves - P-waves - S-waves

Nuclear power as it is today is problematic because:

- Reprocessing fuel rods yields plutonium - Nuclear waste is dangerous to the environment - Some nuclear power plants have been built in places that are prone to earthquakes and other natural hazards - Some countries do not have a permanent storage solution for nuclear waste

Which of the following seismic waves are useful for exploring the structure of the Earth's interior? (Click all that apply)

- S-waves - P-waves

Which of the following anomalies did Wegener cite as supporting his theory of continental drift? All answers below were anomalies in the "fixist" paradigm but are evidence that supports plate tectonics. Mark all that apply.

- The presence of coals in non-tropical region - Fossils of same species found on different continents separated by oceans - The similarities in regional geology of Africa and South America

Which of the following is true about black smokers?

- They form when superheated, ion rich water shoots out of the seafloor - They are associated with mid-ocean ridges - They are home to bacteria that can create biochemical energy from methane

Which kind of plate boundary produces earthquakes? Mark all that apply.

- Transform - Convergent - Divergent

Which of the following rock types form at the surface of the Earth? Check all that apply.

- Volcanic igneous rocks - Chemical sedimentary rocks - Clastic sedimentary rocks

[coal] is a solid fossil fuel derived from woody plant material. Liquid petroleum, called [oil], is derived from the remains of ocean plankton. The hydrocarbon gas that is also produced from the remains of ocean plankton is [natgas].

- coal - oil - natural gas

What kind of plate boundary usually produces magma and thus volcanoes? Mark all that apply.

- divergent - convergent

Which of the following are synonyms for watershed? Click all that apply

- drainage basin - catchment

Fill in the blanks in the following statements with the style of mass wasting being described (use only: flow, slump, slide, fall): A steep cliff made of weathering rock is likely to experience frequent [fall] events. Unconsolidated sediment like the Rissa quick clay, which lost all internal cohesion, is likely to fail by [flow]. Stickier sediment and weak rock are more likely to fail in the [slump] style. Finally, tilted strata in which relatively strong rock is overlain by weaker rock or sediment is most likely to experience [slide] events.

- fall - flow - slump - slide

Which of the following are ways that minerals form in nature?

- freezing of a liquid - precipitation from a solution - solid-state diffusion - biomineralization - precipitation from a vapor

An artesian well:

- has a water level above the aquifer - will have water flowing from the top of the well even without a pump

Which of the following are sources of energy that drive landscape change? Click all that apply.

- internal energy - external energy - gravitational energy

Slope failure can be triggered by (click all that apply)

- load increases caused by construction - load increase caused by excessive rainfall - addition of fill

Which of the following are geological rock types (click all that apply).

- metamorphic rocks - sedimentary rocks - igneous rocks

Which of the following are fossil fuels (click all that apply)

- natural gas - coal - oil

Which of the following are foliated metamorphic rock (check all that apply)?

- phyllite - schist - gneiss

Groundwater flow in the saturated portion of an aquifer is primarily controlled by:

- pressure - gravity

Which of the following are actual principles of correlation in relative age dating? Click all that apply.

- principle of cross-cutting - principle of superposition - Principle of original horizontality - Principle of inclusions

Which if the following can stabilize slopes (click all that apply):

- regrading/terracing - reducing subsurface water - preventing undercutting - controlled blasting of unstable slopes

Which of the following are streams? Click all that apply.

- rivers - creeks

Which of the following are slow moving mass wasting events (click all that apply)?

- rock glacier - creep

Salinity varies due to (click all that apply):

- sea water temperature - latitude - depth

Which of the following criteria must be met for a substance to be considered a mineral? Check all that apply.

- solid phase of matter - definable chemical composition - formed by geological processes - Crystalline structure

Surface currents are affected by (click all that apply):

- the rotation of the Earth - wind direction and strength - gyres - the position of continents

Which of the following could form a petroleum trap?

- trapped in the top of an anticline - fault trap, where oil seeps in under a seal rock - Salt-dome trap where oil is trapped on either side of a salt diapir

Which of the following can produce seismic waves? Click all that apply.

- underground nuclear explosion - volcanic eruptions - sudden slip along a fault - meteorite impact

Which of the following are "alternative" forms of energy?

- wind power - hydrothermal power - tidal power

Approximately how many detectable earthquakes occur on Earth every year?

1,000,000

40K decays into 40Ar with a half life of 1,250,000,000 years. Radiometric analysis of the Gaines Gabbro yields the following results:Gaines Gabbro: 50% 40K, 50% 40Ar What is the age of the Gaines Gabbro.

1,250,000,000 years

Put the following foliation processes in the correct order for a rock experiencing prograde metamorphism (increasing temperature and pressure).

1. Foliation 2. Crystallization of new minerals 3. Differentiation into bands made of equant and flat minerals

Based on the cross section below, put rocks in the correct order by age from oldest (#1) to youngest (#6)

1. Gaither Granite 2. Gaines Gabbro 3. Massey Breccia 4. Graham Conglomerate 5. McLeod Sandstone 6. McCullough Basalt

Put the following in the correct order form the largest reservoir of freshwater to the smallest.

1. Ice caps and glaciers 2. Groundwater 3. Surface water

Metamorphism that occurs because of a meteorite striking the Earth is:

Shock metamorphism

Which mineral class contains most of the Earth's rock forming minerals?

Silicates

On Figure 12.5, what stratigraphic principle allows you to determine the relative ages of sandstone 5 and sandstone 7?

Superposition

What principle did you use to determine the relative age of the Massey Breccia and McLeod Sandstone in the cross section below?

Superposition

What is the real reason for apparent polar wandering?

The locations of the poles don't actually change, the location of the continental measuring points do.

Bowen's Reaction Series demonstrates the:

The mineral sequences that form as magma cools

Which of the following statements is true about oil drilling?

Unconventional drilling can exploit shales by horizontal drilling and fracking

In the open ocean far from shore:

Wind-driven waves tend to be symmetrical

Radiometric analysis of a pair of zircons indicates that zircon A has 80% of a parent isotope remaining while zircon B has 74% of the parent isotope preserved. Which is older, zircon A and zircon B

Zircon B

PUnctuated equilibrium describes:

a pattern of evolutionary change in a lineage

The oil window is:

a range of temperatures under which oil is produced

Please put the meandering stream cycle in the correct order, starting with a relatively straight stream channel.

a. Erosion of the cutbank and deposition on the point bar causes the channel to shift sideways. b. As the stream channel becomes more loopy, the cutbanks on one side start to cut toward each other. c. The meander loop is cut off, usually during a flood. The meander becomes an oxbow lake. d. The cycle starts over with a straight channel.

Groundwater: - exists because there is porosity within bodies of rock and sediment - is fed by infiltration of water - flows where the rock or sediment is permeable - all of the above

all of the above

On Figure 12.5, what kind of unconformity is between sandstone 5 and the modern land surface?

angular unconformity

Most of the transform boundaries on Earth are found where?

associated with spreading boundaries on oceanic crust

When water flows on the surface of the Earth in one consistent directions, what sedimentary structure is formed?

asymmetrical ripple marks

Stripped of the specifics of each mode of energy production, the major fuels used to generate electricity essentially _____ to turn turbines.

boil water

Which of the following ranks clastic sedimentary rock types from least to most weathering of their contained clasts?

breccia-conglomerate-sandstone-siltstone

Put these techniques for mining coal in order from least destructive to the land's surface to most destructive.

1. shaft mining 2. strip mining 3. mountaintop removal mining

How many oxygens does a silicate tetrahedron contain?

4

Water covers approximately how much of the Earth's surface?

70%

What is the relationship between a resource and its reserve?

A resource is the amount of a geologic commodity that exists in both discovered and undiscovered deposits, reserves are a subgroup of a resource that have been discovered, have a known size, and can be extracted for profit.

Seismometers can record: - S-waves - L-waves - P-waves - A seismometer can record all of these

A seismometer can record all of these

Please match the following to their definitions.

Abyssal Plain: Mostly flat area approximately 5,000 meters below sea level. Continental Shelf: The shallower flooded portion of continental crust. Continental Slope: The region off the shore where slope changes as depth increases from the continental shelf. Trenches: The deepest part of the ocean, formed in convergent boundaries. Passive Margins: Coastlines characterized by continental crust sutured to oceanic crust. Active Margins: Coastlines characterized by subduction of oceanic crust beneath continental crust.

Which of the following is frequently the number one source of pollution in surface or groundwater?

Air Pollution

Which region of the U.S. is most likely to commonly experience strong earthquakes.?

Alaska

Which of the following are types of earthquakes. - normal fault earthquake - reverse fault earthquake - strike-slip fault earthquake - All of the above are types of earthquakes

All fo the above are types of earthquakes

Earthquakes cause damage in which of the following ways? - ground shaking and displacement - landslides - sediment liquefaction - tsunamis - fires - Earthquakes can cause all of the above

All of the above

Evaporites form: - sufficient water evaporates from playa lakes - When evaporite minerals precipitate from sea water - As beds of mostly halite and gypsum - Massive amounts of evaporite minerals under favorable environmental conditions - All of the above

All of the above

Fossils are: - the remains and traces of once living things - a record of life through geologic time - useful for correlating rocks - All of the above

All of the above

What locations are the most active globally for both earthquakes and volcanic activity?

Along tectonic plate boundaries

Ore:

An ore is a naturally occuring solid material from which a metal or valuable mineral can be extracted for profit.

The paleoclimate studies cited by Wegener to support his continental drift theory showed what? - Some places that are currently very cold had tropical or hot desert climates in the past - Some places that are currently very warm had continental glaciers on the landscape in the past - No climate changes are evident over the past 250 million years on most continents - Both a and b are correct

Both a and b are correct

Tides are controlled by:

Both the Sun's gravity and the Moon's gravity

Match each type of chemical sedimentary rocks with its composition.

Chert - Microcrystalline quartz and/or opal Evaporites - Halite and gypsum Limestone - Carbonate minerals like calcite and dolomite Coal - Remains of woody plants that have been altered by heat and pressure

Which of the following statements is false?

Compaction and cementation are both processes that increase the pore space in a deposit

What principle did you use to determine the relative age of the McCullough Basalt and the McLeod Sandstone in the cross section below?

Cross Cutting Relationships

The angle of repose for a slope composed of sediment:

Depends primarily on the amount of friction between grains

The area around the town of Kimberley, South Africa is best known for:

Diamonds

The location in which two tectonic plates move away from each other is what type of plate boundary?

Divergent

The Earth's circumference of the Earth was first measured by:

Eratosthene around 245 BCE

A metamorphic rock contains big, beautiful crystals of the mineral garnet. The rock must have partially melted to make room for these crystals.

False

Aquifers are low permeable rocks and sediment while aquitards are high permeability rocks and sediment.

False

Crystal color is more useful in identifying minerals than streak color because crystal color is more intense.

False

Debris flows only occur in fine grained sediment like the quick clay at Rissa.

False

Like surface water, groundwater flow is controlled by the direction of gravity and thus flows downhill.

False

Longshore drift causes longshore currents.

False

Longshore drift moves sediment from shallow water to the abyssal plain.

False

Mudslides are not hazards to humans because they move so slowly.

False

Physical weathering is more important than chemical weathering in clast production.

False

Wave base is the depth of maximum disturbance from a surface wave.

False

You observe that a metamorphic rock contains well-formed garnet, which was not present in the protolith. Is the following statement true or false? The presence of garnet in the metamorphic rock indicates that at least part of the protolith must have melted to allow the garnet space to crystallize.

False

Igneous rocks form when a magma or lava:

Freezes

40K decays into 40Ar with a half life of 1,250,000,000 years. Radiometric analysis of the Gaines Gabbro and Gaither Granite yields the following results:Gaither Granite: 35% 40K, 65% 40ArGaines Gabbro: 50% 40K, 50% 40Ar According to the radiometric analysis, which rock is older?

Gaither Granite

Tides are primarily caused by:

Gravitational attraction between the Earth and Moon

Based on what you learned last week about the relative abundance of different minerals in the Earth's crust, which chemical weathering process should be the most important in breaking down rocks at the surface of the Earth?

Hydrolysis

Which of the following chemical weathering process is responsible for the breakdown of most silicate minerals?

Hydrolysis

What principle did you use to determine the relative age of the Gaines Gabbro and Gaither Granite in the cross section below?

Inclusion

A natural resource:

Is a naturally occurring material with value to people, including parks and recreational areas

Beach renourishment

Is a temporary solution to beach erosion

What is kerogen?

Kerogen is a fossilized organic material, found in oil shale, which is insoluble in common organic solvents and yields petroleum products on distillation.

The boundary separating Earth's crust from the mantle is called the:

Moho

What kind of unconformity is at the contact between the Massey Breccia and the underlying rock formations?

Nonconformity

If the Massey Breccia contains fossil of Rafinesquina, when is the latest geologic period in which the Gaither Granite could have been formed?

Ordovician

Which layer of the interior of the Earth is primarily responsible for the p-wave and s-wave shadows?

Outer Core

Which kind of wave routinely travels through the liquid and solid core of the Earth? (Click all that apply)

P-waves

The McCleod Sandstone contains the following fossil brachiopods.Athyris Derbyia Leptodus Based on the chart below, during what geological period(s) could the McCleod Sandstone have been deposited? (check all that apply)

Permian

Unloading exfoliation is most common in [plutonic] (plutonic or volcanic) igneous rocks that are exposed on the Earth's surface. It occurs because the rock [expands] (expands or contracts) when exposed on the surface of the Earth. Unloading exfoliation is a kind of [physical] (physical or chemical) weathering.

Plutonic Expands Physical

What does a jetty do?

Protects harbor entrances from being clogged by sediment brought in by longshore drift

Clasts with grain diameters of 1 mm would be classified as which?

Sand

The interior of the Earth is primarily studied using:

Seismic (earthquake) data

Valleys differ from canyons in that canyons have:

steeper through slope

Which feature is characteristic of convergent boundaries?

submarine trenches

To be a sedimentary basin, a section of the Earth's crust must:

subside

On Figure 12.5, which stratigraphic principle would not allow you to determine the relative age of the granite pluton and sandstone 5?

superposition

Coal forms in which sedimentary environment?

swamp

Upward flow of water in the hydrological cycle is driven by energy from:

the Sun

A stream's thalweg is:

the deepest part of the stream

The angle of repose is:

the steepest slope that is stable

The pelagic sediment that covers the oceanic crust:

thickens as the oceanic crust ages

Slope failure occurs:

when downslope force exceeds resistance.

Which of the following is the correct order of clast size from smallest to largest?

clay, silt, sand, pebble

The fossil fuel that creates the most air and water pollution is:

coal

Lithification of clastic sedimentary rocks involves which two processes?

compaction and cementation

Ore minerals are:

contains easily extractable metal

Which of the following is in the correct order as you go from the shallow ocean to the deep?

continental shelf - continental slope - continental rise - abyssal plain

The main driver for plate tectonics is:

convection in Earth's mantle

Accretionary prisms form at which kind of tectonic plate boundary?

convergent

Wadati-Benioff zones are characteristic of:

convergent boundaries

On Figure 12.5, what stratigraphic principle allows you to determine the relative ages of the granite pluton and the basalt dike?

cross-cutting

What is the main cause of surface waves in the oceans:

wind

Magma forms at mid-ocean ridges because of:

decompression melting

On Figure 12.5, what kind of unconformity separates limestone 1 from shale 2?

disconformity

Which of the following is not a way a stream carries sediment?

dissolved load

When local sea level rises and floods a river valley, the resulting feature is a(n):

estuary

A seal rock must (click all that apply):

have low permeability

Which of the following is the best combination for a reservoir rock?

high porosity, high permeability

Drilling a horizontal well is a technique used primarily:

hydraulic fracturing

Big Bang nucleosynthesis produced primarily:

hydrogen and helium

Banded Iron formations formed:

in sedimentary deposits

Plutonic igneous rocks have _______ than volcanic igneous rocks.

larger crystals

Which of the following correctly ranks types of coal from lowest to highest?

lignite - bituminous - anthracite

Which of the following is not a process that occurs during metamorphic change (click all that apply).

lithification

In order for dead plankton to accumulate on the seafloor, the water at the bottom of the ocean must be _________ in that locality.

low oxygen

The chemical composition of the atmosphere consists primarily of:

oxygen and nitrogen

Lava that forms rope-like ridges is called:

pahoehoe

A ____ produces stone while a ______ produces ore.

quarry; mine

Which of the following drainage networks has a series of straight channels controlled by the bedrock's fracture pattern.

rectangular

What kind of sediment makes up most of Earth's beach sediment?

sand

The Principle of Uniformitarianism:

says that basic physical and chemical processes stayed the same throughout geological time

The purpose of smelting is to:

separate metal

The composition of magma is primarily which pair of elements?

silicon and oxygen

The main difference between an outcrop and a hand sample of a rock is:

size

Which of the following is the correct order for the metamorphic changes that occurs in mudstone undergoing prograde metamorphism.

slate - phyllite - schist - gneiss

Which of the following statements about placer deposits is false?

They can only be exploited using heavy machinery, even when the deposit is close to the surface of the Earth

Which of the following tectonic boundaries does NOT have volcanoes associated with them?

Transform

A metamorphic rock can be metamorphosed to form a new metamorphic rock.

True

A stream's discharge is the amount of water that passes a certain point in a given time.

True

An oxbow lake forms when a stream meander is cut off from the main channel.

True

Banded iron formation (BIF) occurred during a time in Earth's history when the oceans were filled with dissolved iron and photosynthetic cyanobacteria were pumping out oxygen as a waste product in shallow water.

True

Emergent coasts form where the local sea level falls relative to land level. Submergent coasts form when local sea level rises relative to land level

True

Flooding occurs when water escapes the stream channel.

True

Fossils include both body fossils (like bones) and trace fossils (like footprints).

True

Gasoline has lower viscosity than tar.

True

In geology, a fault is a fracture in the crust along which movement happens.

True

Limestone is composed of carbonate minerals, which dissolve when exposed to acid, releasing bubbles.

True

Of the four main styles of mass wasting, rock falls release the most energy in the smallest amount of time, all else being equal. The other three styles can be equally or more deadly and destructive, but tend not to release energy as explosively as rock falls.

True

Rock glaciers form in cold environments.

True

Slumps are defined by their rotational movement while slides are defined by their translational movement.

True

The epicenter is the point on the surface of the Earth directly above the focus of the earthquake.

True

Thermohaline circulation causes vertical mixing of the ocean waters.

True