Geology 107

Assume that you live in an area that just experience 100 year flood what is the probability of a flood of the same size happening next year?

1%

Send added to beaches as part of beach replenishment projects typically lasts

1-5 years

Fossil fuels represents ~___% of us energy consumption

85-90

The epa-mandated maximum level for selenium in surface water is 4.6 Ppb. This value is an example of

A concentration

What major environmental concern is associated with the mineral pyrite?

Acid mine drainage

Evidence supporting the theory of PLATE TECTONICS includes...

All of the above

What was the Colorado river compact?

An agreement that allocated the annual flow of the Colorado river in the western U.S

Ground water represents

Ancient rain water

A drainage basin is the

Area over which A river collects water and sediment and is surrounded by topographic divides

Hurricanes most commonly strike the

Atlantic coast Pacific coast

Which of the following is the most dangerous form of asbestos?

Blue asbestos

Which of the following statements concerning hydro compaction is true?

Broad depressions that look like sinkholes can form as silty soil is compacted upon wetting

The mt. Pinatubo eruption of 1991

Caused relatively few deaths due to evacuations of the area

All of the following are types of earthquake precursors except

Changes in air temperature

Which of the following is an unforeseen consequence of building dams artificial levees and the old river control structure in Louisiana?

Coastal land loss

At convergent plate boundaries, oceanic crust is subducted beneath continental crust because...

Continental crust is less dense than oceanic crust

Biological soil crust

Cover much of the land on the Colorado Plateau

The slow downhill movement of soil is referred to as

Creep

The town of Ouray has had many problems in the past with

Debris flows

Besides active faulting, how else can earthquakes occur?

Deep waste-water injection

Which of the following is not true concerning deltas?

Deltas are rarely affected by human activities

Flash flooding is common along

Drainages of Colorado National Monument

Rockfalls in Western Colorado or likely to occur

During the winter when it's freezing at night and warm during the day

What are some possible precursors to a major volcanic eruption

Earthquakes, small steam eruptions, formation of a sticky magma lava dome. All of the above.

Assume that Lake Erie is contaminated with PCB's. Which of the following is most hazardous to your health in terms of PCB's?

Eating fish from Lake Erie

Which of the following environmental problems could have the largest impact on global warming

Emissions of CO2

Which of the following would lower the potentiometric surface of a confined aquifer?

Excessive ground water pumping Constructing asphalt parking lots in the recharge area

Basalt lava flows in grand Mesa reflect a very violent period of caldera forming volcanic activity in colorado

False

During the 1993 floods most of the levees along the Mississippi river held

False

Earthquakes have never occurred in Colorado

False

People cannot be harmed by radon levels as low as 2p/l. True or false?

False

The 2013 Boulder, County floods were the most deadly in Colorado history and similar size floods have never occurred previously in Colorado

False

The May 2014 collbran/west salt creek slide near grand Mesa was caused by fracking

False

The Mississippi river never had a significant flood until 1993

False

The ring of fire is made up of huge shield volcanoes such as Mauna Loa

False

Volcanic hazards are a major concern in Colorado today

False

Calderas

Form as a result of collapse during catastrophic volcanic eruptions

Hurricanes

Form in the Atlantic Ocean Have a counter clockwise motion Have wind speed greater than 74 mph

Base flow in a river is controlled by

Ground water

The largest source of liquid freshwater on earth is

Ground water

Sedimentary basins contain

Ground water Oil Has All of the above

Karst subsidence, where the bedrock is dissolving is often associated with

Gypsum and limestone

One of the biggest disadvantages of geothermal energy is that it

Has a limited distribution

The high plains aquifer (a.k.a the agallala aquifer)

Has shown evidence of historic declines in water levels

A critical problem with Alfred Wagner's theory of continental drift was that...

He lacked a mechanism to explain how the continents moved through the oceans

Which of the following is not a problem with the use of nuclear power?

High emission of gasses such as carbon dioxide

Most violent volcanic eruption's are associated with

High viscosity, high gas content magma

Long-term earthquake forecasting involves analysis of

Historic earthquake records and prehistoric earthquake records

Lakes on the grand Mesa have formed primarily due to

Huge landslides

Ground water "mining" can cause all of the following except

Hydroelectric power

Which of the following renewable energy sources produces the most energy in the U.S?

Hydropower

Collapsible soils are common

In dry climates were soils are under compacted

Which of the following is generally not a potential problem related to dams

Increased water storage capacity

U.S. oil production is _______ and oil imports are ______

Increasing , decreasing

Evidence for global warming includes all of the following except

Increasing concentrations of SO2 in the atmosphere

Biological soil crust are important because they

Inhabit soil erosion Help retain soil moisture Provide key soil nutrients such as nitrogen

Which of the following lead to waters with high salinities

Intensive irrigation in places such as the grand valley Abundant marine shakes such as the mancos

Which of the following statements concerning Mount Saint Helens is true?

Irruption in 1980 was expected mt. St. Helens has a long history of eruptions

Oil shale in western Colorado...

Is a deposit formed in ancient lakes that once covered portions of CO, UT, and WY

Why is mt. Rainier especially susceptible to lahars?

Is is capped by snow and ice. It is a large stratovolcano

The Seattle area is prone to large earthquakes because

It is next to mt. Rainier

Asbestos is controversial because

It is widespread but not all forms are equally dangerous and it's expensive to remove

Problems associated with selenium include

It's disruption of aquatic bird and fish reproduction

Earthquake activity in your Salt Lake City is related to

It's location near the Wasatch fault system (basin and range)

To minimize potential problems with expansive clays it would be best to

Keep the area around a house dry

Which of the following geologic features are typically associated with convergent plate boundaries?

Large areas of rock uplift and mountain building

Sedimentary basin are

Large depressions filled with very thick quantities of sediments

In Colorado, the largest earthquake that could probably occur is about M7.5. this estimate is based on the fact that the potential magnitude of an earthquake is proportional to the

Length of the fault

Biological soil crust consists of

Lichen, mosses and cyanobacteria

The "plates" of tectonics are represented by the

Lithosphere

Erosion downstream of a groin or Jody along the coast is associated with ______ currents

Longshore

The Redlands bluff slide occurs in an area underlain by

Mancos shale

One of the main goals of the Colorado river controlled floods is to

Mimic the effects of large spring floods on the Colorado river

S waves

Move from side to side

Where do most explosive volcanic eruptions occur?

Near subduction zones

The largest earthquake that we know about in the lower 48 states of the US occurred in

New Madrid

Which energy source produces the most electricity in the U.S and globally that is not a fossil fuel?

Nuclear

Hypoxic waters in the Gulf of Mexico form seasonally due to

Nutrient loading

Alternative sources of "clean" energy include all of the following except

Oil shale

Which of the following is not true about coastal erosion?

Only 20% Of the US coast line is the eroding

Hypoxic waters have low amounts of

Oxygen

Storico records of earthquakes in the US show the regions with potential significant earthquake hazards includes

Parts of the Midwest such as the new Madrid seismic zone

Which of the following represents the most dangerous and swift moving volcanic hazards?

Pyroclastic flows

The first mining boom in the GJ area involved radium. Why was this element important?

Radium was used to help develop the first nuclear bomb in the Manhattan Project.

Which of the following are ways in which dams impact rivers?

Reduce floods Reduced transport of sediment

Attempts to decrease salinity and selenium in the Colorado river include efforts to

Replace dirt ditches with impermeable materials such as PVC pipe Minimize the amount of excess irrigation water so that there is less water to leach soils

Which of the following is a common source of sediment in coastal zones?

Rivers Sediment from the subaqueous beach Sediment from eroding coastlines

Which of the following is a natural geologic cause of land subsidence

Roof collapse of a cave

Of the following waves, which causes the most damage?

S waves

The petrochemical industry in coastal Louisiana has to create numerous artificial canals and waterways one problem with this activity is

Salt water intrusion into freshwater wetlands

The main reason that most of the coast lines of the world are you rooting is that

Sea level is rising

Which of the following is true concerning hard stabilization approaches to coastal erosion?

Sea walls result in the loss of recreational beaches

What key evidence was discovered in the 1960's that led to the modern concept of plate tectonics?

Seafloor spreading

Problems with constructing accurate flood frequency curves include

Short records of historic flow conditions The effects of human activities such as building dams on Rivers

Which of the following are key factors that at least partly determine whether or not a slope fail?

Slope angle, the mass of the slope material, the type of slope material

The most common natural hazards in Colorado are

Slope hazards

Expansive clays are made

Smectite

Natural causes of flooding in the grand Valley area include

Summer thunderstorms (monsoon rain)

One disadvantage of solar energy is

That it can require large amounts of land to produce large amounts of electricity

One of the most stunning consequences of water use on the Colorado river is that

The Colorado river no longer flows all the way to the ocean each year

Mt. Rainier threatens

The Seattle-Tacoma area

The most dangerous volcanoes in the US are found in

The cascade mountains

Coal represents

The compacted remains of plants and organic matter

Land loss of coastal Louisiana is occurring at a rate of approximately equal to

The football field every 90 minutes

Subsidence is

The lowering of the land surface

Earthquake epicenter is

The point on the earths surface that directly overlies the earthquake origin

Slow problems along River Bluff in the Redlands area all have the following in common

The presence of weak shale and a sharp bend in the Colorado river

The May 2014 Collbran/west salt creek slide near grand Mesa was caused in part by

The presence of week clay-rich shale beneath the basalt

In order to extract oil from oil shale, which of the following must take place?

The rock must be heated to high temperatures for a long time

The the saturated zone below the water table

The spaces between sand grains are filled with water

Selenium is common in our area because

There is a lot of mancos shale in western colorado

What do aquifers generally have in common?

They have high porosities and are permeable

How did water quality studies in lake siskiwit (Lake Superior region) later our understanding of water pollutant?

They suggested that many pollutants travel through the air

A relatively common hazard near Carbondale in Glenwood Springs is the formation of sinkholes

True

The 100 year flood plane of the Colorado River in the grand Valley is relatively well known because there's a long history of Fludd records

True

Yellowstone is a hot spot

True

Tsunamis are

Typically caused by earthquakes when the seafloor shifts

Which of the following elements played a critical role in the mining industry near Grand Junction?

Uranium

Which of the following is not a fossil fuel?

Uranium

Which of the following are techniques used to minimize rock fall hazards in Glenwood Canyon?

Use of rock bolts to strengthen rock faces. Pouring of concrete buttresses to support loose boulders Emplacement of wire fences to catch small rock debris All of the above

Flood frequency curve is generally

Used to determine the reoccurrence interval and years of flow such as the 100-year flood

The stability of slopes generally decreases as

Vegetation is removed and clay content of slope material increase

Aquicludes or confining beds are characterized by

Very low permeability

The majority of the selenium loaf in the Colorado river comes from

Western colorado

Assuming they were all located the same distance from the epicenter, which of the following types of geological materials would most likely liquefy during a major earthquake?

Wet mud

Which of the following is an advantage of using beach replenishment to slow down or stop coastal erosion?

You don't have to build any hard structures such as sea walls

Radon is

second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S.

A hydrograph shows

the change in a river's discharge over time