Geology Chapter 11

A warm climate and high sea level throughout much of the ________ resulted in a shallow seaway in western North America extending from the Arctic south to what is now the Gulf of Mexico.

Cretaceous

The earliest forests containing woody trees appeared during the

Middle Paleozoic (Devonian).

The Earth became internally differentiated, with a metallic core distinct from the rocky mantle, during the

Hadean Eon.

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?

India

The Himalayas were produced during the Cenozoic by the collision of Southern Asia with

India.

Which of the following best describes the Hadean Eon of Earth's history?

It was a time between the formation of the Earth and the oldest rocks preserved in the rock record.

Which of the following is the correct abbreviation for "millions of years ago"?

Ma

The eon represented by abundant deposits of strata with shelly fossils is the

Phanerozoic.

The earliest known complex, multicellular life forms originated toward the end of the

Proterozoic Eon.

Collisions of continental crust blocks and fragments during the Proterozoic led to the formation of a single supercontinent called

Rodinia.

Oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere is derived from

photosynthesis.

The most recent interval of Neogene glaciation gave way to warmer, interglacial conditions ________ years ago.

11,000

The Phanerozoic Eon, with its widespread shelly fossils similar to groups of marine organisms living today, began in

541 Ma.

Convergence along the western margin of North America during the Cenozoic gave way to rifting forces that created the characteristic topography of the

Basin and Range Province.

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.

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?

C and E

The Alps, the Himalayas, the Cordillera, and the Andes are mountain belts that resulted from orogenic events during the

Cenozoic Era.

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

Chicxulub Crater—impact believed to have contributed to the 66Ma mass extinction.

The enigmatic fossils of multicellular organisms that arose during the end of the Proterozoic Eon are known as the _______ fauna.

Ediacaran

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?

North Africa

The Chicxulub crater is located on which continent?

North America

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

Ontario, Canada

At the end of the Paleozoic, nearly all continental land masses were joined together into a supercontinent called

Pangaea.

Which of the following is true of the Earth's glacial history?

There was a time called Snowball Earth when the Earth's surface was almost entirely covered in glacial ice.

The first mammals appeared during the ________ Period.

Triassic

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?

Young crust is found primarily along mid-ocean ridges.

The Canadian Shield is

a low-lying region in Canada and the northeast United States where Archean and Proterozoic rocks of the North American craton are exposed.

The cratonic platform of North America is

a low-lying region where Precambrian rocks are covered by Phanerozoic sedimentary strata.

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?

banded iron formation—evidence of the "great oxygenation event"

The Cambrian explosion not only produced an abundance of new animal species but also gave rise to the first shells, spines, and active swimmers. This suggests the important influence of ________ in driving animal evolution.

carnivorous predators

During the Carboniferous Period, much of Laurentia (the ancestral North American continent) lay near the equator and experienced very high rainfall, leading to widespread swamps with dense vegetation. As a result, rocks from the Carboniferous Period in eastern North America commonly contain

coal.

Stromatolites are layered structures produced by the activity of

cyanobacteria.

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

Which of the following provides evidence of past life and thus helps geologists understand how living things, and the environments in which they lived, changed throughout the Earth's history?

fossils

The fossil fish Tiktaalik made headlines in 2005 because it

represents a transitional form between lobe-finned fish and terrestrial vertebrates.

The generally accepted scientific theory for the origin of our Moon involves

impact between the Earth and a protoplanet during the Hadean.

The Late Heavy Bombardment at the end of the Hadean Eon was a time of

intense meteorite impacts.

During the Cenozoic Era, __________ rapidly diversified to fill the ecological niches left by the K-Pg mass extinction.

mammals

The deposition of banded iron formations during the Proterozoic Eon tells us that large amounts of iron settled out of the ________ as the result of rising atmospheric oxygen concentrations.

oceans

There is a record of marine sediment deposition extending back to 3.8 Ga. This means that ______ has/have also existed since that time.

oceans

Which gas found in today's atmosphere was absent during the Hadean and Archean Eons?

oxygen

The Great Oxygenation Event was a time in the middle Proterozoic when

oxygen began to accumulate as a gas in the atmosphere.

Chalk rock containing fossils of algae and tropical sea creatures is found in southern England and other locations in Europe. What does this tell us about the past environment of that region of the world?

that what is now dry land was once covered by a warm, shallow sea

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 Atlantic Ocean

An iridium-rich layer of clay, glass spherules, and shocked quartz grains strongly suggests that the K-T boundary extinctions were at least in part caused by

the impact of a bolide (meteoroid or comet).