geology final exam
Humans have been on Earth for what percentage of Earth's history
1%
The lithosphere is approximately ______ kilometers thick.
50-100
Continental crust beneath mountains can be up to ___ kilometers thick
70
Living organisms have been on Earth for what percentage of Earth's history
80%
Volcanoes are caused by
D) Both A & B
True or False? S waves have a shadow zone because they cannot pass through certain layers of the Earth's interior.
True
the oceanic crust is most like
basalt
Most of our understanding of the Earth's interior has come from
earthquake/ seismic waves
The lithosphere contains ...?
the crust and the upper mantle.
Approximately how deep (below sea level) are deep-sea trenches?
10 km
who is the father of geology
James Hutton
volcanism is associated with which of the following types of plate boundaries?
convergent and divergent
In general, igneous rocks:
form at high temperatures, high and low pressures, and by crystallization of solids from a liquid
According to the principle of uniformatarianism
geologic processes we observe today have operated in the past
According to Bowen's reaction series, which of the following pairs of phases are likely to be incompatible?
quartz and olivine
What drives the Earth's internal heat engine?
radioactivity
After melting of a continental ice cap, the surface of the continent will tend to
rise
Approximately how long ago did the Big Bang take place?
10-15 billion years ago
The Earth's lithosphere is broken into approximately ______ large, rigid plates
12
What is the probability of a 50-year flood occurring next year?
2%
the age of the Earth is currently thought to be
4.5 bil yrs old
How thick is the crust of the Earth?
40 km
Which of the following statements about the asthenosphere is false?
B) The asthenosphere is stronger than the lithosphere.
What type of material is most likely to be transported as suspended load
D) all of the above
The Earth has had a magnetic field for __________.
D) for over 4 billion years
On what type of faults do earthquakes occur
D- all of these
Relative dating
Determination by one of several means of whether a particular rock unit is older or younger than another rock unit
Absolute dating
Determination, by one of several means, of the actual age of a rock, i.e. how many years since its formation?
The cause of the Pleistocene glaciation relates back to _____________.
E- both A&B
True or False? Earth materials always trace the complete rock cycle from sediment through igneous rocks.
False
True or False? The terms crust and lithosphere are synonymous
False
True or False? The terms mantle and asthenosphere are synonymous.
False
Principle of cross-cutting relations
If one geological feature (rock unit or structure) is cut by another, the one that has been cut must be older
Mount St. Helen's. a part of the Cascade Range of volcanoes, result from the subduction of which plate?
Juan de Fuca
Which of the planets is not geologically active?
Mercury
Strike-slip fault
Motion is in horizontal direction, with direction of motion along the strike of the fault plane
Which of the following major earthquakes did not occur at a plate boundary?
New Madrid Missouri 1812
The recent ice ages occurred during the ______ Epoch
Pleistocene
What type of faulting would be most likely to occur along the mid-Atlantic ridge?
Reverse faulting
Folds
Rock units that are bent by tectonic forces
Approximately how fast does an Earth lithospheric plate move?
a few cm per year
The heat that caused melting in the Earth's early history was supplied from which of the following events or causes
a large impact event and radioactivity
Minerals
are crystallized solids
what involves transfer of heat by the physical movement of the material
convection
The Andes Mountains of South America are a result of which type of plate boundary?
convergent
Due to the Coriolis effect, low pressure systems in the northern hemisphere spin ___________ and in the southern hemisphere they spin ___________.
counter clockwise... clockwise
The process by which an originally homogeneous Earth divided up into layers with a dense core and a light crust is called
differentiation
Features useful in defining plate boundaries include
distribution of volcanoes, earthquakes and mountain ranges
the continental crust is most like
granite
Which of the following combinations make for the best groundwater reservoir?
high permeability and high porosity
the asthenosphere is
hot and weak
Which of the following statements about convection is true?
hot material flows upward and displaces cool material
The outer planets are composed mostly of ?
hydrogen and helium
What are the two most abundant elements in nebula (gas clouds) in the universe?
hydrogen and helium
Which of the following statements regarding floods is true
if there is a 20% probability of a flood of a certain height occurring in any one year it is called a 5-year flood
Where would you expect to find the largest crystals in a lava flow
in the center of a flow
The layer that separates crust from core is the?
mantle
When did geologists develop the theory of plate tectonics
mid 1960s
New seafloor is created at a
mid-ocean ridge
Which of the following features is not associated with a convergent plate boundary
mid-ocean ridge
Which of the following is not one of the four inner planets
neptune
Is the crust static and stable?
no
In the tropical zones of the Earth between 0º N and 30º N latitude, the prevailing winds come from the
northeast
Under intense pressure and high temperature, hydrogen atoms combine to form helium. This process is called:
nuclear fusion
Which of the following rock types could be the "parent" of a metamorphic rock
sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic
The principal of original horizontality states that
sediments are deposited as essentially horizontal layers
The descent of oceanic lithosphere into the mantle is the process of
subduction
Strike
the trend or compass orientation (direction) of a layer of rock
