GEOG 1710 Exam 3
________threshold is the point at which there is enough energy to overcome resistance against movements.
Geomorphic
Which of the following plays a role in the shaping of Earth's surface?
Gravity; the action of wind,water,ice; and the radioactive decay of atoms
The youngest epoch in the geologic time scale is the?
Holocene
Volcanic activity located away from plate boundaries is associated with
Hot spots
The geologic cycle is composed of three subsystems:
Hydrologic, Rock, and Tectonic
Which of the following statements about Earth's core is not true?
The inner core is believed to be liquid and the outer core solid.
which of the following is true of the earthquake in the Liaoning Province of NE China on February 4, 1975?
The quake was successfully forecasted and 3 million people were evacuated
A hypsographic curve is a graph that shows the Earth's surface by area and elevation in relation to sea level
True
A residual "synclinal ridge" may form within a trough of a fold.
True
Depth of earthquake focus increases with distance from ocean trench
True
Earth was once in a molten state, during which materials became sorted based on density.
True
Ocean floor subjects under continents because the ocean floor is denser than continental materials.
True
Orogeny means mountain generating.
True
The Hawaiian Islands were formed as a result of a rising plume of magma from the mantle.
True
The Moho mirror the surface topography, i.e., high places on the surface of the Earth overlies areas in which the Moho descends to greater depths, and vice versa.
True
The age of the sea floor increases with increasing distance from a mid-ocean ridge.
True
The angle of response depends on the size and texture of the grains
True
The fluid outer core generates 90% of Earths magnetic field.
True
The magnetic stripes found around mid atlantic ridge were due to the magnetic reversal
True
The mean sea level is at 0m.
True
The pressure-release jointing is a physical weathering process that does not involve water
True
The salt crystal growth is primarily found in arid environments
True
Which of the following is an endogenic process?
Volcanism
Which of the following are located along the mid-ocean ridge?
Volcanoes
When rock strata are strained beyond their ability to remain an intact unit, displacement occurs in a process known as
faulting
The motion of seismic waves is initiated in a subsurface location where seismic waves are initiated is
focus, or hypocenter
On which part of a slope would rocks tend to fall at the highest speed?
free face
List three forms of physical weathering
frostaction, salt crystal, and pressure release
The decay rate is expressed as _____, the time required for one half of the unstable atoms in a sample to decay into "daughter" isotopes.
half-life
The transportation and deposition of materials by media powered by solar energy is the
hydrologic cycle
Approximately what percentage of Earth's surface is exposed above sea level?
29%
Convergent plates boundaries are characteristics of
Collision zones between plates
List four volcanic activity zones:
Continental rift valley, oceanic-continental plate convergent, oceanic-oceanic plate convergent, sea-floor spreading
The principle of buoyancy and balance, when applied to Earth's crust, helps us to explain fluctuations in Earth's outer crust, a property known as
Isostatic adjustment
Which of the following is true of the asthenosphere?
It contains pockets of increased heat; it flows; and it carries the lithospheric plates
The dynamic equilibrium model refers to
a balancing act between tectonic uplift and rates of denudation by weathering and erosion in a given landscape
Movement at the geomorphic threshold signals
a conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy
The area at the surface directly above the subsurface location where seismic waves are initiated is termed the
epicenter
Normal faults are associated with
tension forces
List two forms of landslides
transitional and rotational
A landslide differs from a debris avalanche in the
A landslide moves more slowly than a debris avalanche
Landslides occur when
A threshold is reached; the internal friction is overcome by the force of gravity; driving forces exceed resisting forces
There are two types of time, which are?
Absolute and Relative
After a threshold is crossed, the landscape
Adjust to a new equilibrium condition
List four Earth's continental shields
African , Australian, Baltic, and Indian
At which of the following locations does subduction occur?
Along collision zones between continental and oceanic plates
In 1912, German geophysicist and meteorologist, Alfred Wegener first proposed the ____________ hypothesis about the Earth's land mass migration.
Continental Drift
A _________, or heartland region, is an old and stable part of the continental crust.
Craton
List three types of plate boundaries
Divergent, Convergent, and transform
Since the core's mass is about one third of Earth's entire mass, the volume of the core is also of one third of the earth's entire volume.
False
The density of material below the Moho is less than that above it.
False
The moment magnitude scale is based on energy released and is less accurate than Richter's scale which is based on the amplitude of seismic waves.
False
The oceanic crust is less dense than the continental crust.
False
Which of the following can lead to hillslope failure?
Making a road cut in the side of a hill; increasing the slope angle; excessively watering a slope
Which layer of planet forms 80% of Earth's total volume, and has an average density of 4.5 g/cm3.
Mantle
People often say that California is going to "fall into the ocean". This idea is total wrong because the San Andreas fault would have to be a ________ fault associated with _________ forces for this to happen.
Normal; tension
List three types of ogresses:
Oceanic-oceanic collision, oceanic-continental collision, continental-continental collision
in reality, a landscape behaves as a ________ system
Open
Wegener used _______ to name a supercontinent approximately 225 million years ago.
Pangaea
When rock is broken and disintegrated without dissolving, the process in operation is
Physical weathering
Uplift of the landscape creates_____ energy which is converted to ________ energy when materials begin to move downslope.
Potential; Kinetic
Several large, linear lakes are formed in East Africa. This is evidence of what process?
Rifting
A continental ________is a region with a craton is exposed at the surface.
Shield
If you were paranoid of earthquakes, which of the following area would be the safest to live?
Shield
The San Andreas system in california is an example of a
Strike-slip fault;transform fault; right-lateral motions
When geologists or archaeologists dig downward into a unit of rock or sediment, they are digging "back in time". This fact is based on the principle of?
Superposition
Which of the following is not an example of an age-relationship based on absolute dating?
The Coconino formation in the Grand Canyon is older that the Kaibab formation
Uniformitarianism assumes that the same physical processes we see today are a key to understand the processes that have been operating throughout the geologic time.
True
A slope is stable if its strength exceeds the weathering and erosion process
Truth
Other than the rock itself, the most important chemical substance needed for the majority of weathering processes is
Water
Which of the following is an exogenic process?
Weathering
The most active tectonic regions of North and South America are on the
Western Coasts
Folded layers of rock can form a wavelike pattern of troughs and crests. The layers near the crest form
an anticline
Which of the following is an example of a first order of relief?
an ocean basin
The steepness of a slope made of loose material is called the
angle of response
Chemical weathering is greatest under conditions of
higher mean annual rainfall and temperature
In which climate would rock be weathered to the greatest depth?
hot and wet
Three basic rock types are_____(fire-formed,molten),______(from settling out), and________(transformed from any other rock through extreme heat or pressure).
igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic
Knowledge of Earth's interior is derived from?
indirect evidence involving the analysis of seismic waves
Earth's magnetic field
is variable, and it has phased to zero some nine times during the past 4 million years
Which of the following is true of spheroidal weathering?
it attacks the corners and edges of rocks
Which of the following is true of joints
joints enable more water to move through the ground; joints enhance the rate of weathering
An example of chemical weathering is
karst topography
Which of the following gives the correct sequence of layers in the mantle, from bottom to top?
mantle; upper mantle; asthenosphere
Exfoliation occurs because
overlaying rock is removed, thereby allowing the underlying rock mass to expand and fracture
Two most abundant chemical elements in Earth's crust are?
oxygen and silicon
Which of the following is incorrectly matched?
radioactive decay heat-exogenic energy source
In most areas, the upper surface of bedrock is partially weathered to broken-up rock called
regolith
Vertical elevation differences in a local landscape are referred to as
relief
List two types of scale to rate earthquakes
richter and moment magnitude
Human-induced mass movements produce a category of processes known as
scarification
Divergent plate boundaries are characteristics of
sea-floor spreading centers
An instrument used to record vibrations in the crust is
seismograph
Which of the following is incorrectly matched?
shearing---stretching
A slow persistent mass movement of surface soil is called
soil creep
The combination effects of _____(powered by internal energy) and_______(powered by the sun through motion of air,water and ice) create Earth's continental crust.
tectonic activity; Weathering and erosion
Heat energy and new materials are brought to the surface from the interior by the
tectonic cycle
Rocks are subjected to stress due to
tectonic forces; gravity, and pressure from underlaying rocks
List three types of stress
tension, compression, and shear
The rate at which rocks weathering depends on
the climate of an area, the type of rock, and the amount of vegetation in an area
The most detailed order to relief applies to ______ order relief features
third
The disintegration and dissolving of surface and subsurface rock is called
weathering
The Earth's dominant materials are?
Silicone and Iron
Physical weathering dominates in warm and wet climates
False
Radioactive dating only can be used to measure relative time.
False
The asthenosphere can be described as
plastic-like
The oceanic crust thickness is about ______ km, and the average continental crust thickness is ______ km.
5;30
List four evidences Wegener used to prove his hypothesis
Coastal line, fossils, rock types, and mountain belts
Which of the following gives the correct sequence of layers in the Earth, from the surface to the center?
crust, asthenosphere, lower mantle, core
All processes that cause reduction and rearrangement of landforms are included in the term of
denudation
Which of the following lists the correct sequence of divisions in the geologic time scale, from largest to smallest?
eon,era,period,epoch
The form that a landscape exhibits results from a balance between
forces acting on the landscape; endogenic and exogenic processes; input and outputs of matter and energy
Compared to oceanic crust, continental crust is
generally more complex on content and structure
The science that specifically studies the orgin, evolution, form, and spatial distribution of landforms is
geomorphology