GEOL Quizzes

The changing colors in the video illustrating the seasons, shown at about 23 minutes into the film, shows ______________

'the breath of the forests' - forests absorbing CO2

Wegner's hypothesis of Continental Drift is based upon evidence from:__________.

-The shape of the coast of the continents - that often seem as though they can fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle -Identical fossils that are found on opposite sides of an ocean basin -Glacial deposits of the same age that suggested that continents were once joined together

Which statement is true? Liquefaction:

-can affect sand layers below ground surface and cause them to erupt as sand volcanoes or sand boils. -can cause clay-rich sediment to turn into an unstable slurry of clay and water. -is the sudden loss of strength of some soils that happens because of earthquake shaking. -caused great damage in the Alaska quake of 1964

Rock may melt by ________.

-increasing its water content -raising its temperature -lowering the pressure on it

Lava of low viscosity:

-is probably basalt. -would likely build a shield cone. -has low silica content. -indicates an area has little potential for explosive eruptions.

Rhyolite lava:

-may form a lava dome above the vent. -has more silica than basalt lava does. -indicates the tendency for explosive activity.

The largest earthquakes seen on Earth are:

Megathrust earthquakes in subduction zones, because they form long faults that have a large rupture area due to the dipping geometry of the boundary between the subducting and overriding plate.

On 8 May 1902, a massive eruption of ________ killed 30,000 people in the town of St. Pierre.

Mont Pelée, Martinique,

A genuine success story of advance warning before a large eruption occurred in the Philippines in 1991 before the climactic eruption of ________.

Mt. Pinatubo

Which type of crust is more dense and what is the importance of that density? (hint, read the whole answer before selecting)

Oceanic crust is more dense and that means it is less buoyant than continental crust.

Which building would be more likely to survive a large earthquake?

One with a foundation built on an exposure of granite bedrock.

Which type of volcanic rock below has the highest silica (SiO2) content?

Rhyolite

According to the "elastic rebound theory" of earthquake generation:

Rock bends elastically before breaking; the sudden break and/or frictional sliding causes earthquakes.

Distance to an earthquake is typically determined using

S wave arrival time - P wave arrival time

The seismic moment is calculated by multiplying all but which of the following quantities together?

The Modified Mercalli Intensity at the epicenter

What is the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ)?

The subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate underneath the North American plate

An isotope's half-life is equal to the time it takes ________.

half of the parent atoms to decay into daughter atoms

The best course of action to take if you suspect a tsunami is headed your way is to ________.

head to higher ground and stay there

Tsunami heights __________ as the depth of water becomes more shallow.

increase

Temperature in the Earth generally ____________.

increases with greater depth beneath its surface

When magma crystallizes slowly, _____ are formed.

intrusive (plutonic) igneous rocks

A glowing cloud of hot gases, ash, and volcanic pieces:

is called a pyroclastic flow

The great 1960 Chile earthquake (M 9.5) unleashed a tsunami that killed over 1,000 Chileans. These waves also killed 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii, 14 hours after the earthquake, and another 185 people in ________, 22.5 hours after the earthquake.

japan

Why are the dangers of earthquakes in the New Madrid, Missouri region severe?

lack of preparation

Which type of volcano results from high viscosity, low volatiles, and small volume? (sorry - on an earlier version of this question there was a typo)

lava dome

Seismic S-waves travel ______ than P-waves; however, unlike P-waves, they ____ travel through liquids.

more slowly; cannot

The law of ________ explains that sediments (such as sand, gravel, and mud) are originally deposited or settled out of water in horizontal layers.

original horizontality

Match the type of plate boundary with its stress state and typical type of faulting.

1. mid-ocean ridge = extensional, normal faulting 2. subduction/collision zone = compressional, reverse/thrust faulting 3. transform = shear stress, strike-slip faulting

Match each region with its average age relative to the other.

1. mid-ocean ridge = youngest bc plate is being created 2. oceanic = older &. is eventually consumed in subduction zone 3. continent = oldest bc it is buoyant and sticks around for long time

Matching: types of forces that go with each fault

1. normal fault = tension. (pulling) 2. reverse fault = compression (pushing) 3. strike-slip fault: shear (sliding)

Calculate the speed of a tsunami wave with period of 20 minutes and wavelength of 200 km.

10 kilometers per minute

There was a very large glacier over Manhattan (New York City) almost _____ years ago.

20000

The deadliest (most human fatalities) natural disaster globally since 2000 was _____________. (note to students: the 2010 Haiti earthquake is not listed below because the death toll estimates range widely depending on source of information)

2004 Indian ocean earthquake and tsunami

A rock formed with 3600 atoms of a radioactive parent element, and today contains 3150 atoms of daughter product. If the half-life of the radioactive element is one million years, how old is the rock? (hint, how many atoms of the parent atom are left today?)

3 million years

The Earth is about __________ years old.

4.5 billion years

Using gas bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice, researchers can measure CO2 concentration of the atmosphere up to ___________________ years ago

800000

The most expensive natural disaster in Colorado history was ________________________.

A hailstorm in 2017

What is a stratovolcano?

A steep-sided volcano composed of alternating layers of lava and pyroclastics

Which of the following is not a divergent margin?

Aleutian Island Arc

If the interval between the P-wave arrival from an earthquake to the arrival of the S-Wave at seismometer A is 14 seconds, at seismometer B is 10 seconds, at seismometer C is 18 seconds and at seismometer D is 9 seconds, the order of the seismometers from closest to the earthquake epicenter to farthest from the epicenter is:

D,B,A,C

Nuclear explosions can be distinguished from earthquakes by all but which one the following? (read the whole answer carefully!)

Depth - nuclear explosions occur at greater depths than earthquakes

Which of the following plate boundaries hosts lots of volcanoes that erupt mainly basalt?

Divergent boundary

During an earthquake, it is best to:

Duck, cover, and hold on.

Which is the correct order from fastest to slowest?

EM waves (telecommunication), seismic P waves, seismic Surface waves, tsunami waves

Which of the following statements about earthquake early warning is false?

Earthquake early warning uses the fact that seismic surface waves are faster than the speed of telecommunication (communication systems).

The most expensive natural disaster in US history was __________.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005

Which statement about the distribution of earthquakes at convergent plate boundaries is correct?

Hypocenters occur in a Wadati-Benioff zone, down to a depth of about 670 km below the surface.

Which of the following was NOT used by 20th-century scientists to determine/confirm when the last major Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake occurred?

Journal entries from American explorers who wrote details of the earthquake as it occurred.

What is an inundation zone?

Land area that is at risk of being inundated (flooded) by tsunami

Which of the following statements is true regarding tsunami and volcanoes?

Volcanic eruptions can result in tsunami as they explode, collapse, or send debris into the water.

Mt. St. Helens killed a geologist studying the volcano because ____________.

a landslide produced a lateral blast of volcaniclastic debris that no one anticipated

The San Andreas fault accommodates motion between the North American plate and the Pacific plate with the Pacific plate slipping between about 20 and 40 millimeters per year northward compared to the North American plate. Therefore the San Andreas is __________________ .

a right-lateral strike-slip fault

What is the "Ring of Fire"?

a series of subduction zones around the edge of the Pacific basin

A lahar is:

a volcanic mud and debris flow that resembles fluid concrete.

Slow flowing, more viscous basaltic lava commonly has a rough, blocky texture called ________.

aa

A rock smashed into many pieces by a scientist using a hammer is undergoing ________ deformation

brittle

The three types of plate boundaries are

convergent, divergent, transform

The ________ is measured in cross-sectional view as the angle of inclination from horizontal of a tilted rock layer, and ________ is viewed in map view as the compass bearing of the rock layer where it intersects a horizontal plane.

dip; strike

Magma at oceanic spreading centers is low-temperature, high-viscosity, and granitic, with easy escape of gases, providing all the factors that promote the peaceful eruption of magma.

false

The concept that actions of people can somehow cause or "induce" seismicity is only a myth.

false

The higher the viscosity of magma, the more fluid is its behavior.

false

To avoid damage from earthquakes, engineers design buildings with resonance periods that match the period of seismic waves.

false

In 1964, 12 people were killed during a tsunami at Crescent City, California. All of these fatalities were caused by the _______ wave, which was the highest in the series.

fifth

Several geologic phenomena are being studied as signs of an impending volcanic eruption. These include seismic waves, ________, and the release of gases.

ground deformation

As a clam's shell grows, it incorporates oxygen from water into the shell material, forming annual rings like a tree. Oxygen comes in different forms - Oxygen-16 and Oxygen-18. The colder the water, the more _______ is incorporated into the shell. This information can be used to tell what the temperature was when each layer formed

oxygen-18

The ________ wave travels fastest and moves in a push-pull fashion of alternating pulses of compression (push) and extension (pull).

p

The average time between successive earthquake events along a given fault is called a:

recurrence interval.

As radioactive atoms decay, heat energy is ________.

released

Select the false statement. The Doppler effect:

says the pitch of a sound will get higher (higher frequency) if the source is receding (moving away from you).

Detailed mapping of the ocean bottom around the Hawaiian Islands revealed a previously unrecognized tsunami source. What did geologists discover on the seafloor in this area?

slumps and debris avalanches formed by volcanic flank collapse

Most of the interior is the Earth is ___________.

solid

________ are steep-sided, symmetrical volcanic peaks built of alternating layers of pyroclastic debris capped by high-viscosity andesitic to rhyolitic lava flows that solidify to form protective caps.

stratovolcanoes

The Richter scale is set up so that for every ________ increase in the amplitude of the recorded seismic wave, the Richter magnitude increases one number, e.g., from 4 to 5.

ten-fold

What is a subduction zone?

the convergence of an oceanic plate with either a continental plate or another oceanic plate, where one slides underneath the other

A lithospheric plate consists of:

the crust and the uppermost part of the mantle.

Active volcanoes today in Oregon and Washington, including Mt. St. Helens, result from ________.

the subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate beneath North America

Our solar system formed ________.

through collisions of matter within a rotating cloud of gas, ice, dust, and other solid debris

Analysis of a seismogram record allows seismologists to do all but which of the following?

to develop a Modified Mercalli Intensity map

A single tectonic plate can include BOTH oceanic and continental lithosphere.

true

In general, there is an inverse correlation between the frequency (how often it occurs) and the magnitude (size) of a disaster process.

true

Shallow (depth < 15 km) earthquakes occur at every type of plate boundary.

true

The fossils seen at Ashfall, Nebraska, perished as result of an eruption of Yellowstone some 1500km (931mi) away.

true

The locations of the worst dollar-loss disasters for the insurance industry are not necessarily the same as the list of worst disasters in terms of fatalities.

true

The primary reason magma forms at subduction zones is that the subducting plate carries a cover of sediments, water, and hydrated minerals down with it, which lowers the temperature required for the adjacent overlying mantle lithospheric rock to melt.

true

The captain of a ship tells you that they once experienced a huge tsunami while sailing in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles from any landmass. You decide that this sounds a little far-fetched because ________.

tsunami are rarely felt in deep water because they have long wavelengths and low heights

A rock with only 25% of the parent isotope left has been decaying for time equal to ________ half-lives.

two

The phrase "The present is the key to the past" is associated with ________________________.

uniformitarianism

Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the New Yorker article "The Really Big One" as a potential catastrophic consequence of the next Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake?

volcanic eruption

Adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere traps more heat, and ___________________ the planet.

warms

A shield volcano has a greater ________.

width compared to its height

Do the ice core records of CO2 match the Keeling Curve record for the time they overlap?

yes