GEOL 117
Waves begin to break when their wave steepness, defined as the ratio between height height to wave length is greater than ______.
1/7
The average height of mid-ocean ridges compared with the surrounding abyssal plains is _____ km.
2.5
Sir Edward Bullard and colleagues pieced together the continents (as seen in Figure 2.3) using the true edge of the ocean basins based on a rock depth of ______ meters.
2000
Earth's axis of rotation is tilted at an angle of ________.
23.5
The first person to advance the idea of mobile continents or continental drift was:
Alfred Wegener
Which of the following is an example of the embryonic stage of the Wilson Cycle?
East Africa
The first person we are aware of who determined the circumference of the Earth using trigonometry and the angle of sunlight at Alexandria, Egypt, was:
Eratosthenes
Which of the following Vikings is credited with discovering Greenland?
Erik Thorvaldson
True or False? Convergent subduction zones are relatively safe places to live to the overall absence of dangerous earthquakes and volcanoes.
False
True or False? Hot spots are associated with plate boundaries.
False
Which of the following fossils was used as data to help reconstruct Pangea because it was a reptile found in South America and Africa?
Mesosauras
A vast majority of all large tsunami are generated in the ________ Ocean.
Pacific
Deep-ocean trenches and volcanic arcs result from the collision of two plates at convergent plate boundaries and mostly occur along the margins of which of the following ocean?
Pacific Ocean
Which of the following was true about the Protoearth?
Protoearth's deep structure was homogeneous
The method of determining latitude in the Northern Hemisphere by measuring the angle between an observer's line of site to the North Star and line of site to the northern horizon was developed by:
Pytheas
The strength of a hurricane is ranked from 1 to 5 on the:
Saffir-Simpson scale
How deep is the Mariana Trench (the deepest part of the ocean) compared to Mount Everest (the tallest mountain on Earth)?
The Mariana Trench is thousands of meters deeper than Mount Everest is tall
How do the physical properties of the asthenosphere differ from the lithosphere?
The asthenosphere is plastic or malleable and capable of slow flow. The lithosphere is a brittle and rigid solid region comprised of mostly basalt and granite
True or False? 300 million year old glacial deposits, found in areas that now experience warmer, tropical climates suggests that these continents were once located much closer to one of the poles.
True
True or False? It is estimated that Jupiter's icy moon Europa contains a hidden ocean of liquid water under its icy surface layer.
True
True or False? The present day Appalachian Mountain range was once, about 300 million years ago, part of a single mountain range that extended across a large area of connected landmasses.
True
True or false? The Phoenicians sea voyages took them as far north as the British Isles?
True
Radioactive materials can sometimes be used to determine the:
age of rocks
The nebular hypothesis suggests that:
all bodies in the solar system formed from an enormous gas cloud
Where are internal waves most likely to form?
along areas of rapidly changing density, such as a pycnocline
Earth's atmosphere became oxygen rich about 2.45 ________ years ago.
billion
Judge the following sentence according to the criteria given below: Board surfers tend to avoid plunging breakers BECAUSE they break right at the shoreline.
both the assertion and the reason are correct
Characteristics of passive continental margins include which of the following?
broad continental shelves
The first wave that forms when the wind begins to blow across the ocean surface is a:
capillary wave
Which of the following is a 'greenhouse gas' that composes less than 1% of the atmosphere?
carbon dioxide
The principal constituents of Earth's early atmosphere most likely included:
carbon dioxide, water vapor, ammonia, and methane
A high-pressure system in the northern hemisphere will rotate in a _________ direction.
clockwise
The three principal ocean provinces are:
continental margins, deep-ocean basins, and mid-ocean ridges
Directly seaward of the continental shelf is a more steeply sloping region called the:
continental slope
The Pacific Ocean is an example of the ______ stage of the Wilson Cycle.
declining
In the troposphere, air temperatures generally:
decrease with increasing altitude above Earth's surface
All continents fit together with the least number of overlaps and gaps when the continents are matched along ________.
edges at around 2000 meters depth
True or False? Echo soundings yield the most reliable and accurate bathymetric maps of the ocean seafloor.
false
True or False? Hydrothermal vents found along mid-ocean ridges cannot host life due to the extreme temperature and pressure regimes and absence of light.
false
True or False? Side-scan sonar is able to image directly below the instrument.
false
True or False? Snow has a lower albedo than a tree canopy.
false
True or False? The arctic is becoming dominated by older, thicker ice as a result of climate change?
false
True or false? Tsunamis travel very slowly in the open ocean.
false
Which of the following caused the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004?
fault movement
Which of the following caused the tsunami that killed 159 people in 1946 in Hawaii?
fault movement and the associated 7.3 magnitude earthquake in the distant Aluetian Trench, Alaska
The height of a wave depends upon:
fetch, wind duration, and wind speed
Coral reefs that initially develop along the margin of an island or continent where environmental conditions are suitable are called:
fringing coral reefs, or fringing reefs
The study of the structure of the sea floor and how the sea floor has changed through time is an example of ________ oceanography.
geological
The intensity of solar radiation received at lower latitudes (near the equator) compared to higher latitudes (near the poles) is:
greater
The direction of motion along a seafloor transform fault is:
in the same direction the plates are spreading
Coral reefs ___________.
include atolls, barrier, and fringing reefs
The doldrums refer to the same region as the:
inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ)
The strength of a hurricane stems from water's:
latent heat of condensation
The Atlantic Ocean is an example of the _______ stage of the Wilson Cycle.
mature
What piece of evidence supports Wegener's hypothesis of continental drift?
modern-day species that evolved in isolation share a common ancester
When the sun is lower in the sky, closer to the horizon _____ solar energy is reflected off of large bodies of water.
more
What are the major steps involved in the scientific method?
observation, hypothesis, testing, and theory
Stanley Miller and Harold Urey's famous experiment demonstrated that __________.
organic molecules could be produced from the mixture of gases comprising Earth's early atmosphere
With respect to mid-ocean ridges, transform faults are:
perpendicular to the ridge axis
Identify the major feature of a slow-spreading mid-ocean ridge.
rift valley
Measurement of ocean floor bathymetry from satellites relies on ___________. Select only one answer.
sea surface elevation, which varies depending on the shape of the underlying sea floor
A tsunami is considered to be a:
shallow water wave
Which of the following is the correct order of formation of sea ice as it forms directly from seawater?
slush, pancake ice, ice floes, sea ice
The Sun reaches its most northerly point in the sky, directly overhead along the Tropic of Cancer, during the:
summer solstice
What are the beach slope and energy characteristics of surging breakers?
surging breakers occur where the ocean bottom has an abrupt slope change. this results in wave energy being compressed in a shorter distance
Which of the following is the predominant process that forms the thick blanket of sediment on abyssal plains the deep-ocean floor?
suspension settling
The Himalaya Mountains are an example of the ________ stage of the Wilson Cycle.
suturing
During the Northern Hemisphere summer solstice, __________.
the antarctic circle experiences no direct sunlight
Judge the following sentence according to the criteria given below: In 1900, at least 6000 people in and around Galveston, Texas, were killed in the most deadly natural disaster in the US history BECAUSE the hurricane's storm surge completely submerged the island.
the assertion and the reason are both correct, and the reason is valid
Judge the following sentence according to the criteria given below: Different hemispheres on Earth are tilted more directly toward or away from the Sun during Earth's yearly orbit BECAUSE Earth revolves around the Sun in an elliptical orbit that varies from a perfect circle.
the assertion and the reason are both correct, but the reason is invalid
Which hypothesis best explains the continuous bend in the Hawaiian Islands-Emperor Seamount chain?
the direction of plate motion shifted over time over a stationary mantle plume (hot spot)
The fetch refers to:
the distance over which the wind blows without interruption
How are the materials that make up Earth's interior stratified in relation to their densities?
the highest density materials are concentrated in Earth's core, while lower density materials are located closer to Earth's surface
Alfred Wegener's continental drift hypothesis received much hostile criticism and ridicule from the scientific community because of which of the following?
the mechanism he proposed for the movement of the continents
What disturbing force is responsible for producing the majority of tsunami?
the uplift or downdrop of a tectonic plate
Which of the following powers tropical cyclones?
the vast amounts of latent heat as water evaporates and condenses
Which statement best describes the origin of Earth's oceans?
the water that fills our oceans was mostly derived from outgassing, with a minor component coming from ice comets
A tropical cyclone with a wind speed of 190 km/hr. would be classified as Category ________ on the Saffir-Simpson Scale of hurricane intensity.
three
The wind belt(s) with strong, reliable, generally easterly winds is (are) the:
trade winds
Which of the following climatic regions exists at the following location: Latitude: 20°N Longitude: 180°W? Note - you may need to reference your text.
tropical
True or False? Sound traveling through a medium such as air is an example of a longitudinal wave.
true
Which of the following best describes turbidity currents?
underwater avalanches of muddy water mixed with rocks and other debris
The Coriolis effect is due to changes in the ________ of Earth with latitude.
velocity
Seamounts and abyssal hills are ________ in origin.
volcanic
Which of the following parcels of air would have the lowest density?
warm moist air
The air in the centermost of the eye of the hurricane is ________ air moving ________.
warm moist;upward
The depth below the surface where the circular orbits become so small that movement is negligible is called the ________.
wave base
The vertical distance between a wave crest and a wave trough is called the ________.
wave height
The time it takes one full wave to pass a fixed position is called the ________.
wave period
The ratio of wave height to wavelength is called the ________.
wave steepness
In deep-water waves the water depth is greater than the ________ divided by two.
wavelength
In shallow-water waves the water depth is less than the ________ divided by twenty.
wavelength
The longer the ________, the faster a deep-water wave travels.
wavelength
The circular motion of water molecules extends to a depth that is equal to:
wavelength/2
Waves usually arrive nearly parallel to the shore because ____________________________.
waves are refracted toward shallow water
The largest wind-generated waves tend to be associated with the:
westerlies
The majority of the world's tropical cyclones are formed in the waters north of the equator in the ________ Ocean.
western Pacific
A tropical maritime air mass is likely to be:
wet and warm
Rogue waves tend to occur:
where storm waves move against strong surface currents
What is the major mechanism by which ocean surface waves are generated?
wind blowing across the surface of the ocean is the major mechanism that generates most ocean surface waves
