Geology final exam miscellaneous review

How did our Solar System begin to form?

A large cloud of dust and gas began to contract under the force of gravity.

The asthenosphere is actually a part of the ________ of the Earth.

mantle

Secondary Waves (S Waves)

type of seismic body waves that are Slower and ONLY travel through SOLIDS.

Batholiths, such as those that make up the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, form at great depth in the crust. How could they have been exposed at the surface?

uplift and erosion

Which of the following is a characteristic of an S wave?

"shaking" particle motion at right angles to the direction of wave travel

The Colorado River has carved the Grand Canyon to a depth of __________ and length of __________.

1 mile; 277 miles

What has the average rate of spreading along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 20° S, 12° W been during the past 10 million years in centimeters per year?

1.9 cm/yr

Which of the following is the oldest oceanic crust?

180-280 m.y. at 37° N, 19° E

HMS Challenger

1872- 1876 First comprehensive survey of the world's oceans (except the Arctic)-> measured depth by sending a weighted rope overboard until it hit the bottom

What is the approximate range of ocean temperatures in the region of the North Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico in which tropical cyclones form?

24° to 29° C

When did our Solar System begin to form?

5 billion years ago

Which of the following locations shows signs of having spread the fastest during the period 60-70 m.y.a. (million years ago), and how many kilometers of new crust were formed during that period?

7° S, 77° E, 590 km measured north-south

What has the average rate of spreading in the Pacific at 20° S, 114° W been during the past 10 million years?

8.6 cm/yr

inner core

A dense sphere of solid iron and nickel at the center of Earth

coal

A fossil fuel that forms underground from partially decomposed plant material

Tsunami

A giant wave usually caused by an earthquake beneath the ocean floor.

Pahoehoe

A hot, fast-moving type of lava that hardens to form smooth, ropelike coils

outer core

A layer of molten iron and nickel that surrounds the inner core of Earth

Ring of Fire

A major belt of volcanoes that rims the Pacific Ocean

divergent boundary

A plate boundary where two plates move away from each other.

Which of the following statements about the rock cycle is correct?

A sedimentary rock subjected to intense heat and pressure will become a metamorphic rock

cinder cone volcano

A steep, cone-shaped hill or small mountain made of volcanic ash, cinders, and bombs piled up around a volcano's opening

terrain

An area of land; a region

How much more energy does a magnitude 7.0 earthquake release than does a magnitude 6.0 earthquake?

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 releases 32 times more energy than an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0.

Which of the following statements best describes Wegener's idea of continental drift?

Continents were formerly in different positions on the Earth and have shifted to their present locations over time.

Marina Trench

Deepest trench on earth

Alfred Waegner

Developed the Contnental Drift Theory.

correct description of dikes and sills.

Dikes are discordant igneous intrusions and sills are concordant igneous intrusions; both are tabular.

When the Tohoku earthquake occurred, as much as 30 meters of the Pacific plate was subducted westward under the Okhotsk plate, upon which sits the island nation of Japan. The crust of the Okhotsk plate directly west of the plate boundary bulged upward. In light of this, what is a possible explanation for the uplift indicated in red just west of the plate boundary?

During the earthquake, a large part of the Pacific plate was thrust under the Okhotsk plate. This both lifted and deformed the edge of the Okhotsk plate.

Discomformity

Exists where part of a sequence of parallel rock layers are missing. Can happen when sedimentation stops and layers get eroded away

What federal agency regulates the bottled water industry?

FDA

How was the fossil record of ancient life used to support Wegener's hypothesis about Pangaea?

Fossils of identical organisms were found on several continents, indicating the continents were once joined.

Intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks are classified based on what criteria?

How quickly the molten rock cools and crystallizes, and where this occurs with respect to Earth's surface

In North America, which of the following climate zones fall within areas that primarily average between 40 and 59 inches of precipitation annually or higher?

Humid subtropical, moist all year, hot summer (Cfa)

pillow lava

Lava that cools underwater, taking on a distinctive pillow-like shape as it hardens

Which of the following scenarios best describes how the Hawaiian Islands formed in the Pacific Ocean?

Magma generated from a hot spot burned through the overlying plate to create volcanoes.

Lava

Magma that reaches Earth's surface

Which of the following statements concerning plate tectonics on Earth and Mars is true?

Mars has larger volcanoes than Earth because plate motion is NOT present on Mars.

Which of Hawaii's five volcanoes are still considered to be active?

Mauna Loa, Kilauea

How do the products of the two categories of weathering differ from each other?

Mechanical weathering results in broken pieces that are of the same composition as the original material, whereas chemical weathering alters the composition of the material.

Why is Meteor Crater so well preserved?

Meteor Crater is relatively young.

For the rock mica schist, what does mica indicate, and what does schist indicate?

Mica refers to the rock's main composition (muscovite and biotite); schist refers to the rock's texture.

How do rocks differ from minerals?

Minerals aggregate to form rocks, but rocks do not aggregate to form minerals.

Magma

Molten rock beneath the earth's surface

In the Ethiopian Highlands of East Africa, the climate zone of humid subtropical winters and dry, hot-to-warm summers is primarily associated with which of the following biomes?

Montane grasslands and shrublands

What are the prevailing winds in the region of the North Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico in which tropical cyclones form?

Northeast trade winds

How do lava tubes form?

Pahoehoe flows develop cave-like tunnels that were previously used for carrying lava from an active vent to the flow's leading edge.

What kind of geologist studies fossils?

Paleontologist

Which best describes the positions of the continents during the Mesozoic?

Pangaea broke apart.

In which division(s) of time are we currently living?

Phanerozoic eon, Cenozoic era, Quaternary period, Holocene epoch

What is the raw material for coal, and how does it accumulate?

Plants are the raw material for coal; to form coal, plants must accumulate in oxygen deficient swamp water.

How do transform faults and the spreading centers that they transect relate to the direction of movement of the plates they border?

Plates move parallel to the transform fault as they both move away from the spreading center.

Which of the following minerals is most resistant to chemical weathering by carbonic acid?

Quartz

What evidence supports that the glaciers on the southern continents were once part of a single, massive ice sheet?

Striations

What role do water and other volatiles play in the formation of magma?

The addition of water and other volatiles allows the rock to melt at lower temperatures than if they had not been added.

Which of the following best explains the formation of the four inner (terrestrial) planets?

The inner planets formed from the repeated collisions of planetesimals.

Why are shield volcanoes wider than composite volcanoes?

The lava that flows out of shield volcanoes is more fluid than the lava that flows out of composite volcanoes.

Mantle

The layer of hot, solid material between Earth's crust and core.

subduction zone

The region where oceanic plates sink down into the asthenosphere.

What is an accurate description of the silicon-oxygen tetrahedron?

The silicon-oxygen tetrahedron is a four-sided figure with a silicon atom in the middle bonded to four neighboring oxygen atoms.

earthquake

The shaking that results from the movement of rock beneath Earth's surface.

The Tohoku earthquake generated a massive tsunami that devastated the nearby coast of Japan. In light of your answer to Part A, what is the explanation for the generation of the tsunami?

The sudden lifting of the seafloor around the bulging crust pushed huge volumes of water up, out, and away in all directions.

Crust

The thin and solid outermost layer of the Earth above the mantle

How does the water table change around a pumping water well?

The water table elevation decreases.

In North America, which of the following climate zones fall within areas that have mean January temperatures of 15° to 17° Celsius (C) (59° to 62.6° Fahrenheit, or F)?

Tropical, subtropical hot desert (BWh)

Imagine two people standing at placemark A and placemark E, looking at each other across the fault. Which of the following statements correctly describes the relative motion of the land opposite each observer?

To both observers, the land opposite them is moving to the right.

Primary Waves (P-Waves)

Travel the fastest through rock material by causing particles in the rock to move back and forth, or vibrate, in the same direction as the waves are moving.

The present is the key to the past

Uniformitarianism

Why was rainwater highly acidic early in Earth's history?

Volcanic eruptions released large quantities of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, which combined with water to form acid that fell as acid rain.

Which of the following statements regarding volcanoes on Mars is FALSE?

Volcanoes are the most recent surface features on the planet.

Late Paleozoic sedimentary rocks often contain extensive coal seams that were used to support the existence of Pangaea. What would the climate have been at that time and at the location where the coal deposits were formed, and what would it indicate about the continent's past latitude?

Warm, humid climate near the Equator

sill

When magma squeezes between horizontal layers of rock

San Francisco, CA is located at approximately 37.7° N while Wichita, KS is at 39.6.5° N. Which of the following best describes the climate and mean January temperature for these two cities?

While San Francisco has a Mediterranean climate with mild winters, Wichita has a humid continental, hot summer climate with cold winters averaging -5° to 0° C.

What is a nebula?

a cloud of gas and dust

Terrane

a mass of rock that formed elsewhere and was added to a continent

Lahar

a mudflow of volcanic debris saturated with water

Sonar (Sound Navigation and Ranging)

a system that uses reflected sound waves to detect and locate objects underwater

shield volcano

a wide, gently sloping mountain made of layers of lava and formed by quiet eruptions

What is the name of the process by which terranes are added to continents?

accretion

fault

acts as a conduit that brings heated water to the surface.

Active mountain belts are most likely to be found ________.

along the margins of continents

If all were accessible, which of the following items would be best for geologists to examine to better understand Earth's internal structure?

an iron meteorite

is named for a prominent, volcanic mountain range in western South America.

andesite

What is the smallest particle of matter that exhibits and defines the distinctive chemical characteristics of the individual elements?

atom

is the aphanitic or fine-grained equivalent of gabbro.

basalt

What coal is soft, black in color, and produces soot upon handling?

bituminous

What does the Murphree Water Treatment Plant use to disinfect the water?

chlorine

What best describes the movement of P waves?

compression and expansion

What are the two types of aquifers?

confined and unconfined

What type of plate boundary is the oldest crust on Earth near?

convergent

Which tectonic boundary is associated with the addition of terranes to a continent?

convergent

How are igneous rocks formed?

cooling of magma

All of the following are factors that affect the generation of magma EXCEPT for

crystal size

The process by which ions arrange themselves into orderly patterns during the cooling of a liquid is called

crystallization

Which of the following features is tabular and cuts across bedding planes?

dike

Which of the groups below was the dominant group of animals during the Mesozoic era?

dinosaurs

Pyroxene, hornblende, and biotite are all minerals found on the ________ series of Bowen's Reaction Series.

discontinuous

At what point during a meteorite impact are rock layers overturned?

during the rebound of rock layers after impact

What are the lightest or least massive of the fundamental atomic particles?

electron

Noncomformity

exists where sedimentary rock layers lie on top of an eroded surface of nonlayer igneous or metamorphic rock

What minerals make up half of Earth's crust?

feldspars

Partial melting results in a magma that is nearer the ________ end of the compositional spectrum than the parent rock from which it was derived.

felsic

What is liquefaction?

fluid behavior of water-filled sediment during shaking

Mesosaurus

freshwater reptile whose fossil provided evidence for Pangea

Which of the following correlate to transport distance?

grain size and rounding

lists the four basic compositional groups of igneous rocks, ranging from the highest silica content to the lowest silica content?

granitic, andesitic, basaltic, ultramafic

Which of the following is considered to be the safest drinking water source?

groundwater

Which common nonsilicate mineral is used in wallboard?

gypsum

Amongst all seismic waves, surface waves

have the slowest velocity

Which of the below studies the origin of Earth and its development through time?

historical geology

Which of the following is associated with the metamorphic rock phyllite?

intermediate-grade metamorphism

A phaneritic texture is characteristic of a(n) __________ igneous rock that cooled __________.

intrusive; below the surface

Aa lava

lava that hardens into rough, jagged rocks with a crumbly texture

Abundant plant material accumulating in a swampy environment with __________ is required for peat to form.

low oxygen levels

What are the two basic categories of weathering?

mechanical and chemical

What are the three components of magma?

melt, solids, volatiles

How is anthracite produced from bituminous coal?

metamorphism

In which direction is the Pacific Plate moving as the Hawaiian Islands are forming?

northwest

ductile deformation

objects change shape without visibly breaking

Outgassing

occurs when gases trapped in a planet's interior are released. A current example of this process is the outgassing from hundreds of volcanoes on Earth.

Which of the following crystallizes at the highest temperature?

olivine

What are the two most abundant elements in Earth's crust?

oxygen and silicon

Name the progression of coal types with increased heat and pressure from burial.

peat, lignite, bituminous, anthracite

Which of the following metamorphic rocks could have a parent rock (protolith) of shale?

phyllite slate gneiss schist

Isostasy

principle that explains why materials uplift to a certain elevation.

What causes a central peak to form in an impact crater?

rebound of the rock layers after impact

Lithosphere

relatively cool, brittle plates of plate tectonics.

Which sediment below would have the highest cohesive strength during an earthquake?

sediment with many contact points between grains and air in pore spaces

always originate at the surface of the solid Earth.

sedimentary

surface waves

seismic waves that travel along the Earth's surface

The micas (biotite and muscovite) exhibit what type of silicate structure?

sheet

Which of the following is an erosional karst feature?

sinkhole

Which of the following metamorphic rocks would form as a result of shale undergoing low-grade regional metamorphism?

slate

What is the name of the cataclysmic event in which an exploding star produces all the elements heavier than iron? View Available Hint(s)

supernova

composite volcano

tall, cone-shaped mountains in which layers of lava alternate with layers of ash

Peridotite (Igneous)

texture: phaneritic formed: magma

What does the Great Unconformity represent?

the billion years of Earth history from which there are no evidential rocks at the Grand Canyon

The gently sloping platform that extends seaward from shore, found along most coasts, is called

the continental shelf

brittle deformation

the cracking and fracturing of a material subjected to stress

The Geologic Time Scale represents

the entire 4.6 billion-year history of Earth

Biosphere

the part of Earth where life exists

What is the cone of depression?

the shape that the water table takes on near a pumping well

Palentology

the study of fossils

Where did the energy of the Sun come from originally?

thermal energy that was converted from the gravitational energy of the original nebula collapse

angular unconformity

tilted rocks are overlain by flat-lying rocks

Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option that does not fit the pattern. transpiration lithification weathering cementation

transpiration

If all the particles in a detrital sedimentary rock are nearly the same size, it is

very well sorted

Wind-blown sand deposits would most likely be __________ and _________

very well-sorted; well-rounded

first related the symmetrical magnetic patterns in seafloor basalts to seafloor spreading at a mid-ocean ridge.

vine and Matthews

The names primary and secondary refer to

wave speed

A smooth grain shaped like a cigar is __________ and shows __________.

well-rounded; low sphericity

When will a cone of depression stop enlarging?

when the amount of water flowing toward the well equals the amount of water being pumped out of the well