Geology study set 1
Detrital sedimentary rocks are classified and named principally on the basis of ________.
grain size
________ is a measure of the volume of open space in rocks and unconsolidated, geological materials like alluvium and soils.
porosity
Which of the following are the positively charged particles in an atom's nucleus?
protons
All of the atoms making up any given element have the same number of ________.
protons in the nucleus
Which of the following is a silicate mineral with a single-chained structure?
pyroxene
Which common mineral is composed entirely of silicon and oxygen?
silicates
Which one of the following is a metamorphic rock?
slate
Cross-bedding consists of many preserved ________ resulting from moving sand dunes.
slip faces
An igneous rock that cools rapidly is likely to have ________ crystals.
small
Although infrequent, running water is responsible for most of the erosional work in deserts.
true
An aggregate of one or more minerals is called a rock.
true
Artesian wells may be nonflowing.
true
Atoms of different elements can "stick together" (making compounds) via electrons sharing or trading arrangements called bonds.
true
Bajadas develop when multiple alluvial fans grow and merge along the fronts of mountain ranges in arid lands.
true
Before it can be sedimentary rock, sediment must be produced (weathered from pre-existing rocks), transported, deposited, and lithified.
true
Chemical sedimentary rocks form when ions in solution precipitate out mineral matter.
true
Confining pressure results from burial of rocks.
true
Desert regions that exhibit a discontinuous pattern of ephemeral streams that do not flow out of the desert to the ocean are said to have a(n) interior drainage.
true
Electrically neutral atoms have equal numbers of electrons and protons.
true
Flash floods are limited in area, occur with little warning, and are most common with intense rainfall events in areas of impervious surface conditions or steep topography.
true
Given the right conditions any kind of rock can be transformed into any other kind of rock.
true
Glaciers are part of the hydrologic cycle.
true
In parts of the High Plains aquifer, water is being pumped from the ground faster than it is replenished. This has resulted in the water table dropping significantly.
true
Loose, granular particles assume a stable slope called the angle of repose.
true
Sinkholes form when the roof of a cavern collapses.
true
The micas, biotite and muscovite, both exhibit one direction of cleavage.
true
Till is unsorted sediment deposited directly from the melting glacial ice; stream action is not involved.
true
To transform an igneous rock into a sedimentary rock, which of the following processes must take place?
weathering, transport, deposition, and lithification
Examine the sketch of a bend in a river. The arrows show the water flow direction. In which of the four lettered locations is deposition most likely to occur?
Nearest corner (D)
________ make up the suspended loads of most rivers and streams.
Silt and clay-sized detrital grains
Compaction and cementation are the most common forms of lithification.
True
Rapids and waterfalls are more likely in ________.
a V-shaped valley
Ephemeral streams ________.
are a major agent of erosion in desert regions
If you were on a geology field trip in an area of glacial deposition, how would you distinguish between samples of till and stratified drift?
by comparing their grain size and sorting
When in contact with hydrochloric acid, which mineral gives off bubbles of carbon dioxide gas?
calcite
________ are formed when groundwater dissolves cavities into limestone.
caverns
The skeletal remains of plankton make up the sedimentary rock ________.
chalk
Obsidian is characterized by its ________ texture.
glassy
Which of the following rock types represents the highest grade of metamorphism?
gneiss
A cubic centimeter each of quartz, olivine, and native gold weigh 2.5, 3.0, and 19.8 grams respectively. This indicates that ________.
gold has a higher density and specific gravity than quartz and olivine
Which one of the following is a sedimentary rock?
limestone
The ion at the center of a silicon-oxygen tetrahedron is surrounded by _________.
4 oxygen ions
How many cleavage directions does this mineral specimen display?
3
About what percentage of Earth's land surface was covered by glaciers during the Quaternary period?
30%
An atom's mass number is 13 and its atomic number is 6. How many neutrons are in its nucleus?
7
A(n) ________ is a cone of debris that forms where an ephemeral stream emerges from the confines of the canyon. Its runoff spreads over the gentler slopes at the base of the mountains and quickly loses velocity, dumping most of its sediment load within a short distance.
Alluvial Fan
Ranked by discharge, what is the world's largest river?
Amazon
The ________ region of the United States is depicted in this image.
Basin and Range
Which of the drainage patterns shown here might develop on relatively uniform surface materials?
C
________ are EROSIONAL features produced by valley (alpine) glaciers.
Cirques
Consult the image that depicts Bowen's reaction series. What can be said of the temperature at which a granite crystallizes?
Granite crystallizes at temperatures of about 750° C.
Which of the following best defines the relationship between minerals and rocks?
In a mineral, atoms are bonded in a regular, repetitive, internal structure; a rock is a lithified or consolidated aggregate of mineral grains.
Which of the following lakes formed over an immense area of the northern United States and southern Canada during the Quaternary Ice Age?
Lake Agassiz
The ________ period of geologic time is depicted in this image.
Quaternary
How is desert different from steppe?
Steppe is more humid than desert
At a delta, which of the following happens?
The main channel splits into a number of distributary channels.
If accumulation exceeds ablation (wastage) in a glacial budget, which of the following will happen?
The terminus will move downhill ("advance").
Three of the following ARE true for minerals. Which one of the following is NOT true for minerals?
They can be a liquid, solid, or gas.
Which one of the following is NOT true of glaciers?
They exist only in the Northern Hemisphere.
When a valley glacier leaves the mountains and enters the relative flat lands below, it may spread out to form ________.
a piedmont glacier
If the planet were to cool in the future, snow may begin to accumulate near the head of a glacier more rapidly than it would melt in the zone of wastage. In these circumstances, the terminus of the glacier would ________.
advance
Precipitation of water on the land surface leads directly to ________.
all of the above
Magma that might have cooled slowly to produce a diorite is instead erupted at Earth's surface. It would chill rapidly and produce a(n) ________.
andesite
Under typical conditions, glaciers flow ________.
at a rate between 2 meters (6.5 feet) and 800 meters (2600 feet) per year
Layers in sedimentary rocks are called ___________.
beds
Rock salt and rock gypsum are examples of ________ sedimentary rocks.
chemical
Due to the arrangement of weaker bonds in their crystal lattice, the tendency of certain minerals to break along smooth, parallel planes is known as ________.
cleavage
Drawdown of groundwater due to heavy pumping from a well may result in a(n) ________, a "dimple" in the water table.
cone of depression
Which rock type is most likely to have been deposited in a high- energy environment (such as a very turbulent stream)?
conglomerate
One drainage basin is separated from a neighboring drainage basin by a ________.
divide
______________ are wind-deposited sand that forms mounds or ridges.
dunes
A sinuous ridge composed of sand and gravel is a(n) ________; It is a deposit made by streams flowing in tunnels within or beneath glacial ice.
esker
All compounds are minerals.
false
Arêtes, horns, and U-shaped valleys are depositional features made of till.
false
Electrons are found in the nucleus of an atom.
false
Hanging valleys are glacier-cut valleys that flooded as sea level rose in post-glacial times.
false
In Earth's crust, economic minerals are just as abundant as rock-forming minerals.
false
In order to metamorphose, metamorphic rocks must melt.
false
Laminar flow is characterized by swirling eddies of water motion.
false
Mass wasting processes are always rapid.
false
Mud cracks and ripple marks are common features of igneous rocks.
false
Quartz, by definition, is a dark silicate mineral.
false
Rusting is an example of mechanical weathering.
false
Specific gravity is defined as mass per unit volume.
false
The color of a powdered mineral is the physical property known as luster.
false
The most recent Ice Age occurred during the Cretaceous period.
false
The parent rock of marble is sandstone.
false
The smallest particle of matter that exhibits and defines the distinctive chemical characteristics of an individual element is a neutron.
false
Which of the following minerals is a silicate (a mineral containing a silicon-bearing ion)?
feldspar
When a glacial trough is "drowned" by the sea, the result is a(n) ________.
fiord
If discharge of a stream increases to the point that the stream overflows its banks, the stream is said to be ________.
flooding
The continuous side-to-side erosion caused by shifting of the stream's meanders produces an increasingly broader, flat valley floor covered with alluvium. The flat part of this valley floor, next to the stream, is the ________.
floodplain
Groundwater is the largest reservoir of ________.
freshwater that is readily available to humans
Examine the sketch of a bend in a river. The arrows show the water flow direction. In which of the four lettered locations will the water be moving at the highest velocity?
furthest from the turn (A)
________ is located in tiny pore spaces between grains of soil and sediment, underground.
groundwater
Which of the following is NOT a variety of moraine?
hanging
The resistance of a mineral to scratching or abrasion is known as ________.
hardness
Groundwater tends to flow through bodies of rock or sediment that ________.
have a high permeability
In contact metamorphism, ________ is the dominant agent of change.
heat
To test whether a rock sample includes any of the mineral calcite, you should perform the ________ test.
hydrochloric acid
Where do crevasses form?
in the zone of fracture
Atoms that have an electrical charge due to a gain or loss of electrons are called ________.
ions
A glacier's downstream end ________.
is in the zone of wastage
This cobble shows prominent scratches because ________.
it was scraped against other rocks in a glacier
The appearance or quality of light reflected from the surface of a mineral is known as ________.
luster
The downslope movement of rock or soil due to the influence of gravity is ________.
mass wasting
Regional metamorphism occurs during ________.
mountain building
In a cooling magma composed of silicon, oxygen, aluminum, potassium, hydrogen, calcium, and sodium atoms, which of the following silicate minerals would be impossible to crystallize?
olivine
What element is the most abundant in the Earth's crust by weight?
oxygen
How do potholes form?
pebbles caught in swirling eddies of water
Which one of the following is an igneous rock?
rhyolite
A detrital sedimentary rock dominated by sand is a(n) ________.
sandstone
Most rock outcrops (about 75% of the total) are ________.
sedimentary
Which kind of rocks may contain fossils?
sedimentary
Where the water table intersects Earth's surface, a(n) ________ results.
spring
If you were to examine the longitudinal profile of a typical river, you would probably find that the gradient is ________.
steepest near the headwaters
All varieties of limestone are dominated by the mineral calcite.
true
External processes that occur at or near Earth's surface and are powered by ________.
the Sun
Infiltration adds water to ________.
the groundwater
Streams erode downward until they reach ________.
their base level
Which of the following properties would be least useful for identifying a sample of calcite?
white color