EAR 105
Which of the following statements is FALSE? The principle of
inclusions say rock containing inclusions is older than the inclusions
Which of the following statements is false? Felsic magma
is less viscous than mafic magmas
A good example of a mineral that is a sheet silicate is
mica
The Earth's magnetic field is generated by
the outer core
Using this diagram that shows and example of how rocks can change in the rock cycle, which of the following lists properly defines the numbered processes?
1. Weathering/transport/deposition/lithification. 2. Heat and pressure 3. Melting
How old is the Earth?
4.5 billion years old
Plates move at velocities that are approximately
5.0 cm per year
Very large mountain ranges such a s the Himalayas were most likely formed by:
A convergent plate boundary
The principle of cross-cutting relations tells us that:
A feature that cross-cuts or truncates another feature must be younger than the feature it cross cuts
Refraction of seismic waves traveling though the Earth occurs when:
A seismic wave travels though layers of different densities
The efficiency of erosion by a river depends on
All of the above
Which of the following principles of stratigraphy are used for determining the relative ages of strata?
All of the above
Which of the following rocks is intermediate in composition and common formed on strato/composite volcanoes?
Andesite
Continental ice sheets today are only found in
Antarctica and Greenland
Identify the false statement. Lavas of low viscosity, like those on Hawaii,
Are most often cool temperature lavas
This image shows Earth's geothermal gradient. If you could drill all the way though the Earth, in what layer would you experience the greatest increase in temperature per kilometers?
At the core mantle boundary
Seismic waves can be created by many processes (even you jumping up and down on the ground or by atomic bomb blasts), but what is the most common way that seismic waves are formed on Earth?
By earthquakes
The exact (numeric) age of Earth is determined by what method and using what materials?
By radiometric dating Earth's oldest rocks
The core is compromised of a liquid outer core and solid inner core. This has been confirmed by
By seismic waves
The two main types of sedimentary rocks are
Chemical and clastic
The dissolution of limestone exposed at Earth's surface is an example of
Chemical weathering
The strong tendency of certain minerals to break along smooth, parallel planes is known as
Cleavage
What kind of force causes the fault shown in the diagram on the right?
Compression
Point B marks what kind of plate boundary?
Convergent
What types of bonds are strongest?
Covalent bonds
What types of chemical bonds occur when atoms share electrons?
Covalent bonds
In the cross section above, we can say that B is younger than D by using the law of________
Cross-Cutting relationships
Which of the following is NOT a method for determining the numerical age of a rock?
Cross-cutting relations
To determine the relative age of a fault, you would most likely apply the principle of:
Cross-cutting relationships
Rivers ultimately deposit the sediment they carry in lakes or the ocean and form________ where sediment piles up at the mouth of the river
Deltas
Marie Tharp was one of the pioneers in the development of the theory of plate tectonics by developing
Detailed maps of the sea floor
What kind of force causes the fault shown in the diagram of the right?
Extension
Rivers are confined to a narrow area called channels where the flow typically remains. However rivers are free to move (meander) about a broad area called________
Flood plains
The landforms that comprise Cape Cod in Massachusetts and Long Island in NY are the result of
Glacial processes during the last ice age 18,000 years ago
Continental crust is commonly made out of this felsic, intrusive rock:
Granite
Which of the following conditions allows continental ice sheets to form?
Heavy snowfalls in winter coupled with relatively cool summers
The earliest nebulae to form in the Universe were made almost entirely of these simple elements
Hydrogen and Helium
Which of the following sequences of events explains the transition part of a rock that experienced melting then cooling, burial to deep depths during mountain building, and then uplift and weathering?
Igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary
Identify the true statement:
In a granite that contains quartz, mica and feldspar, the most resistant mineral to weathering is quartz
The principle of superposition tells us that:
In a sequence of undeformed strata, the oldest layer will be at the bottom and the youngest will be at the top
The principle of original horizontality tells us that:
In undisturbed strata, sediments were originally deposited in horizontal layers due to gravitational setting
The volatile gases in explosive volcanoes are derived from what process?
Incorporation of mostly water and carbon dioxide derived from sediments on the subjecting oceanic lithosphere
When light from the Sun hits earth's surface it is absorbed and released as
Infrared radiation
Which of the following is not one of the major classes of sedimentary rocks?
Intrusive
We discussed a new idea in class that suggested that what important element was potentially brought to Earth by collision with a planetesimal?
Iron
The "snow line" on a glacier divides the zone of ablation from the zone of accumulation is really recognizable when viewing a glacier or seeing a photo. It separates the zone of accumulation from the zone of ablation.
It appears as a change in color of the ice from white (snow covered) to tinged with gray (rocks and sediments)
The crust is above the mantle because
It is less dense than the mantle
Use the diagram to find the false statement. Point A represents a material that fits the following description
It is magma
The Earth resides in a unique region called the Habitable Zone. It is called this because
It's the region that it has temperatures that allow for the presence of liquid water
Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune are:
Jovian gas giants
In the cross section above, _______ is older than________
L; N
The spectacular rock cliff features of Yosemite National Park in California owe their origin to
Large systems of mountain glaciers during the last ice age
Rivers build natural barriers that limit the impact of small floods on surrounding areas, what are these features called?
Levees
Sand moves along beaches in a way that is similar to rivers via a process called
Long-shore transport
In natural, large river systems the channel belt has an elevation that typically higher or lower than the surrounding floodplain?
Lower than the surrounding floodplain
Mafic rocks have less Si than felsic rocks, this results in
Magmas that are not viscous and rocks that have a relatively high density
Which of the following is FALSE? Deltas
Make poor farmland because they flood regularly and flooding reaches out the minerals
The burial and compression of sedimentary rock under extremely high pressure that occurs in convergent boundaries results in the formation of what types of rocks?
Metamorphic
Mafic rocks are often enriched in these elements, w which helps to make them more dense than felsic rocks
Mg and Fe
The volcanism that is responsible for the formation of the sea floor occurs primarily at what type of location?
Mid-ocean ridges
The diagram on the right represents what kind of fault?
Normal
Which of the following statements is NOT true about the ocean floor?
Oceanic crust is primarily composed of granite
In the cross section above, E is _________ G
Older than
What are the two most abundant elements on Earth?
Oxygen (O) and Iron (Fe)
P wave shadow zone exist because:
P waves refract when passing through layers of the Earth
Which of the following statements is true?
Pieces of broken rock produced by physical weathering are collectively called clasts
The various geologic settings in which rocks can melt, metamorphose, or become sediment are ultimately generated by
Plate tectonics
The magnitude of a temperature increase due to greenhouse warming will be largest in the ________
Polar regions
Which of the following is NOT considered sediment?
Quartz crystals in granite
S wave shadow zone exist because:
S wave cannot pass through the liquid outer core
What is the most logical past environment to have produced a deposit consisting of vey little sand and mud, but instead lots of broken-up calcium carbonate shells of marine organism?
Shallow-water coral reef
What kind of force causes the fault shown in the diagram of the right?
Shear (like scissors)
Which group of minerals are the most abundant in the Earth's crust?
Silicates
As a sediment is transported downstream, away from its point of origin, the particles become
Smaller
The diagram of the right represents what kind of fault?
Strike-slip
Which of the following does NOT contribute to long-term climate change?
Sunspot activity
How are igneous rocks classified?
Texture and composition
How are sedimentary rocks classified?
Texture and composition
Igneous rocks that contain water melt at lower temperatures than a corresponding dry version of the same rock because
The addition of volatiles in wet rock lowers their melting temperature
Radiometric dating relies on knowing the half life of a radiogenic element. Half life is:
The amount of time for half of a parent element to decay into the daughter element
Conglomerate and Breccia both have large cobbles of pebble sized clasts contained in a finer grained matrix (think raisins in bread). The large clasts in breccia are angular and the large clasts in conglomerate are rounded. What can you say about the degree of transport and physical weathering?
The breccia has undergone less transport and weathering
The time between the first arrival of P waves and S waves allows geophysicist monitoring a seismic station to determine:
The exact location of an earthquake
Carbon-14 dating is not a good method for determining the age of at the carbon containing materials that are relatively old (older than 35,000 years old). This is because
The half life of carbon-14 is too short
What happens when you expose halite to water?
The ionic bonds break and it dissolves
Intrusive igneous rocks have crystal sizes that are relatively large, this occurs because
The magma solidifies slowly
Referring to the diagram, which of the following statements is true as material transitions from point A to point B on the diagram
The material decreases in pressure and starts initial melting
What characteristic makes silicate minerals more stable?
The number of oxygens shared between each silicon atom
A transition from point C to point D results in what change in conditions
The pressure increases and the temperature increases resulting in melting of a rock
Point A is over a mid ocean ridge, what occurs at a mid-ocean ridge?
The production of oceanic crust
If a seismic station is located in the P wave shadow zone for a particular earthquake:
The seismic station will not record any waves
What evidence supports the fact that carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere is derived from the burning of fossil fuels?
The stable and radiogenic isotope composition
The Chile Trench running along the west coast of South America was most likely formed by:
The subduction of Nazca Plate under the South American Plate
_________ controls a mineral's hardness on the Mow's hardness scale.
The type and strength of atomic bonds within the mineral
What seafloor feature is under point B?
Trench
18,000 years ago Syracuse was covered by a few kilometers of glacial ice
True
The two gases responsible for the largest proportion of Earth's greenhouse effect are
Water and carbon dioxide
Which of the following statement about the hydrologic cycle is FALSE?
Water that manages to infiltrate the land is lost to the cycle
The chain of volcanoes along the west coas of North America that comprise the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest exists because
an oceanic plate is sliding past the North American plate and heading to the northwest
Heavy elements, such as gold and uranium
are formed during a supernova
Magnetic anomalies, such as those in the picture to the left, are formed
because Earth's magnetic field oscillates between being centered on the north pole and south pole
Alfred Wegener published a book called "The Origin of the Continents and Oceans" in 1912 that was very controversial at the tie. In i he described what important theory that served as a precursor for plate tectonics?
continental drift
The asthenosphere is
warm enough to flow slowly
The moon
was formed by the collision of Earth with a Mars-sized protoplanet
A stratigraphic formation is:
A layer of specific rock types
Which of the following principles of stratigraphy are used for deterring the relative ages of strata?
All of the above
Which of the following statements is FALSE? The Mississippi River Delta
Developed its shape because the ocean current there was stronger than the river current
Which arrangement of tetrahedral forms the most stable minerals?
E
Magmas with high volatile content tend to have:
Explosive eruptions
Are points E and F getting farther apart, closer together or staying the same distance apart?
Farther apart
Formation of clastic sedimentary rocks involves five stages. Which of the following describes mechanical/physical weathering?
Fracturing of igneous rock by freeze-thaw processes
The evolution thought in the early days of astronomy led to a transition from the
Geocentric model to the Heliocentric model
Mt St Helens erupted explosively in 1980. Geologist find evidence of many eruptions of Mt St Helens, dating back 37,000 years. The mountain is composed of layer of lava and pyroclastics. Which of the following is therefore most likely to be true?
Mt St Helens is a composite volcano or stratovolcano
In the cross citing section above, ________ is younger than________
N; L
Direct observation of protoplanetary disks around exoplanets has confirmed what theory?
Nebular theory
Which one of the following is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere?
Nitrogen
The diagram on the right represents what kind of fault?
Reverse
According to the diagram below, which sediment sample is considered mature and why?
Sample 3, because it contains well-sorted, rounded quartz grains
Why is it difficult to date sedimentary rocks directly?
Sedimentary rocks are younger than their composite minerals
Most of out knowledge about Earth's interior comes from _______
Seismic waves during earthquakes
The lithosphere comprises portions of which two laters in the above image?
The crust and the upper mantle
The formation of sedimentary rocks require_______
Weathering and transport of pre-existing rocks
Plate tectonics took so long to become an accepted theory because
Wegener's could not provide a mechanism for how continents moved
Is nitrous oxide a greenhouse gas?
Yes
Glaciers and ice sheets form because________
The snow that accumulates during winters does not entirely melt during the summer
Heavy elements such as Platinum (Pt) and Gold (Au) are in very low abundance int he solar system because
They are only formed during a super nova
Which of the following is not true of sedimentary rocks
They form under high heat and high pressure
The global occurrence of earthquakes reveals that
They occur on the boundaries of plates or at hotspots
The boundaries between Earth's layers
exist because of abrupt changes in density
Atoms that are not neutrally charged are called
Ions
Why is a glass not a mineral?
It does not have a fixed crystalline structure
Which of the following is not characteristic of a rock
It has a definable chemical composition
When you scrape a mineral along a ceramic plate to observe the color of its powder, you are checking the physical property known as
Streak
