GEOL 111 Quizzes for Final Exam

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Using both primary and secondary petroleum recovery techniques, what proportion of the oil in an oil field is usually pumped out?

1/3

If the half-life of carbon-14 is about 5,700 years, then of a given starting quantity, after 11,400 years (two half-lives), what fraction of the original amount will be left?

1/4

How much of a radioisotope will remain after three of its half-lives have passed?

1/8

The Big Bang occurred

12 to 14 billion years ago

What is currently the expected lifetime of a commercial fission reactor in the United States with rigorous monitoring?

40 to 50 years

Why is groundwater pollution particularly insidious?

A contamination goes undetected for some time

What causes fission of uranium-235 to occur?

A neutron strikes the nucleus

What is the "bathtub effect" in a sanitary landfill?

Abundant leachate can collect above impermeable liners

Coal mining spoils are a potential source of what type of groundwater contaminant?

Acid

Magmas rich in silica

All of the choices are correct

The accident at Chernobyl involved

All of the choices are correct

Uranium is commonly found in all these types of rocks in the United States, except for

Basalt

Which of the following is not a concern with the production of ethanol biofuels?

Cheap, abundant alcohol may promote increased human consumption

Which type of volcano can be expected to erupt explosively?

Composite volcano

P-waves are

Compressional waves

Slow, gradual slip along a fault is termed

Creep

Which hazardous material is an organic compound?

DDT

A dormant volcano has no eruptive history and looks very eroded

FALSE

A locked section of a fault is a very safe place to live because, by definition, it will not slip.

FALSE

An earthquake of Richter magnitude 6-causes twice as much ground displacement as one of magnitude 3.

FALSE

Coal use was curtailed early in the twentieth century principally because U.S. coal supplies were nearly exhausted and because oil was discovered at about the same time

FALSE

Flood basalts are those that flow across and block stream channels, causing flooding.

FALSE

In order for continental drift to occur, the continental lithosphere must behave plastically.

FALSE

It is not possible to estimate rates of plate movement because new rocks are constantly being created from old.

FALSE

It is possible to treat radioactive waste to eliminate the radioactivity.

FALSE

Mount St. Helens and the related Cascade Range volcanoes represent the only volcanically active areas in the United States

FALSE

Nuclear power accounts for a higher proportion of electricity generation in the United States than anywhere else in the world.

FALSE

One advantage of current commercial nuclear reactors is that, although they are expensive to build, they can be used indefinitely as long as sufficient fuel is available.

FALSE

Plate tectonics is unrelated to the rock cycle and, in fact, has made the rock-cycle concept obsolete

FALSE

Rifting occurs at oceanic spreading ridges, but not within continents, because continents are so thick and strong.

FALSE

The idea of continental drift was not proposed until the 1960s, when the first evidence to support it was discovered.

FALSE

A secure landfill is one with security measures to prevent intrusion of people who don't belong there

False

Based on the careful design of a secure landfill, the landfill can truly assure that no part of the waste will be released to the environment

False

In the saturated zone the pores are completely filled with both air and water

False

Land subsidence results from an increase in porosity in the geologic material

False

Ocean dumping has been completely banned in the US

False

Solar energy is clean to use and requires only a small area for solar collectors

False

There are so many undeveloped possible hydroelectric power plant sites in the United States that the hydropower could easily supply all the electricity needed in this country, if fully exploited.

False

Earthquakes originate from the

Focus

Which country relies most heavily upon nuclear power for its energy?

France

Which of the following volcanoes is least likely to erupt violently and explosively?

Kilauea on Hawaii

Which source could yield large amounts of natural gas in the future?

Methane hydrates

Which is a fossil fuel?

Natural gas

Which is NOT true of a perched water table?

Occurs in confined aquifers

Which layer within the earth is molten?

Outer Core

Compression seismic body waves are

P waves

Earthquake belts are found along

Plate boundaries

A breeder reactor makes more of this fuel than it consumes.

Plutonium-239

Within which country are the largest proven reserves of crude oil located?

Saudi Arabia

After an earthquake, rocks snap back elastically to their pre-stress condition

TRUE

Continental drift may explain evidence of past glaciation in regions now located in the tropics, because local climate is strongly controlled by latitude.

TRUE

Fluid injection near Denver caused small earthquakes

TRUE

People can be killed by poisonous gases emitted by a volcano even before they realize that they are in danger

TRUE

Plate boundaries are located, in part, by the occurrence of linear belts of volcanoes and earthquakes.

TRUE

The asthenosphere is a weak, locally partly molten layer over which lithospheric plates can move.

TRUE

The moment magnitude scale may be a better indicator of earthquake severity especially for large earthquakes and those occurring outside of California, where the Richter scale was developed.

TRUE

Volcanic ash from volcanoes has posed a threat to air travel

TRUE

Volcanoes that build domes are more likely to erupt explosively than are shield volcanoes

TRUE

Why are most magmas generated in the upper mantle?

Temperature is high enough and pressure is low enough.

Agricultural irrigation is primarily done using surface water

True

Historically, the two approaches to liquid waste disposal have been dilute-and-disperse and concentrate-and-contain

True

Mercury is most dangerous in the form of methylmercury

True

Methane can be produced by decay of garbage in landfills and manure from feedlots

True

Passive-solar heating systems are so named because they do not involve mechanical devices.

True

Recycled plastic cannot generally be reused in products with as much strength

True

Septic systems may not adequately treat the liquid waste if there is not a sufficient depth to the water table for degradation to occur

True

Soil moisture is important to agriculture

True

Tertiary treatment of municipal sewage can involve fine filtration and chemical treatment

True

The potentiometric surface is the height to which the water pressure would raise the water

True

Water levels dropped at Mono Lake because water was diverted from surface water that flowed into the lake in order to supply Los Angeles

True

The solution to contamination at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal involved

a barrier and extraction wells

A circular lowering of the water table around a pumping well is

a cone of depression

All of the following indicate a potential geothermal resource except

a diffuse energy source

The "earthquake cycle" model is based on assumptions that the rate of stress buildup on a given fault segment is constant and that

a given fault segment accumulates about the same amount of strain energy before rupture each time

The High Plains Aquifer is

a sandstone and gravel aquifer

Which of the following does NOT apply to thermal pollution?

adds oxygen to the water

Which is the greatest consumptive use of water?

agricultural irrigation

Which is the principal source of solid waste in the U.S?

agriculture

Which of the following is NOT a way of addressing landfill leachate?

air injection to promote decomposition by bacteria

DDT and certain other organic pollutants are particularly hazardous because they are