Geology 107
Assume that you live in an area that just experience 100 year flood what is the probability of a flood of the same size happening next year?
1%
Send added to beaches as part of beach replenishment projects typically lasts
1-5 years
Fossil fuels represents ~___% of us energy consumption
85-90
The epa-mandated maximum level for selenium in surface water is 4.6 Ppb. This value is an example of
A concentration
What major environmental concern is associated with the mineral pyrite?
Acid mine drainage
Evidence supporting the theory of PLATE TECTONICS includes...
All of the above
What was the Colorado river compact?
An agreement that allocated the annual flow of the Colorado river in the western U.S
Ground water represents
Ancient rain water
A drainage basin is the
Area over which A river collects water and sediment and is surrounded by topographic divides
Hurricanes most commonly strike the
Atlantic coast Pacific coast
Which of the following is the most dangerous form of asbestos?
Blue asbestos
Which of the following statements concerning hydro compaction is true?
Broad depressions that look like sinkholes can form as silty soil is compacted upon wetting
The mt. Pinatubo eruption of 1991
Caused relatively few deaths due to evacuations of the area
All of the following are types of earthquake precursors except
Changes in air temperature
Which of the following is an unforeseen consequence of building dams artificial levees and the old river control structure in Louisiana?
Coastal land loss
At convergent plate boundaries, oceanic crust is subducted beneath continental crust because...
Continental crust is less dense than oceanic crust
Biological soil crust
Cover much of the land on the Colorado Plateau
The slow downhill movement of soil is referred to as
Creep
The town of Ouray has had many problems in the past with
Debris flows
Besides active faulting, how else can earthquakes occur?
Deep waste-water injection
Which of the following is not true concerning deltas?
Deltas are rarely affected by human activities
Flash flooding is common along
Drainages of Colorado National Monument
Rockfalls in Western Colorado or likely to occur
During the winter when it's freezing at night and warm during the day
What are some possible precursors to a major volcanic eruption
Earthquakes, small steam eruptions, formation of a sticky magma lava dome. All of the above.
Assume that Lake Erie is contaminated with PCB's. Which of the following is most hazardous to your health in terms of PCB's?
Eating fish from Lake Erie
Which of the following environmental problems could have the largest impact on global warming
Emissions of CO2
Which of the following would lower the potentiometric surface of a confined aquifer?
Excessive ground water pumping Constructing asphalt parking lots in the recharge area
Basalt lava flows in grand Mesa reflect a very violent period of caldera forming volcanic activity in colorado
False
During the 1993 floods most of the levees along the Mississippi river held
False
Earthquakes have never occurred in Colorado
False
People cannot be harmed by radon levels as low as 2p/l. True or false?
False
The 2013 Boulder, County floods were the most deadly in Colorado history and similar size floods have never occurred previously in Colorado
False
The May 2014 collbran/west salt creek slide near grand Mesa was caused by fracking
False
The Mississippi river never had a significant flood until 1993
False
The ring of fire is made up of huge shield volcanoes such as Mauna Loa
False
Volcanic hazards are a major concern in Colorado today
False
Calderas
Form as a result of collapse during catastrophic volcanic eruptions
Hurricanes
Form in the Atlantic Ocean Have a counter clockwise motion Have wind speed greater than 74 mph
Base flow in a river is controlled by
Ground water
The largest source of liquid freshwater on earth is
Ground water
Sedimentary basins contain
Ground water Oil Has All of the above
Karst subsidence, where the bedrock is dissolving is often associated with
Gypsum and limestone
One of the biggest disadvantages of geothermal energy is that it
Has a limited distribution
The high plains aquifer (a.k.a the agallala aquifer)
Has shown evidence of historic declines in water levels
A critical problem with Alfred Wagner's theory of continental drift was that...
He lacked a mechanism to explain how the continents moved through the oceans
Which of the following is not a problem with the use of nuclear power?
High emission of gasses such as carbon dioxide
Most violent volcanic eruption's are associated with
High viscosity, high gas content magma
Long-term earthquake forecasting involves analysis of
Historic earthquake records and prehistoric earthquake records
Lakes on the grand Mesa have formed primarily due to
Huge landslides
Ground water "mining" can cause all of the following except
Hydroelectric power
Which of the following renewable energy sources produces the most energy in the U.S?
Hydropower
Collapsible soils are common
In dry climates were soils are under compacted
Which of the following is generally not a potential problem related to dams
Increased water storage capacity
U.S. oil production is _______ and oil imports are ______
Increasing , decreasing
Evidence for global warming includes all of the following except
Increasing concentrations of SO2 in the atmosphere
Biological soil crust are important because they
Inhabit soil erosion Help retain soil moisture Provide key soil nutrients such as nitrogen
Which of the following lead to waters with high salinities
Intensive irrigation in places such as the grand valley Abundant marine shakes such as the mancos
Which of the following statements concerning Mount Saint Helens is true?
Irruption in 1980 was expected mt. St. Helens has a long history of eruptions
Oil shale in western Colorado...
Is a deposit formed in ancient lakes that once covered portions of CO, UT, and WY
Why is mt. Rainier especially susceptible to lahars?
Is is capped by snow and ice. It is a large stratovolcano
The Seattle area is prone to large earthquakes because
It is next to mt. Rainier
Asbestos is controversial because
It is widespread but not all forms are equally dangerous and it's expensive to remove
Problems associated with selenium include
It's disruption of aquatic bird and fish reproduction
Earthquake activity in your Salt Lake City is related to
It's location near the Wasatch fault system (basin and range)
To minimize potential problems with expansive clays it would be best to
Keep the area around a house dry
Which of the following geologic features are typically associated with convergent plate boundaries?
Large areas of rock uplift and mountain building
Sedimentary basin are
Large depressions filled with very thick quantities of sediments
In Colorado, the largest earthquake that could probably occur is about M7.5. this estimate is based on the fact that the potential magnitude of an earthquake is proportional to the
Length of the fault
Biological soil crust consists of
Lichen, mosses and cyanobacteria
The "plates" of tectonics are represented by the
Lithosphere
Erosion downstream of a groin or Jody along the coast is associated with ______ currents
Longshore
The Redlands bluff slide occurs in an area underlain by
Mancos shale
One of the main goals of the Colorado river controlled floods is to
Mimic the effects of large spring floods on the Colorado river
S waves
Move from side to side
Where do most explosive volcanic eruptions occur?
Near subduction zones
The largest earthquake that we know about in the lower 48 states of the US occurred in
New Madrid
Which energy source produces the most electricity in the U.S and globally that is not a fossil fuel?
Nuclear
Hypoxic waters in the Gulf of Mexico form seasonally due to
Nutrient loading
Alternative sources of "clean" energy include all of the following except
Oil shale
Which of the following is not true about coastal erosion?
Only 20% Of the US coast line is the eroding
Hypoxic waters have low amounts of
Oxygen
Storico records of earthquakes in the US show the regions with potential significant earthquake hazards includes
Parts of the Midwest such as the new Madrid seismic zone
Which of the following represents the most dangerous and swift moving volcanic hazards?
Pyroclastic flows
The first mining boom in the GJ area involved radium. Why was this element important?
Radium was used to help develop the first nuclear bomb in the Manhattan Project.
Which of the following are ways in which dams impact rivers?
Reduce floods Reduced transport of sediment
Attempts to decrease salinity and selenium in the Colorado river include efforts to
Replace dirt ditches with impermeable materials such as PVC pipe Minimize the amount of excess irrigation water so that there is less water to leach soils
Which of the following is a common source of sediment in coastal zones?
Rivers Sediment from the subaqueous beach Sediment from eroding coastlines
Which of the following is a natural geologic cause of land subsidence
Roof collapse of a cave
Of the following waves, which causes the most damage?
S waves
The petrochemical industry in coastal Louisiana has to create numerous artificial canals and waterways one problem with this activity is
Salt water intrusion into freshwater wetlands
The main reason that most of the coast lines of the world are you rooting is that
Sea level is rising
Which of the following is true concerning hard stabilization approaches to coastal erosion?
Sea walls result in the loss of recreational beaches
What key evidence was discovered in the 1960's that led to the modern concept of plate tectonics?
Seafloor spreading
Problems with constructing accurate flood frequency curves include
Short records of historic flow conditions The effects of human activities such as building dams on Rivers
Which of the following are key factors that at least partly determine whether or not a slope fail?
Slope angle, the mass of the slope material, the type of slope material
The most common natural hazards in Colorado are
Slope hazards
Expansive clays are made
Smectite
Natural causes of flooding in the grand Valley area include
Summer thunderstorms (monsoon rain)
One disadvantage of solar energy is
That it can require large amounts of land to produce large amounts of electricity
One of the most stunning consequences of water use on the Colorado river is that
The Colorado river no longer flows all the way to the ocean each year
Mt. Rainier threatens
The Seattle-Tacoma area
The most dangerous volcanoes in the US are found in
The cascade mountains
Coal represents
The compacted remains of plants and organic matter
Land loss of coastal Louisiana is occurring at a rate of approximately equal to
The football field every 90 minutes
Subsidence is
The lowering of the land surface
Earthquake epicenter is
The point on the earths surface that directly overlies the earthquake origin
Slow problems along River Bluff in the Redlands area all have the following in common
The presence of weak shale and a sharp bend in the Colorado river
The May 2014 Collbran/west salt creek slide near grand Mesa was caused in part by
The presence of week clay-rich shale beneath the basalt
In order to extract oil from oil shale, which of the following must take place?
The rock must be heated to high temperatures for a long time
The the saturated zone below the water table
The spaces between sand grains are filled with water
Selenium is common in our area because
There is a lot of mancos shale in western colorado
What do aquifers generally have in common?
They have high porosities and are permeable
How did water quality studies in lake siskiwit (Lake Superior region) later our understanding of water pollutant?
They suggested that many pollutants travel through the air
A relatively common hazard near Carbondale in Glenwood Springs is the formation of sinkholes
True
The 100 year flood plane of the Colorado River in the grand Valley is relatively well known because there's a long history of Fludd records
True
Yellowstone is a hot spot
True
Tsunamis are
Typically caused by earthquakes when the seafloor shifts
Which of the following elements played a critical role in the mining industry near Grand Junction?
Uranium
Which of the following is not a fossil fuel?
Uranium
Which of the following are techniques used to minimize rock fall hazards in Glenwood Canyon?
Use of rock bolts to strengthen rock faces. Pouring of concrete buttresses to support loose boulders Emplacement of wire fences to catch small rock debris All of the above
Flood frequency curve is generally
Used to determine the reoccurrence interval and years of flow such as the 100-year flood
The stability of slopes generally decreases as
Vegetation is removed and clay content of slope material increase
Aquicludes or confining beds are characterized by
Very low permeability
The majority of the selenium loaf in the Colorado river comes from
Western colorado
Assuming they were all located the same distance from the epicenter, which of the following types of geological materials would most likely liquefy during a major earthquake?
Wet mud
Which of the following is an advantage of using beach replenishment to slow down or stop coastal erosion?
You don't have to build any hard structures such as sea walls
Radon is
second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S.
A hydrograph shows
the change in a river's discharge over time
