Transcript
Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology, Cdn 4e (Tarbuck)
Chapter 1 An Introduction to Geology and Plate Tectonics
1.1 Multiple-Choice Questions
1) The word "Geology" is derived from Greek meaning ________.
A) discourse of the Earth
B) rocks form all lands
C) the logic of rocks
D) geographic theology
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
2) The principle goal of physical geology is to study ________.
A) ongoing natural processes and the products they create
B) mankind and the environment
C) Earth's evolution with time
D) physical processes that affect the earth and its resources as opposed to chemical or biologic processes
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
3) ________ includes the study of how rocks and minerals form and change according to physical, chemical, and biologic processes which affect everything from Earth's internal structures and tectonic plates to landscape evolution and crystal forms.
A) Physical geology
B) Historical geology
C) Manifest destiny
D) Catastrophism
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
4) What are the basic differences between the disciplines of physical and historical geology?
A) Physical geology is the study of fossils and sequences of rock strata; historical geology is the study of how rocks and minerals were used in the past.
B) Historical geology involves the study of rock strata, fossils, and geologic events, utilizing the geologic time scale as a reference; physical geology includes the study of how rocks form and of how erosion shapes the land surface.
C) Physical geology involves the study of rock strata, fossils, and deposition in relation to plate movements in the geologic past; historical geology charts how and where the plates were moving in the past.
D) None; physical geology and historical geology are essentially the same.
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
5) ________ involves the study of Earth's origin and development through time based on sequences of strata, fossils, and geologic events, utilizing the geologic time scale as a reference.
A) Physical geology
B) Historical geology
C) Catastrophism
D) Uniformitarianism
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
6) Sir William Edmond Logan was appointed the first Director of The Geological Survey of Canada in 1842 and is noted for his observations and maps of ________.
A) sandstones in Nunavut
B) granites in Saskatchewan
C) gold in Prince Edward Island
D) coal beds in Wales, Nova Scotia, and copper deposits in Ontario
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
7) Canada's highest mountain is ________.
A) Mount Logan 5959 m elevation in the southwest corner of Yukon
B) Mount Waddington in the Coast Mountains of B.C.
C) Mount Rundle in the Canadian Rockies
D) Mount Washington on Vancouver Island
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
8) In geologic theory, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides, floods, and tsunamis are all ________.
A) exceptions to the theory of uniformitarianism
B) unique phenomena that can neither be predicted nor understood
C) naturally recurring geologic hazards from ongoing physical processes
D) divine punishments sent to discourage us of our evil ways
Answer: C
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
9) A geologic understanding of natural resources includes ________ of extraction or usage for water, soil, metallic, non-metallic, and energy resources.
A) the conditions of formation and the environmental impact
B) the economic value and geographic location
C) the size of deposits and cost
D) the current corporate or political objective and most expedient means
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
10) Earth's human population now is best described by which one of the following statements?
A) just beginning to approach the world's population before the Second World War
B) larger than it has ever been and increasing at a very high rate
C) larger than it has ever been but will stabilize within the next 10 years
D) increasing very rapidly in advanced, western countries and falling rapidly in third-world areas such as Latin America and Africa
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
11) Which one of the following is a logical consequence of the rapidly growing human population?
A) Everybody will have much more fun because parties will be larger and more frequent.
B) Competition for nonrenewable natural resources will intensify.
C) Terrestrial, aquatic, and marine habitats will be unaffected by the rapid growth.
D) Reduced government regulation and spending and the application of new technologies will increase living standards and lessen environmental concerns.
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
12) The biggest driving force for natural resource development is ________.
A) local needs for employment and viable industry
B) the size of the deposit
C) exponential population increase and human expectations for goods and profits
D) finding local deposits to meet each country's needs
Answer: C
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
13) Why is Mt. Vesuvius considered so hazardous?
A) It is constantly erupting.
B) People fear that it may imminently repeat the type of ash eruptions that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 C.E..
C) It is made of very steep unstable ash deposits that are always generating landslides.
D) The city of Naples and Bay of Naples surround it so that any renewal of activity threatens people.
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
14) The inference that the Earth had been created in 4004 B.C.E. was attributed to James Ussher who ________.
A) carefully counted the generations and "begats" in the Bible
B) was a religious crackpot whom nobody believed
C) had this revealed to him by the Archangel Gabriel in a divine dream
D) was the Irish geologist to first attempt absolute dating of rocks
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
15) ________ used the Bible to calculate that the Earth was created in 4004 B.C.E.
A) Saint Torquemada
B) Bishop Ussher
C) Father Hutton
D) Brother Lyell
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
16) Compared to the age of Earth accepted as correct today, how did 17th and 18th century proponents of catastrophism envision the Earth's age?
A) They believed Earth to be much older than it really is.
B) They were right on the money, give or take a few million years.
C) They believed Earth to be a few hundred years younger than it really is.
D) They accepted Bishop Ussher's calculation but explained the differences in landforms and geology by violent catastrophes.
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
17) The idea that all of the tremendous geologic changes in Earth's history were concentrated in a few brief millennia is termed ________.
A) uniformitarianism
B) gradualism
C) catastrophism
D) Ussherism
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
18) ________, a popular natural philosophy of the 17th and early 18th centuries, was based on a firm belief in a very short geologic history for Earth.
A) Ecospherism
B) Exoschism
C) Uniformitarianism
D) Catastrophism
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
19) Which one of the following observations and inferences is most consistent with the idea of uniformitarianism?
A) Sand rolls along a stream bottom at the same rate every hour, every day, year in, year out.
B) The number of erupting volcanoes is constant throughout geologic time, so this is not a big influence on changing climates.
C) Meteorite impacts always occur at regular intervals and this has forced biologic evolution.
D) Mountains are dissolved and/or eroded mechanically one ion and one mineral grain at a time and carried down to the sea.
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
20) ________ is often paraphrased as "the present is the key to the past."
A) Biblical prophecy
B) Uniformitarianism
C) Aristotelian logic
D) Catastrophism
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
21) "The physical, chemical and biological processes that operate today have operated throughout geologic time" is a restatement of James Hutton's theory of ________.
A) catastrophism
B) gradualism
C) recidivism
D) uniformitarianism
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
22) "The present is the key to the past" is the uniformitarian concept that ________.
A) geologic processes give rise to the same types of products and features
B) rivers, seas, mountains, etc. are perpetual features of an unchanging landscape
C) each mountain that is eroding today to produce river sediment has always done so
D) the rates of geologic processes (erosion, sedimentation, volcanism) are invariant
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
23) ________ was an a Scottish physician and farmer who wrote Theory of the Earth and is credited with being the father of modern geology because he was the first to promote the theories of uniformitarianism and the vastness of geologic time.
A) Charles Lyell
B) William Stokes
C) James Hutton
D) James Ussher
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
24) ________ was the first to clearly formulate the concept of uniformitarianism.
A) Charles Darwin
B) Charles Playfair
C) James Hutton
D) Sir James Ussher
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
25) Most geologic processes like erosion, sedimentation, uplift, and plate motion ________.
A) take place gradually but given the vastness of geologic time add up to big effects
B) occur quickly in fits and starts, but mostly nothing is happening
C) take place during cataclysmic floods and violent upheavals that transform Earth
D) take place gradually but don't add up to much change in the long run
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
26) The acceptance of the 18th century concept of uniformitarianism inevitably led to the acceptance of ________.
A) Darwin's theory of evolution
B) an extremely old age for the Earth
C) Ussher's calculations
D) a geologic evolution for Earth that was free from catastrophes
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: The Science of Geology
27) Compared to the age of the Universe of about 14 billion years, the currently accepted age of Earth is about ________ years as determined by using radioactivity for dating rocks and minerals.
A) 4.6 thousand
B) 4.6 billion
C) 5.4 million
D) 13.7 billion
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Geologic Time
28) Which of the following is closest to the currently accepted age of the Earth?
A) 100,000 years
B) 10 billion years
C) 5 billion years
D) 5 million years
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Geologic Time
29) Which of the following best describes the fundamental concept of superposition?
A) Strata with fossils are generally deposited on strata with no fossils.
B) Older strata generally are deposited on younger strata without intervening, intermediate age strata.
C) Older fossils in younger strata indicate a locally inverted geologic time scale.
D) Any sedimentary deposit accumulates on older rock or sediment layers.
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: Geologic Time
30) The law of superposition establishes ________.
A) the absolute age of any strata
B) the relative ages in a layered sedimentary or volcanic sequence
C) the oldest deposits are always on top
D) why the oldest rocks are never found in the bottoms of deep canyons
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: Geologic Time
31) That fossil organisms succeed one another in an orderly and definite sequence is ________.
A) the law of superposition
B) the law of the geologic time scale
C) the Phanerozoic principal
D) the principal of fossil succession
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Geologic Time
32) The ________ division of the geologic time scale is an era of the Phanerozoic Eon.
A) Paleocene
B) Paleozoic
C) Permian
D) Proterozoic
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Geologic Time
33) The Phanerozoic Eon corresponding to the age of complex multicellular life as recorded in fossils encompasses ________.
A) roughly the last 12% of Earth history
B) only the first 50 million years of the Cambrian Period
C) the first 4.6 billion years of Earth history
D) only the latest 56 million years of Earth history
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: Geologic Time
34) Fossils of armour headed fishes and trilobites would be found in marine sedimentary rocks of ________.
A) the lower part of the Paleozoic Era
B) the Carboniferous Period
C) the Proterozoic Eon
D) the Mesozoic Era
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: Geologic Time
35) The Precambrian (Hadean, Archean and Proterozoic Eons) accounts for ________.
A) the first 88% of Earth history and the geologic time scale
B) the segment of geologic time prior to uniformitarianism taking effect
C) all of the periods after the Permian
D) the first 8% of Earth history
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: Geologic Time
36) Which sequence is in the correct order through time for "fossil succession" assuming strata successively from: Late Precambrian, Cambrian, Silurian, Jurassic, Tertiary
A) multicelled organisms, hardbodied marine invertebrates, first land plants, dinosaurs, mammals
B) flowering plants, birds, reptiles, first trees, first fishes, blue green algae
C) one-celled organisms, first fishes, first amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs
D) land plants, insects, marine plants, trilobites, humans
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: Geologic Time
37) The ________ theory is the leading hypothesis that describes the formation of the Sun, Earth, and other planets of the solar system.
A) planoassemblar
B) nebular
C) astrostellar
D) solar flareup
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Early Evolution of Earth
38) The ________ proposes that the bodies of our solar system formed at essentially the same time from a rotating cloud of gases and dust.
A) Big Bang theory
B) Plate Tectonics theory
C) Nebular theory
D) Heliocentric theory
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Early Evolution of Earth
39) Early during Earth's history what two things contributed heat that led to the internal melting and formation of the core?
A) a hotter proto-sun and the burning off of Earth's early hydrogen atmosphere
B) tidal forces and friction between moving unconsolidated meteorite debris
C) kinetic energy of impacts from nebular debris and decay of radioactive elements
D) chemical reactions between early unstable elements
Answer: C
Diff: 2
Topic: Early Evolution of Earth
40) The Earth's core was formed from ________.
A) a massive nickle iron asteroid that was the nucleus upon which Earth condensed
B) high density radioactive carbon
C) the left over nickle and iron that would not fit into the earlier formed crust and mantle
D) molten iron and nickle that separated from silicates and sank due to its higher density
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: Early Evolution of Earth
41) The early geologic process that formed the primitive: atmosphere, crust, mantle and core within the first few million years of Earth history was ________.
A) absolution
B) chemical differentiation or segregation
C) meltdown
D) stratification
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Early Evolution of Earth
42) In the early part of the 20th century, ________ argued forcefully for continental drift.
A) Karl Wagner
B) Edwin Rommel
C) Alfred Wegener
D) Alfred the Great
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
43) Pangaea was ________.
A) a large, ocean basin that opened in the Triassic and closed in the Paleocene
B) a large, Precambrian shield area in Africa and South America that broke apart late in the Proterozoic Eon
C) a huge mountain range that formed when Africa pushed northward into Europe in Eocene time
D) a super continent that formed in the late Paleozoic and broke apart in Triassic time
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
44) Wegener's supercontinent that began to break up about 200 million years ago was named ________.
A) Gondwanaland
B) Laurasia
C) Pangaea
D) Rodinia
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
45) ________ was never proposed as evidence supporting the existence of the Pangaea supercontinent.
A) Geometric fit between South America and Africa
B) Islands of Proterozoic rocks along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
C) Late Paleozoic glacial features
D) The Glossopteris flora
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
46) Why did Sir Edward Bullard's 1960's fit of the 900 m bathymetric contour show some areas of overlap between South America and Africa ?
A) Inaccurate bathymetry was all that was available to him prior to our modern multibeam sonar techniques.
B) Large volumes of sediment have accumulated in the deltas and fans from the Congo, Amazon, Parana, and Rio de Plata rivers to outbuild the continental shelves and slopes.
C) Massive erosion has modified the entire coastlines since 200 Ma so it is a wonder they still fit so well.
D) The work was actually done by a graduate student and Bullard never checked the details before he published it.
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
47) Paleontologic evidence for the existence of Pangaea comes from ________, a cold-loving, sub-polar, fossil fern with large seeds that was widely distributed throughout the Late Paleozoic of: Africa, Australia, India and South America
A) Platanus acerifolia
B) Glossopteris
C) Halitosis
D) Mesosaurus
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
48) What age plant and animal fossils were identical for the southern hemisphere continents, causing Wegener to hypothesize Pangaea?
A) Hadean and Earliest Archean
B) Early and Late Proterozoic
C) Late Paleozoic and Early Mesozoic
D) Late Mesozoic and Early Cenozoic
Answer: C
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
49) ________ was an aquatic, carnivorous reptile that was found both in eastern South America and southern Africa; lending support to the idea of a former land connection.
A) Anomalocaris
B) Arbustosaurus
C) Glossopteris
D) Mesosaurus
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
50) The northern extension of North America's great Paleozoic Appalachian mountain belt is now found in ________.
A) the Caledonides of the British Isles and Scandinavia
B) the rugged landscape of Western Greenland
C) the Alps of Southern Europe
D) the Mid Atlantic Ridge north of Iceland
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
51) Which of the following paleoclimatic evidence supports the idea of the late Paleozoic super continent in the Southern Hemisphere?
A) lithified loess deposits in the deserts of Chile, Australia, and Africa
B) tillites in South Africa and South America
C) thick sediments in the Amazon and Congo deltas of South America and Africa
D) cold water fossils in the deep-water sediments of the South Atlantic abyssal plain
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
52) What was Wegener's dramatic paleoclimatic evidence linking all of the southern hemisphere continents between 300 and 220 million years ago?
A) massive crossbedded red sandstones suggesting former tropical deserts
B) massive reef limestones in Alberta and the Eastern Arctic
C) tropical Carboniferous coal swamps across the Northern Hemisphere, particularly the Eastern U.S. and central Europe, where the fossil trees lacked annual growth rings
D) striated and grooved bedrock overlain by Paleozoic tillites in South American and African areas now within 30° of the equator
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
53) What paleoclimatic evidence disproved worldwide cooling as a cause for the "tropical glaciations" between 300 and 220 million years ago?
A) massive crossbedded red sandstones suggesting former tropical deserts
B) massive reef limestones in Alberta and the Eastern Arctic
C) tropical Paleozoic coal swamps across the Northern Hemisphere, particularly the Eastern U.S. and central Europe
D) tropical paleosols and laterites in Antarctica
Answer: C
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
54) According to Wegener, where was southern Africa located during the Late Paleozoic?
A) up by the north pole
B) 30° south of the equator
C) along the equator
D) over the south pole
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
55) Tethys was ________.
A) a large, ocean basin that opened in the Triassic and closed in the Paleocene
B) a large, Precambrian shield area in Africa and South America that broke apart late in the Proterozoic Eon
C) a huge mountain range formed when Africa pushed northward into Europe in Eocene time
D) a super continent that formed in the late Paleozoic and broke apart in Triassic time
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
56) Today, of all the continents, ________ is closest to the same geographic position it occupied during the Late Paleozoic.
A) India
B) South America
C) Australia
D) Antarctica
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
57) The ________ forms the relatively cool, brittle plates of plate tectonics.
A) asthenosphere
B) lithosphere
C) astrosphere
D) eosphere
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
58) A typical rate of lithospheric (tectonic) plate movement is ________.
A) 2 metres per year
B) 0.1 centimetres per year
C) 20 metres per year
D) 5 centimetres per year
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
59) New seafloor is created at ________ plate boundaries.
A) convergent
B) divergent
C) transform
D) hot spot
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
60) Consider the tectonic plates on either side of an oceanic-ridge boundary. How are the plates moving with respect to the boundary?
A) sliding along it
B) moving toward it
C) moving away from it
D) falling into it
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
61) The San Andreas fault in California and the Alpine fault in New Zealand are good examples of ________.
A) convergent margins between oceanic plates
B) emergent ocean basins
C) divergent oceanic crust
D) transform faults that cut continental crust
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
62) Shallowest to deepest, the primary compositional layers within the Earth are ________.
A) crust, mantle and core
B) lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere, outer core, inner core
C) basalt, crust, mantle, asthenosphere, core
D) sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
63) The ________ is the thinnest layer of the Earth.
A) crust
B) outer core
C) mantle
D) inner core
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
64) The oceanic crust is made of mafic rock called ________ and is about ________ thick on average.
A) basalt, 7 km
B) marine sedimentary rocks, 25 km
C) basalt, 70 km
D) granite, 35-40 km
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
65) The continental crust is heterogeneous but is predominantly made of ________ and averages ________ thick.
A) basalt, 7 km
B) granite, 35 km
C) metasedimentary rocks, 600 km
D) granite, 3.5 km
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
66) The Mantle extends from < 100 km to about ________ and is bounded at both its top and bottom by ________.
A) 600 km, layers of molten rock
B) 2900 km, layers of markedly different chemical composition
C) 290 km, the asthenosphere
D) 2900 km, material of identical composition but contrasting temperature
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
67) The mantle is made of dense rock ________ called ________.
A) <3.0 g/cm3, basalt
B) <2.9 g/cm3, granite
C) ~3.3 g/cm3, peridotite
D) >3.4 g/cm3, shergottite
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
68) The composition of the core of Earth is thought to be ________.
A) basalt
B) granite
C) peridotite
D) iron-nickel alloy
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
69) In addition to the dominant iron and nickle, the core is thought to contain ________.
A) minor amounts of heavy metals such as gold, lead, and uranium
B) large resources of diamonds
C) minor amounts of oxygen, silicon and sulphur
D) major amounts of oxygen, silicon and sulphur
Answer: C
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
70) Shallowest to deepest, the primary layers within the Earth as defined by contrasting physical properties are ________.
A) lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere, outer core, inner core
B) crust, mantle, core
C) basalt, crust, mantle, asthenosphere, core
D) sedimentary, metamorphic, igneous
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
71) The ________, about 100 km thick, is the coldest, most rigid, and most brittle layer in the Earth.
A) lithosphere
B) asthenosphere
C) mesosphere
D) inner core
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
72) On the average, lithospheric plates are ________ thick.
A) l km
B) 10 km
C) l00 km
D) 1000 km
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
73) In correct order from the centre outward, Earth includes which units?
A) core, inner mantle, outer mantle, crust
B) inner core, outer core, mantle, crust
C) inner core, crust, mantle, hydrosphere
D) core, crust, mantle, hydrosphere
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
74) The asthenosphere is actually a part of the ________ of the Earth.
A) outer core
B) crust
C) inner core
D) mantle
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
75) The ________ is thought to be the only molten, metallic portion in the Earth's interior.
A) inner core
B) lithosphere
C) mantle
D) outer core
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
76) The two layers inside the Earth which contain significant amounts of molten material are ________.
A) asthenosphere and outer core
B) crust and inner core
C) crust and mesosphere
D) mesosphere and inner core
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
77) As a self-contained planet, Earth is divided into several interacting systems called ________.
A) the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere
B) the aerosphere, aquasphere, terrasphere, and ecosphere
C) the geosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, and gaiasphere
D) the solid earth, the liquid earth, the gaseous earth and the living planet
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Spheres
78) The ________ is not a part of the Earth's physical environment.
A) geosphere
B) astrosphere
C) hydrosphere
D) atmosphere
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Spheres
79) Observing Earth from beyond the moon's orbit, the most apparent features are ________.
A) vast areas of ocean and swirling cloud patterns
B) the boundaries between the continents and the oceans
C) white polar ice caps, green rain forests and brown deserts
D) plumes of erupting volcanoes
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth's Spheres
80) Of the hydrosphere, 97% is contained in ________.
A) glaciers
B) lakes and streams
C) the oceans
D) groundwater
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Spheres
81) The Earth's atmosphere serves to ________.
A) generate Earth's magnetic field
B) generate Earth's gravitational field
C) protect us from alien invasion
D) reduce ultraviolet radiation, trap solar heat, and regulate climate
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth's Spheres
82) The ________ refers to the sum total of all life on Earth.
A) hydrosphere
B) atmosphere
C) biosphere
D) asthenosphere
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Spheres
83) Ocean waves are directly created by ________.
A) the revolution of the planet
B) the pull of the Moon's gravity
C) the drag of air across open water and water's interaction with the shoreline and sea bed
D) evaporation
Answer: C
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth's Spheres
84) The continental crust extends ________.
A) only to where their shorelines occur; beyond that is oceanic crust
B) beneath the continental shelf through to the toe of the continental slope
C) beneath about half of the ocean basins wherever it is shallow
D) deep into the mantle wherever there are subduction zones
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: The Face of Earth
85) The continental shelf is located ________.
A) between the continental slope and continental rise
B) between the continental rise and the abyssal plains
C) seaward of the continental slope
D) landward of the continental slope
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: The Face of Earth
86) Why are the youngest mountains formed either in the circum Pacific belt or the Alps-Himalayas belt?
A) These are areas of maximum plate convergence today.
B) Because this is where the oldest and strongest rocks are exposed.
C) These are the regions with the greatest political pressure.
D) Because these are the stable shield areas.
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: The Face of Earth
87) Older mountain belts are found where former continent-continent collision occurred making thickened, low density crust like in ________ where erosion has exposed deformed Precambrian rocks from deep in the crust.
A) the Appalachians and the Urals
B) the Mid Atlantic Ridge
C) the Aleutians
D) the Cascades
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: The Face of Earth
88) What is the age of most of the continental crust, especially the exposed shield areas in continental interiors?
A) Younger than the ocean basins because it is still high
B) Paleozoic and younger
C) Precambrian; with parts exceeding 4 billion years.
D) Precognition
Answer: C
Diff: 2
Topic: The Face of Earth
89) Ocean crust is generally lower in elevation ________.
A) and relatively featureless due to flat seafloor and sediments that drape everything
B) averaging about 380 metres below sea level
C) entirely because of the great weight of the overlying sea water
D) and contains prominent ridges, chains of volcanoes, deep canyons, and large plateaus
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: The Face of Earth
90) The most prominent features on the ocean floor are the ________.
A) deep-ocean trenches
B) oceanic ridges
C) seamounts
D) lava plateaus
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: The Face of Earth
91) The total length of the spreading ridge system in the world's ocean basins is about ________.
A) 700 km
B) 7,000 km
C) 70,000 km
D) 700,000 km
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: The Face of Earth
92) Time scales and intervals of importance to geologic processes ________.
A) range from less than a millisecond to billions of years
B) range only from days to millions of years
C) must be at least as long as the epochs in the geologic time scale
D) must be shorter than seismic wave vibrations or longer than mantle convection cycles but nothing in between
Answer: A
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth as a System
93) Earth's two chief energy sources for all of its heat and geologic processes are ________.
A) oil and coal
B) external solar radiation and internal decay of naturally radioactive elements
C) tidal forces and wind
D) wind and ocean currents
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth as a System
94) Human activities like damming rivers, building seawalls, tilling land, strip mining, refining ores, burning fossil fuels, and disposing of garbage ________.
A) mainly affect the landscape but not the physical environment, weather or ocean
B) have little influence beyond their immediate area of disruption
C) are all inherently evil and must cease at any cost
D) can substantially influence natural systems and geologic processes both locally and globally
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth as a System
95) The series of processes by which one rock type can transform to another, and record Earth's internal or external past environmental conditions as it does so, is called ________.
A) the Wilson cycle
B) the uniformitarian cycle
C) the rock cycle
D) the tricycle
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
96) ________ are the three, basic categories of rocks in the rock cycle.
A) Crustal, lithospheric, and transform
B) Sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic
C) Sedimentary, igneous, and volcanic
D) Weathered, sedimentary, and volcanic
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
97) Which one of the following statements is not correct?
A) Metamorphic rocks may melt to magma.
B) Sedimentary rocks may weather to igneous rocks.
C) Magmas crystallize to form igneous rocks.
D) Igneous rocks can undergo metamorphism.
Answer: B
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth as a System
98) Molten silicate material that forms at appropriate conditions of temperature and pressure for rocks to melt within the earth is called ________.
A) magma
B) ignimbrite
C) vesuvianite
D) obsidian
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
99) The process by which magmas cool and solidify to rock is termed ________.
A) volcanism
B) plutonism
C) crystallization
D) thermal metamorphism
Answer: C
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
100) ________ rocks form by crystallization and consolidation of molten magma.
A) Sedimentary
B) Indigenous
C) Primary
D) Igneous
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
101) The term igneous is ________.
A) Armenian for "containing many crystals"
B) Greek for "full of fire"
C) Latin for "rock from below"
D) Polish for "rock that flows"
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
102) The natural chemical and mechanical decomposition of rocks at Earth's surface is termed ________.
A) decrepitation
B) de-lithification
C) solifluction
D) weathering
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
103) ________ is the process by which rocks breakdown in place to produce soils and sediments.
A) Weathering
B) Lithification
C) Subduction
D) Metamorphism
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
104) In the rock cycle, the transported natural chemical and mechanical residues of weathering are termed ________.
A) debitage
B) sediments
C) soils
D) turbidites
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
105) ________ are the places where most sediments are ultimately deposited.
A) Dunes
B) Floodplains
C) Swamps
D) Oceans
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
106) In sedimentary rocks, lithification includes ________.
A) compaction and cementation
B) cementation and weathering
C) compaction and transportation
D) crystallization and cooling
Answer: A
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
107) In the rock cycle, the series of processes that transform unconsolidated sediment into sedimentary rocks is termed ________.
A) cementation
B) compaction
C) dewatering
D) lithification
Answer: D
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
108) ________ rocks always originate at the surface of the Earth.
A) Secondary
B) Igneous
C) Metamorphic
D) Sedimentary
Answer: D
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth as a System
109) Rocks that have been recrystallized under stress, or changing conditions of heat and pressure are termed ________.
A) igneous
B) metamorphic
C) sedimentary
D) rudimentary
Answer: B
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
1.2 True/False Questions
1) William Logan was Canada's first official geologist.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
2) The Second World War caused a steep decline in the post-war rate of world population growth.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
3) James Hutton's 18th century textbook emphasized the importance of catastrophic geologic processes and a short time span for the whole of Earth's geologic history.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
4) The doctrine of uniformitarianism implies that Earth's geologic history took place over a relatively short time span.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
5) The doctrine of uniformitarianism implies that the current forces and processes shaping the Earth have been operating for a very long time.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
6) The law of superposition applies primarily to sedimentary rocks and lava flows.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: Geologic Time
7) The currently accepted age of Earth is approximately 4.6 million years.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: Geologic Time
8) According to the nebular theory, all of the bodies in the universe evolved from a rotating cloud of gases and dust about 5 billion years ago.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Early Evolution of Earth
9) Despite publishing a book in 1915 called "The Origins of the Continents and Oceans", Alfred Wegener's academic training and profession was as a meteorologist and not a geologist.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
10) According to Wegener, the Late Paleozoic climate favoured by the Glossopteris ferns was sub-tropical.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
11) The faunal evidence for Pangaea was tenuous as the giant crocodillian, Mesosaurus, could have easily swum from South America to Africa.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
12) Because of plant fossil similarities, by the early part of the twentieth century, most paleontologists were in agreement that some sort of land connection existed between the southern continents during the Late Paleozoic and Early Mesozoic Eras.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
13) An extensive, Late Pleistocene glaciation covered all of southern India, southern Africa, and southeastern South America with a continental ice cap just prior to the break up of Pangaea.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
14) During late Paleozoic glaciation, southern Africa was situated over the South Pole.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
15) Seafloor spreading is the dominant process at convergent plate margins.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
16) Cooling away from the ridge causes the oceanic lithosphere to strengthen and thicken.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
17) The diameter and surface area of the Earth gradually increase as new seafloor is produced by seafloor spreading.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
18) Because of the nearly 70,000 km of spreading ridges the Earth is gradually increasing in surface area.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
19) Subduction zones are usually associated with oceanic ridge systems.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
20) During subduction, oceanic lithosphere descends into the asthenosphere.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
21) Where oceanic and continental plates converge, the denser, oceanic plate sinks beneath the continental plate.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
22) Transform faults only cut across oceanic lithosphere where ridge systems are offset.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
23) Internally, the Earth consists of spherical shells with different compositions and densities.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
24) The oldest rocks on the seafloor are much younger than the oldest rocks on the continents.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
25) In general, rocks of the continental crust are less dense than rocks of the oceanic crust.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
26) The mantle is a shell of molten metal, mainly iron, that surrounds the inner core.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
27) The mantle and crust have about the same thickness.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
28) The lithosphere, asthenosphere, and mesosphere are all layers of Earth defined by their composition.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
29) The asthenosphere is a relatively cool and rigid shell that overlies the lithosphere.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
30) There is little feedback or interaction between Earth's various spheres and systems.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Spheres
31) Shields occur in stable interior regions of continents.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: The Face of Earth
32) Oceans cover slightly less than half of the Earth's surface.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: The Face of Earth
33) According to the rock cycle, any type of rock (igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic) may be transformed into another type of rock, given enough time.
Answer: TRUE
Diff: 1
Topic: The Face of Earth
34) Igneous rocks are produced largely by the deposition and consolidation of surface materials like sand and mud.
Answer: FALSE
Diff: 1
Topic: The Face of Earth
1.3 Short Answer Questions
1) List the two, broad, traditional subject areas of geologic study.
Answer: physical and historical geology
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
2) Who was Canada's first director of its Geological Survey?
Answer: Canadian-born and knighted geologist, Sir William Logan
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
3) When was our planet created, according to James Ussher?
Answer: 4004 B.C.E.
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
4) The statement "the present is the key to the past," describes what basic geologic concept or doctrine?
Answer: uniformitarianism
Diff: 1
Topic: The Science of Geology
5) The ________ states that fossil organisms succeed one another in a definite and determinable order.
Answer: principle of fossil succession
Diff: 1
Topic: Geologic Time
6) How old is our planet thought to be from a scientific viewpoint?
Answer: 4.6 billion years
Diff: 1
Topic: Geologic Time
7) The ________ theory suggests that the bodies of our solar system evolved from a rotating cloud of hydrogen and helium.
Answer: nebular
Diff: 1
Topic: Early Evolution of Earth
8) The ________ is the layer between Earth's rigid crust and its largely liquid core.
Answer: mantle
Diff: 1
Topic: Early Evolution of Earth
9) During the first quarter of the twentieth century, ________ was the most vigorous proponent of continental drift.
Answer: Alfred Wegener
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
10) A comprehensive theory held with high confidence and respect is called a ________.
Answer: paradigm
Diff: 1
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
11) What was Alfred Wegener's academic training and main area of professional practice?
Answer: Meteorologist, working on present and past glacial climates, specifically the Greenland Ice Sheet and Late Paleozoic glaciations of the southern hemisphere.
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
12) What were Wegener's four main lines of evidence to support his continental drift hypothesis?
Answer: any three: 1) the fit of Africa and South America's coasts, 2) wide geographic distribution of fossils, 3) rock structures like mountain belts, 4) ancient climates
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
13) List three possible ways that land animals could have travelled from one continent to another in the distant geologic past.
Answer: any three: 1) rafting, 2) land links like an isthmus, 3), island hopping, or 4) continental rifting and drifting since they were all together
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
14) List the three types of plate boundaries.
Answer: divergent, convergent, transform
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
15) Sea-floor spreading occurs at ________ boundaries.
Answer: divergent
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
16) At a ________ boundary, the two plates are moving towards one another.
Answer: convergent
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
17) A conservative plate boundary where two plates slide laterally in opposite directions is a ________ boundary.
Answer: transform
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
18) Who discovered transform plate boundaries?
Answer: Canadian geophysicist John Tuzo Wilson
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
19) The San Andreas fault in California is a good example of a ________ plate boundary.
Answer: transform
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
20) The thin, outer layer of Earth, from 7 to over 35 km in thickness, is called the ________.
Answer: crust
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
21) What is the average density of continental crust?
Answer: 2.7 grams per cubic centimetre
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
22) What is the average density of oceanic crust?
Answer: 3.0 grams per cubic centimetre
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
23) Why does oceanic crust subduct under continental crust at a convergent plate margin?
Answer: oceanic crust is more dense
Diff: 2
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
24) The ________ is the solid, rocky shell between the crust and outer core.
Answer: mantle
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
25) The ________ is the relatively rigid zone above the asthenosphere that includes the crust and upper mantle.
Answer: lithosphere
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
26) What is the average thickness of Earth's lithosphere?
Answer: 100 kilometres
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
27) The ________ is the weak zone in the mantle below the lithosphere.
Answer: asthenosphere
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
28) Name Earth's internal layers that are capable of convection in the solid state.
Answer: weak partially molten asthenosphere and hot solid mesosphere. The outer core is entirely liquid.
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
29) The convective flow of liquid, metallic iron in the ________ is thought to generate Earth's magnetic field.
Answer: outer core
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
30) What is the estimated temperature of Earth's inner core?
Answer: 6700 degrees Celsius
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
31) The mass of relatively cool air held by gravity to surround the Earth is called the ________.
Answer: atmosphere
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Spheres
32) A pyroclastic flow contains ________.
Answer: rock, ash, and gas
Diff: 3
Topic: Earth as a System
33) Extending from the shoreline towards the deep-ocean basin, the continental margin may include the ________ and the ________.
Answer: continental shelf and continental slope
Diff: 1
Topic: The Face of Earth
34) List the three, basic categories of rocks as defined in the rock cycle.
Answer: igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
35) What type of rock comprises most of the exposed surface of Earth (roughly 75%)?
Answer: sedimentary
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth as a System
1.4 Word Analysis Questions
Examine the words and/or phrases for each question below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
1) A) catastrophism B) relative dating C) superposition D) fossil succession
Answer: catastrophism
Diff: 1
Topic: Geologic Time
2) A) Cretaceous B) Cambrian C) Jurassic D) Triassic
Answer: Cambrian
Diff: 2
Topic: Geologic Time
3) A) Devonian B) Silurian C) Paleogene D) Ordovician
Answer: Paleogene
Diff: 2
Topic: Geologic Time
4) A) Cenozoic B) Mesozoic C) Paleozoic D) Hadean
Answer: Hadean
Diff: 1
Topic: Geologic Time
5) A) Big Bang B) solar nebula C) protosun D) protoplanets
Answer: Big Bang
Diff: 2
Topic: Early Evolution of Earth
6) A) Alfred Wegener B) Pangaea C) T. Rex D) Mesosaurus
Answer: T. Rex
Diff: 2
Topic: Plate Tectonics: a Geologic Paradigm
7) A) divergent boundary B) mid-ocean ridge C) seafloor spreading D) subduction
Answer: subduction
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
8) A) crust B) mantle C) lithosphere D) core
Answer: lithosphere
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
9) A) lithosphere B) asthenosphere C) mesosphere D) atmosphere
Answer: atmosphere
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
10) A) hydrosphere B) stratosphere C) atmosphere D) geosphere
Answer: stratosphere
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Spheres
11) A) East Pacific B) Mid-Atlantic C) Peru-Chile D) Mid-Indian
Answer: Peru-Chile
Diff: 2
Topic: The Face of Earth
12) A) sedimentary B) igneous C) metamorphic D) mantle
Answer: mantle
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth as a System
1.5 Critical Thinking Questions
Use complete sentences, correct spelling, and the information presented in Chapter 1 to answer the question(s) below.
1) Catastrophism obviously influenced seventeenth and eighteenth century thought by implying that Earth only needed to be a few thousand years old to explain landscapes and geologic features. However, catastrophic and often sudden changes are at least a part of the rock record that geologist's attempt to interpret. List three geologic catastrophes that would most likely affect landscapes or features on Earth and explain how they get recorded in rocks.
Answer: 1) Earthquakes leave faults and tsunami deposits preserved in the rock record. 2) Landslide deposits are found in the rock record. 3) Volcanic eruptions leave lava flows and ash layers.
Diff: 3
Topic: The Science of Geology
2) Considering the discussion of the Nebular theory regarding the origin of our solar system, what is the likelihood that plate tectonics is a viable model for processes operating on other planets? Are certain planets more likely than others to exhibit plate movements and why might plate tectonics not currently be active on those planets?
Answer: Plate tectonics require convection in hot,dense planet interiors. Because planets in our solar system formed by gravitational accretion (heavier elements moving toward the centre according to the Nebular theory), it is likely that the heavier planets experience interior radioactive heat generation, convection and plate tectonics. Smaller, lighter planets probably cooled and solidified with no internal radioactive heat or convection currently being generated.
Diff: 3
Topic: Early Evolution of Earth
3) Aside from near oceanic trenches, most earthquakes originate at depths of 100 kilometres or less. Considering the physical properties of Earth's interior, what type of mechanical behavior (in rocks) must be necessary for earthquakes to occur? Explain.
Answer: Brittle deformation which occurs when Earth's crust breaks during earthquakes.
Diff: 2
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
4) Given our current knowledge of plate tectonics, is Hapgood's "Earth crust displacement" theory of large lateral crustal movements over 5000 years valid? Explain.
Answer: No. Plate movements average 5 cm/year which takes millions of years for noticeable lateral displacements.
Diff: 2
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
1.6 Visualization Questions
1) Label the layers of Earth's interior on the diagram below.
Answer: See figure 1.17
Diff: 1
Topic: Earth's Internal Structure
2) On the seafloor profile below, fill in the blanks with the correct name of the feature that is labelled.
Answer: a) continental shelf b) continental slope c) oceanic trench
Diff: 1
Topic: The Face of Earth
3) In the diagram below, match the letter of each illustration to the correct type of plate boundary.
a) transform b) divergent c) convergent
Answer: (a) b (b) c (c) a
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
4) Fill in the blanks with the correct name of the feature that is labelled.
Answer: a) oceanic trench b) oceanic ridge c) oceanic trench d) subduction zone e) transform faults
Diff: 1
Topic: Planet of Shifting Plates
5) In the spaces provided, describe what happens during the rock cycle.
Answer: a) cooling and crystallization b) weathering, transportation, and deposition c) compaction and cementation d) heat and pressure e) melting
Diff: 2
Topic: Earth as a System
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