Geology Quiz Questions

one that can satisfy its needs without jeopardizing the needs of future generations

What is a sustainable society?

Birth rate - death rate

What is the formula for population growth rate?

Japan

Which country has an essentially stable population?

The Sun

Which of the following is NOT a component of the hydrosphere?

in steady state

If transfers of energy and matter into and out of an open system are about the same, the system is said to be:

all living organisms on Earth

What is the biosphere made of?

by measuring the number of species, or groups of specie

How is biodiversity measured?

allow only energy (not mass) to move in and out of the system

Closed systems:

Solar Power

What is an example of a renewable energy resource?

it explains a large set of observations and relationships that have been independently verified by many researchers

What is true about a scientific theory?

is a tentative explanation consistent with what researchers know about a situation

What is true about a scientific hypothesis?

Geosphere

Rock and sediment belong to which component of the Earth System?

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Which is the correct order of the planets in our solar system, going from closest to the sun to farthest from the sun?

Nebula

A vast cloud of dust and gases that contracted approximately 4.5 billion years ago to form our solar system.

Crust, mantle, outer core, inner core

Which is the correct order of Earth's compositional layers, going from the surface (where we mostly live) down into the interior of the planet.

Continental crust

Granite is a rock that is typical of the:

Oceanic crust

Basalt is a rock that is typical of the:

Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, and Thermosphere

Four distinct atmospheric layers are defined based on the vertical temperature distribution in the atmosphere. Going up from Earth's surface (the bottom of the atmosphere) to the upper atmosphere, these atmospheric layers are:

Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon

Excluding water, what are the top three most abundant gases in the atmosphere today, from most abundant to least abundant?

Oxygen

Which of the following gases was likely NOT a major part of Earth's early (or first) atmosphere?

Stratospheric ozone

It helps living organisms on Earth's surface by blocking most incoming ultraviolet radiation; this radiation can damage DNA in living tissue.

Hydrosphere

Which component of the Earth System includes the water in ice sheets, glaciers, rivers, lakes, underground, and in the oceans?

Water cycle

a cycle that describes how water moves among various reservoirs such as the oceans, the atmosphere, on land, and below land's surface, in groundwater

Ice sheets and glaciers

Where is most of Earth's fresh water located?

Fossils

Preserved worm burrows, preserved animal tracks, shells, dinosaur bones

sometime between 4.2 and 3.5 billion years ago

Approximately when did life on Earth begin?

Natural selection

the principle mechanism behind evolutionary change in the biosphere

Georges Cuvier

Who recognized that some vertebrate fossils represent the remains of organisms that no longer exist?

½

What is the ratio of parent to total atoms (P/T) when exactly one half-life has elapsed

1/16

What is the parent to total atoms (P/T) ratio when exactly 4 half lives have elapsed?

Cross-cutting

Which relative time principle assumes that rock unit D is younger than rock unit G?

Superposition

Which relative time principle assumes that rock unit F is younger than rock unit C?

a

Which graph below (a-d) best illustrates the change in the proportion of unstable (parent) radioactive isotope with time?

65 million years ago

Approximately when did dinosaurs, exclusive of birds, become extinct?

The rock unit is younger than the inclusion

What must be true of a rock unit has an inclusion?

542 million years ago

Approximately when did large numbers of fossils first appear in the geologic record?

False

True or False: Relative dating involves estimating how many half lives of a given radioactive isotope have elapsed since a sample formed.

Their half-lives do not change over time - they are not sensitive to changes in environmental conditions

Why can radioactive elements be used to determine the ages of rocks?

True

True or False: The geologic time scale was originally developed using relative time principles and fossil correlation.

d

Which of the images below best represents the boundary between the Nazca and South American plates, on the western side of South America?

b

Which of the images below would most likely be associated with the creation of new oceanic crust?

a

Which of the images below best represents the plate boundary between the North American and Pacific plates along the San Andreas Fault?

200 million years old

Approximately how old is the oldest ocean crust scientifically dated to be?

Subduction zone

Where one lithospheric plate is dragged or pushed beneath another lithospheric plate.

Wegener did not offer a plausible explanation for how the continents move

When it was first proposed, Alfred Wegener's continental drift hypothesis was heavily criticized by earth scientists. What was one of their primary objections to the continental drift hypothesis?

B

Which site below is the location of continent-continent collision, a type of convergent plate boundary?

G, H, C, A

All of these sites on the map below are mid-ocean ridges.

Near mid-ocean ridges

Where do we find the youngest oceanic crust?

Continental drift and seafloor spreading

Which two ideas were eventually combined to form the theory of plate tectonics?

Pangaea

What was the name of the super-continent landmass proposed to have existed approximately 250 million years ago?

Continental rifting

Continents pull apart from each other

Igneous

Jello begins as a liquid mixture of boiling water and flavored gelatin. After it cools it forms a solid (but wobbly) material. This could be seen as an analog for the formation of what type of rock?

Metamorphic rocks

Rocks that are formed by the crystallization of new minerals in the solid state (i.e. without melting) due to heat and/or pressure are

Sedimentary

Rocks formed at the Earth’s surface from the breakup of other rocks, followed by lithification, are:

Sugar

Which is not a mineral: Ice, Diamond, Sugar, Salt

Neutrons; protons

The different isotopes of a particular element have different numbers of _______ and the same number of _______ in their respective nuclei.

Oxygen, silicon, aluminum

The three most common elements in continental crust are, from most abundant to least:

Silicates

Muscovite, Biotite, Quartz, Feldspar, Pyroxene and Olivine are all part of which mineral group

Silica; iron & magnesium

Felsic rocks and minerals have relatively more ______ and relatively less ______ & ______ than mafic rocks and minerals.

Clastic

Sandstone is what type of sedimentary rock?

False

True or False: The mineral grains of plutonic (or intrusive) rocks are usually small compared to those of volcanic (or extrusive) rocks.

Silicosis

A disease from the inhalation of silicate minerals

Marble

Metamorphosed limestone is:

Iron and magnesium

Oceanic crust has more of these elements than the continental crust:

Sulfide

What type of mineral is pyrite?

Gabbro is more crystalline

What is the difference between basalt and gabbro?

Plutonic igneous

What type of rocks are gabbro and granite?

Oxygen, iron, silicon, magnesium

What are the four most common elements in the Earth's geosphere (i.e., for the whole planet)?

Geosphere

Where did most of the carbon-dioxide in our 2nd atmosphere go?

Photosynthesis

What process lead to the high amount of oxygen in our atmosphere today, relative in Earth’s 2nd atmosphere?

Thermosphere

Highest layer - greatest in elevation above Earth's surface. Where charged particles coming from the sun interact with the upper atmosphere, generating the colored light shows known as auroras

Mesosphere

Second highest - the layer below the highest layer. Where most meteors burn up, generating so-called shooting stars

Stratosphere

Second lowest layer - the layer just above the lowest layer. Where the ozone layer blocks most UV light from reaching Earth’s surface

Troposphere

Lowest layer - the layer we mostly live and breath in. Where most non-aquatic life exists, and where most weather occurs.

2.8%

What percentage of today's hydrosphere is the form of freshwater (ice, groundwater, surface water)?

97.2%

What percentage of today's hydrosphere is the form of ocean water (salty-water occupying the ocean basins)?

Precipitation & evaporation

What are the two most important processes involved in exchanging water between the larger liquid portions of the hydrosphere, and the much smaller amount of water vapor in the atmosphere?

71%

Approximately what percentage of Earth’s surface is covered by ocean water?

Antarctica

What continent currently possesses the largest accumulation of ice? (Hint, this continent is not an autonomous dependency of the Kingdom of Denmark)

Sedimentary

Rock that has formed from lithification of any type of sediment, including clastic or chemical sediments, or organic remains.

Weathering

The destructive processes that, through both physical disintegration and chemical decomposition, change rock that has been exposed at Earth’s surface.

Protolith

The original rock from which a metamorphic rock formed.

Magma

Molten rock beneath the planet’s surface.

Erosion

The transportation of weathering products by wind, water flow, or ice flow.

Igneous

Rock produced by solidification of molten material, either lava or magma.

Metamorphic

Rock that formed by the crystallization of new minerals in the solid state (i.e. without melting) due to heat and/or pressure.

Lava

Molten rock that has reached the planet’s surface.

Granite

Origin/Texture: plutonic or intrusive, phaneritic. Composition: felsic.

Basalt

Origin/Texture: volcanic or extrusive, aphanitic. Composition: mafic.

Diorite

Origin/Texture: plutonic or intrusive, phaneritic. Composition: intermediate.

Gabbro

Origin/Texture: plutonic or intrusive, phaneritic. Composition: mafic..

Andesite

Origin/Texture: volcanic or extrusive, aphanitic. Composition: intermediate.

Rhyolite

Origin/Texture: volcanic or extrusive, aphanitic. Composition: felsic.

Heat and pressure causing metamorphism

What is d?

Melting

What is b?

Cementation and compaction (lithification)

What is g?

Weathering, erosion, and deposition

What is c?

Cooling and solidification

What is f?

Felsic

More silica; Granite; Feldspar and Quartz; light-colored minerals; Less dense

Mafic

Less silica; More Mg & Fe; Basalt; Dark-colored minerals; Denser