PSU Geoscience 001 Final Exam Practice

The age of the Universe is closest to:

A. 50 billion years.

B. 20 billion years.

C. 4 billion years.

D. 1 billion years.

B. 20 Billion years

What was the solar nebula formed from?

A. An exploded star.

B. Pieces of the sun.

C. Condensed elements including He, H, C and O.

C. Condensed elements including He, H, C and O.

Which of the following formed last?

A. Atmosphere.

B. Earth.

C. Oceans.

C. Oceans

Which of the following is most common in the Earth's core?

A. Al

B. Ni

C. Si

D. Ca

B. Nickel

Approximately how deep would you have to drill to reach the mantle under State College?

A. 5 km

B. 10 km

C. 20 km

D. 50 km

E. 80 km

D. 50 km

What causes reversals in the Earth's magnetic field?

A. Changes in the Earth's gravitational field.

B. Changing fluid motions in the outer core.

C. Sun spots.

D. Spreading rate changes.

B. Changing fluid motions in the outer core.

Which of the following was NOT used as evidence for plate tectonics?

A. Hot spot tracks.

B. Magnetic reversals.

C. "Polar wander" paths.

D. Sedimentary rock ages.

D. Sedimentary rock ages.

Which of the following cities has the highest seismic risk?

A. New York.

B. Anchorage.

C. Miami.

D. New Orleans.

E. Chicago.

D. New Orleans.

Which is of the following is NOT found on or near mid ocean ridges?

A. Black smokers.

B. Small transform faults.

C. Chemosynthetic organisms.

D. Photosynthetic algae.

D. Photosynthetic algae.

Which measurement could give you typical rates of sea floor spreading at mid ocean ridges?

A. GPS-satellite.

B. Gravity.

C. Heat flow.

D. Seismic reflection.

A. GPS-satellite.

Which of the following is not a Hot Spot?

A. Hawaii.

B. Barbados.

C. Yellowstone.

D. Iceland.

B. Barbados.

What is a back arc basin?

A. A small basin saddled in a mid ocean ridge.

B. A marginal basin behind an island arc.

C. A pull-apart basin in a transform setting.

D. Another name for a rift basin.

B. A marginal basin behind an island arc.

Why do seismic waves slow down in the low velocity zone?

A. Because the rock contains silicates.

B. Because the rock is partially molten.

C. Because the rock is saturated with water.

D. Because the pressure is greater.

B. Because the rock is partially molten.

Which comes first in the rifting cycle?

A. Young ocean basin.

B. Mature ocean basin.

C. Rift valleys.

B. Mature ocean basin.

What is the accretionary prism made up of?

A. Rift sediments including lake deposits.

B. Beach deposits and river deposits.

C. Sediments derived from the volcanic arc.

D. Thick, graded beds derived from alluvial fans.

C. Sediments derived from the volcanic arc.

What is often found in a failed rift?

A. Rivers.

B. Volcanoes.

C. Trenches.

D. Glaciers.

C. Trenches.

Which of the following lies at the Moho?

A. Lithosphere / Asthenosphere.

B. Crust / Mantle boundary.

C. Core / Mantle.

D. Ocean / Continental.

B. Crust / Mantle boundary.

In what temperature range does melting occur?

A. 200-400oC

B. 400-600oC

C. 1000-1200oC

D. 1600-1800oC

E. >2400oC

C. 1000-1200oC

Which magma type is most likely to erupt explosively?

A. Basalt.

B. Andesite.

C. Rhyolite.

C. Rhyolite.

Where are the finest grained igneous rocks found?

A. When plutonic rocks cool very slowly in a batholith.

B. When volcanic rocks cool in water.

C. When volcanic rocks cool inside of the volcano

D. When plutonic rocks cool in dikes and sills.

B. When volcanic rocks cool in water.

What is a dike?

A. A horizontal sheet-like igneous intrusion.

B. A vertical sheet-like igneous intrusion.

C. A very large pluton.

D. A mushroom-shaped igneous intrusion.

A. A horizontal sheet-like igneous intrusion.

How is andesite formed?

A. From dry melting of peridotite in the upper mantle.

B. From fractionation of granite in the crust.

C. From wet melting of basalt in subduction zones.

A. From dry melting of peridotite in the upper mantle.

What is a phreatic eruption?

A. When water enters the magma system and the volcano blows up.

B. When a volcano forms a nuee ardente.

C. When a mudflow forms from a glacier.

D. When ring dike eruptions occur.

A. When water enters the magma system and the volcano blows up.

When do the most deadly eruptions on a volcano occur?

A. When there is little gas in the plumbing system.

B. When the volcano is at its tallest.

C. When the magma is least viscous.

D. When the magma system empties.

D. When the magma system empties.

Why may earthquake swarms indicate an impending eruption?

A. Because earthquakes are required to trigger eruptions.

B. Because earthquakes indicate lower pressure.

C. They indicate magma moving within the volcano.

D. Because earthquakes indicate pressure building.

D. Because earthquakes indicate pressure building.

How were most people killed during the 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelee?

A. Mudflows.

B. Tsunami.

C. Starvation.

D. A nuee ardente.

D. A nuee ardente.

In which of the following environments do cross beds form?

A. Glaciers.

B. Shallow ocean.

C. Desert.

D. B and C.

E. A, B, ad C.

D. B and C.

Where is limestone forming today?

A. In swamps in the Mississippi delta.

B. Under the Mid-Atlantic ridge.

C. In the Sahara Desert.

D. In reefs in the Bahamas.

D. In reefs in the Bahamas.

In which of the following environments would clay likely be deposited today?

A. Under a fast moving glacier.

B. In a windy desert.

C. In a quiet lake.

D. Under a fast growing reef.

C. In a quiet lake.

What might you conclude from a river mudstone overlain by a beach sandstone?

A. Sea level is rising through time.

B. Sea level is not changing through time.

C. Sea level is falling through time.

A. Sea level is rising through time.

In which of the following places would you expect to find metamorphism occurring?

A. Next to a pluton that is being emplaced.

B. In a fault zone.

C. In continent-continent collision.

D. All of the above.

D. All of the above.

Which of the following metamorphic rocks represents the lowest amount of pressure and temperature?

A. Schist.

B. Gneiss.

C. Slate.

What best describes slate?

A. A fine grained rock that fractures in planes.

B. A rock with platy mica and quartz.

C. A banded rock.

What is the role of fluids in metamorphic processes?

A. They cool the rock down so reactions are completed faster.

B. They transport ions and increase reaction rates.

C. They increase convection and thus slow melting.

D. They increase shearing in rocks and thus increase reactivity.

Which was the most significant factor in causing fatalities on the 26th December 2004, Great Sumatra Quake?

A. The first motion was downwards.

B. The focus was deep.

C. The tide was really low.

D. The epicenter was on the sea floor.

Which rock type is a dangerous foundation for a home in a seismically active region?

A. Mudstone.

B. Gabbro.

C. Limestone.

D. Evaporite.

E. Schist.

If the first direct S wave took ten minutes longer to arrive at a seismograph than the first direct P wave, which of the following statements is correct?

A. The epicenter is 300 kilometers away from the seismograph.

B. The epicenter is 600 kilometers away from the seismograph.

C. The epicenter is 1000 kilometers away from the seismograph.

D. The epicenter is 1500 kilometers away from the seismograph.

E. The epicenter is 2500 kilometers away from the seismograph.

Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. P waves do not travel through liquids.

B. Rayleigh waves involve a rolling motion.

C. Surface waves do the least damage in a quake.

D. S waves are the first waves to arrive after a quake.

E. P waves are shear waves.

What is liquefaction?

A. When water in rocks makes seismic waves slow down.

B. When water prevents P waves from traveling through rock.

C. When water makes deformation brittle.

D. When water prolongs an earthquake.

E. When rock behaves like a liquid when seismic waves pass through it.

Why would radon in groundwater potentially signify a quake in the future?

A. Because it signifies increased heat flow.

B. Because it signifies tiny cracks/increased stress in the ground.

C. Because it signifies liquefaction about to occur.

D. Because it leaks when a hidden fault is moving towards the surface.

Why is a seismic gap one way to make predictions about earthquakes?

A. Because strain builds up over time in fault segments with no recent activity.

B. Because inactive parts of faults are always the first to have seismic activity.

C. Because gaps along faults transmit fluids that can trigger quakes.

D. Because gaps are signs of high dilatancy.

Identify the type of fault above:

A. Normal.

B. Reverse.

C. Strike slip.

C. Strike slip.

In what setting is the fault above most likely to be found?

A. Convergent boundary.

B. Divergent boundary.

A. Convergent boundary.

Which period comes after the Jurassic?

A. Permian.

B. Cretaceous.

C. Tertiary.

D. Devonian.

E. Triassic.

What does biostratigraphy rely on?

A. Counting of sedimentary varves.

B. Changes in the Earth's magnetic field.

C. Evolution of life over time.

D. Decay of radioactive parent isotopes.

You are given a mineral that contains 2000 grams of a radioactive parent isotope with a half-life of 150 million years and 14000 grams of the daughter isotope. How old is the mineral?

A. 100 million years.

B. 250 million years.

C. 300 million years.

D. 450 million years.

E. 500 million years.

What are typical half-lives of radioactive isotope systems used for dating geologic materials (other than C-14)?

A. Thousands of years.

B. Millions of years.

C. Billions of years.

How is C-14 produced?

A. During forest fires.

B. From nuclear bomb explosions.

C. From cosmic bombardment of N-14.

D. By sunspot activity.

What is the last stage of the global conveyor belt?

A. North Atlantic Deep Water.

B. Antarctic Bottom Water.

C. The Gulf Stream.

D. The Kuroshio Current.

Why is salinity an important property for ocean circulation?

A. Because it affects the density of ocean water.

B. Because it is a function of the amount of ions in ocean water.

C. Because it affects the amount of oxygen in ocean water.

What causes tides?

A. Water movement around the globe.

B. Refraction between waves and currents.

C. The gravitational pull of the moon and the sun.

D. Distinct changes in the gradient of the continental shelf.

In which part of the continental margin are deep canyons found?

A. The shelf.

B. The slope.

C. The rise.

D. The abyssal plain.

What is a good measure to stabilize beach dunes?

A. Concrete walls.

B. Concrete foundation.

C. Planting grasses.

D. Cris-crossing with wood pilings.

What factor played the largest role in damage and fatalities from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans?

A. The amount of rain

B. The 160 mph maximum wind speeds.

C. Tornadoes.

D. The large storm surge.

What is one of the major goals of the Army Corps of Engineers to prevent flooding in New Orleans?

A. Installing pumping systems capable of removing a lot of water.

B. Dredging a whole new network of canals.

C. Building levees taller than all of the buildings in the city.

D. Using landfill to elevate low-lying areas of the city.

As sea level rises, which way do barrier islands migrate over time?

A. Landward.

B. Seaward.

What forms when sea level falls over time?

A. Fjords.

B. Barrier islands.

C. Raised beaches.

D. Tidal pools.

What happens on a barrier island where a large development is built out to the shore?

A. The barrier island migration will switch direction and move seaward.

B. Inlets on the island will be infilled by sand in future storms.

C. Erosion will intensify right around the development.

D. The land will subside and the barrier island will be inundated by the ocean.

Which of the following landforms often lies at the beginning of a river channel (i.e. in the mountains)?

A. Delta.

B. Ox-bow lake.

C. Dune fields.

D. Alluival fan.

Where do ox-bow lakes form?

A. Between tight meanders.

B. On a delta surface.

C. In a braided river channel.

D. Where a tributary meets the trunk channel.

E. At a drainage divide.

Which of the following changes is correct?

A. Slope increases from a youthful to an old age river

B. Discharge increases from a youthful to an old age river.

C. Channel depth decreases from a youthful to an old age river

D. Sediment load becomes coarser grained from a youthful to an old age river

What measurements may be used to estimate the 100-year flood level?

A. Discharge.

B. Slope of river banks.

C. Suspended load grain size.

D. Levee height.

A family is looking to build a home near one of four different rivers, which of the following would be the worst place to build?

A. River A: at an elevation of 100 meters above the stream level at the 5 year flood level.

B. River B: at an elevation of 2 meters above stream level at the 10 year flood level.

C. River C: at an elevation of 8 meters above stream level at the 25 year flood level.

D. River D: at an elevation of 1 meter above stream level at the 100 year flood level.

How are river terraced formed?

A. When severe flooding occurs.

B. When a river cuts down to a new level

C. When a meander carves into the surrounding rock.

Which of the following has the highest porosity?

A. Unfractured granite.

B. Well sorted sandstone.

C. Poorly sorted mudstone.

Which of the following would lead to a cone of depression in an aquifer?

A. Extended overpumping.

B. Major period of heavy rainfall.

C. A regional drought.

D. New artesian springs.

Why do caves form in limestone?

A. Because it is easily weathered by physical processes.

B. Because the rock type has natural cavities in it.

C. Because slightly acidic rainwater readily dissolves it.

D. Because the rock is always highly sorted and so very porous.

Which of the following is usually a good aquiclude?

A. Mudstone.

B. Limestone.

C. Sandstone.

What would you consider most important when deciding exactly where to drill a well for your home?

A. Finding a level site.

B. Increasing the distance from a nearby gas station.

C. Finding a place where the soil is porous.

D. Moving the well as far from other homes as possible.

How does land subsidence result from overpumping?

A. When all of the water is extracted from a large underground tank that collapses.

B. When pollution fills an aquifer and dissolves the rock

C. When so much water is pumped the rock no longer supports itself.

D. When the pressure from industrial pumping weakens the rock that then subsides.

What is an artesian spring?

A. A natural spring that emerges from a mountainous area.

B. A natural spring that comes from a karst system.

C. A natural spring that flows vertically upward.

D. A natural spring that comes from a perched aquifer.

Which is a significant issue related to groundwater in coastal Florida?

A. Extraordinarily deep aquifers.

B. High mercury contents of waters.

C. Land subsidence.

D. Saltwater incursion.

When is a pump needed to deliver water to a household tank from a water tower?

A. When the tank lies above the potentiometric surface.

B. When the tank lies below the potentiometric surface.

C. When the tank lies uphill from the tower.

D. When the tower is uphill from the tank.

What is the angle of repose?

A. The angle at which a slope of loose material is stable.

B. The angle at which material rests after a landslide.

C. The angle at which man-made slopes are stable when engineered correctly.

D. The angle at which hill slopes will creep down via slumping.

What are the ingredients of an avalanche?

A. Ice, snow, rock, water.

B. Mud, water, vegetation, rock.

What is a good measure to stabilize beach dunes?

A. Concrete walls.

B. Concrete foundation.

C. Planting grasses.

D. Cris-crossing with wood pilings.

What factor played the largest role in damage and fatalities from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans?

A. The amount of rain

B. The 160 mph maximum wind speeds.

C. Tornadoes.

D. The large storm surge.

Which of the following would make you nervous?

A. A hillside house built on limestone in a seismically active area.

B. A house built on level mudstone in a seismically active area.

C. A hillside house built on granite in a seismically active area.

D. A house built on level sandstone in a seismically active area.

Approximately how old is the oldest known FOSSIL evidence for life?

A. 4.5 b.y.

B. 3.5 b.y.

C. 2.5 b.y.

D. 1.5 b.y.

How potentially were earliest proteins synthesized?

A. From transformation of the primordial soup by radioactivity.

B. From transformation of graphite by radioactivity.

C. From transformation of methane by lightning.

D. From fusion of alpha and beta particles.

Fossils of the earliest cells look like:

A. Segmented chains.

B. Concentric rings.

C. Hexagons.

D. Zig-zag structures.

What happened to dramatically increase free oxygen at 2.5 b.y.?

A. Volcanic activity increased.

B. Metamorphic activity decreased.

C. A dramatic increase in the abundance of stromatolites.

D. A sudden cooling of the earth increased weathering rates.

E. Bacteria stopped utilizing oxygen.

How were the Burgess Shale faunas killed?

A. By a major flood.

B. By fire.

C. By a major impact.

D. By a submarine landslide.

Which one of the following is a possible explanation for the Biologists Big Bang at 543 Ma?

A. A sudden change in the composition of the atmosphere.

B. Evolution of new predators required animals to develop skeletons for protection.

C. A significant increase in the size of the oceans.

D. Evolution of the fish led to new niches.

94. From what age are the oldest known primates?

A. The Permian/Triassic Boundary.

B. The Cretaceous/Tertiary Boundary.

C. The Paleocene/Eocene Boundary.

Which gas was a likely killer at the Permian/Triassic (P/T) Boundary?

A. CO

B. CH4

C. H2S

D. NH3

Which of the following went extinct at the P/T boundary?

A. Ammonites.

B. Foraminifera.

C. Reptiles.

D. Trilobites.

Why was acid rain so potent after the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary impact?

A. Because so much weathering occurred.

B. Because so much dissolution occurred.

C. Because the asteroid hit carbonate and anhydrite terrane.

D. Because the heat was so intense and melting of lots of limestone resulted.

What K/T impact response had the largest effect on North American animals and plants?

A. The massive tsunami.

B. A major fire ball.

C. The huge earthquakes.

D. Shock waves.

How were global fires set at the K/T boundary?

A. By heat generated from the impact.

B. By acid-base reactions.

C. By nitrous oxides.

D. By falling red-hot spherules.

What type of glacier accounts for most of the ice on Earth?

A. Ice sheet.

B. Ice shelf.

C. Ice cap.

D. Valley.

Which of the following would halt ice advance immediately?

A. Major cooling.

B. Extreme drought.

C. Slight warming.

What lies under and ice shelf?

A. Land.

B. Water.

What is the process that describes melting of ice?

A Dispersion.

B. Condensation.

C. Bioturbation.

D. Ablation.

What causes crevasses to form?

A When major amounts of precipitation fall.

B. Changes in slope beneath a glacier.

C. When the ice melts very rapidly and cracks form.

D. When too many climbers walk over the ice.

What are typical rates of glacial advance for a healthy glacier?

A 2-10 cm/year

B. 1-2 m/year.

C. 10-300 m/year.

D. 2-6 km/year

Which of the following is happening today?

A Large pieces of ice shelves are breaking off.

B. Valley glaciers are shrinking but major ice sheets are growing.

C. The ice sheets are shrinking but valley glaciers are growing.

D. Ice caps are growing very rapidly.

How thick is thickest part of the ice sheet on Antarctica?

A. 200 meters.

B. 1200 meters.

C. 3500 meters.

Why is albedo significant for glaciation?

A. Because ice growth leads to major heat loss.

B. Because ice retains a lot of heat.

C. Because ice growth leads to less tree cover.

D. Because ice growth changes the amount of water in the atmosphere.

What is a cirque?

A. A ridge formed where two valley glaciers meet.

B. A depression formed where a valley glacier originates.

C. A lake formed in the place of an ice block in outwash.