Geology 101 Final Exam Part 2

A warm air mass is above a cold air mass resulting in __________.

A stable, high pressure conditions.

How fast is soil creep?

1 to 10 millimeters per year.

A dry channel is found __________.

In a desert.

After melting of a continental ice cap, the surface of the continent will tend to __________.

Rise

Large masses of ice on land that show evidence of movement are called __________.

Glaciers

Storms are always associated with?

Low pressure

Which of the following is designed to prevent or retard shoreline erosion (meaning the idea is it will work whether it works or does not)?

a) groin
b) seawall
c) importing sand
D) ALL OF THE ABOVE

Which of the following statements is true?

a) wind is more effective erosion agent in wet climates.
B) WIND IS A MORE EFFECTIVE EROSION AGENT IN DRY CLIMATES.
c) wind is an equally erosion agent in wet and dry climates.
d) wind does not cause erosion

In the temperate zone of the Earth's southern hemisphere between 30 degree S and 60 degree S latitude, the prevailing winds come from the __________.

West

Wind formed dunes show the dominant wind direction.

True

Which of the following does not promote mass wasting?

a) removal of trees
b) housing development on top of a hill
c) heavy rainfall
D) ALL OF THESE PROMOTE MASS WASTING

Flood control does not prevent floods from occurring on the Mississippi River.

True

If pieces of one rock are included in another rock, the pieces are __________.

Older

Which of the following sedimentary structures can be caused by the movement of wind?

a) cross-beds
b) dunes
c) desert pavement
D) ALL OF THE ABOVE
e) none of the above

Which of the following can trigger a landslide?

a) an earthquake
b) a heavy rainstorm
c) removal of material from the base of a slope
D) ALL OF THESE

Which of the following statements is false?

A) DESERTS CAN OCCUR UNDER VIRTUALLY STATIONARY AREAS OF LOW ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE.
b) deserts can occur so far inland that air precipitates all moisture before reaching the desert area.
c) deserts can occur where are is so cold only small amounts of moisture can precipitate.
d) deserts can occur where moisture-bearing winds are blocked by mountain ranges.

How does desert pavement form?

By wind erosion.

Low pressure systems in the northern hemisphere spin?

Always counter-clockwise

The main reason Venus atmosphere differs from that of Earth is __________.

The slow rate of spin.

Hurricanes locally raise sea level.

True

The person that recognized a fossil was the remains of a previously living organism was?

Steno

For a given river, which of the following floods would have the greatest discharge?

a) a 2-year flood
b) a 5-year flood
C) A 10-YEAR FLOOD
d) one cannot tell from the information provided.

A rock formed with 2,000 atoms of a radioactive parent element, but only contains 500 radioactive parent atoms today. If the half-life for the radioactive element is one million years, how old is the rock?

2,000,000 years old.

Particles that roll and slide along the river bottom are called __________.

Bed load

Over 80% of water used in California is for __________.

Agriculture and lawns

Natural levees are built up by

Floods

Alaska does not have the same severity of costal erosion as the rest of the United States because __________.

It does not have large numbers of seawalls and groins and dams.

What is the probability of a 50-year flood occurring next year?

2%

Based on what you have learned in this class, it would be wise to spend more money on groins and seawalls to prevent coastal erosion.

False

If the velocity of a stream is tied to the discharge of a stream, then the average velocity of a stream is?

Not constant.

The geologic time scale is important because __________.

a) it provided the time necessary for plate tectonics and evolution.
b) it allows the correlation of rocks of similar age.
c) revealed the changes of life underwent through time.
D) ALL OF THE ABOVE

Bottled water has been scientifically tested and shown to be healthier than tap water.

False

In general, the most dangerous hurricanes form at the equator, are strengthened by the ITCZ, and can fluctuate between the northern and southern hemispheres.

False

The volume (amount) of water flowing past a point in a given time is called the __________.

Discharge

A rock layer that has the same physical properties is called a __________.

Formation

Air always attempts to move from high pressure to low pressure.

True

If a landslide blocks a river it is safe to leave the landslide dam alone and let nature run its course.

False

What is the name for an erosion surface that separates two sets of sedimentary layers with non-parallel bedding planes (Hint: Tilted rock)?

Angular unconformity

The principal of superposition states that __________.

Older units occur at the bottom of a section, young units occur above.

Fossils deposited in the Ordovician Period (over 450 million years ago) from western Maine do not match the fossils from eastern Maine because the fossils from eastern Maine.

Were originally part of Europe and at a later time latched onto North America.

The Earth spins faster at the equator than at the poles.

True

Water use in California has affected the marine life in the Gulf of California.

True

Which of the following sedimentary structures can be caused by the movement of wind?

a) cross-beds
b) ripples
c) landslides
D) BOTH A & B

The westerlies and trade winds are generated by __________.

The spin of the high pressures.

The number of dams will affect the stability of a coastline's beaches.

True

Rockslides are similar to __________.

a) rockfalls, in both are mass wasting events involving rock.
b) landslides, in that both are wasting events involving material still connected to the ground.
c) mudflows, in that both are mass wasting events involving water.
d) both A & C
E) BOTH A & B

The sand at Hawaii's beaches was transported by the trade winds to Hawaii.

True

The Colorado River does have enough water for the western states to share.

False

The main reason why geologists in the 1860s rejected Lord Kelvin's estimated age of the Earth was the support for __________.

Uniformitarianism

The 100-year flood can occur in back to back years, i.e. in 2002 and 2003.

True

Minnesota is currently uplifting by several millimeters per year because?

The ice that used to be on top of it (causing it to sink in the past) has melted.

Which of the following is used by geologists to determine the relative ages in a rock sequence?

a) superposition
b) fossils
c) cross-cutting relations
D) ALL OF THESE

Paleozoic means __________.

Old Life

Hurricanes will occur only during certain parts of a year.

True

New Orleans will likely be hit by a hurricane similar to Hurricane Katrina once every 30 years.

True

The reason why the ocean's salinity does not indicate the age of the Earth is:

a) the occurrence of evaporite deposits.
b) the addition of water to the Earth's atmosphere through comets.
c) the secretion of shells by animals.
D) BOTH A AND C

Fossils can be used (by themselves) to match up the ages of rocks separated by thousands of miles.

True

To determine the absolute age of a granite, it is best to use an absolute dating technique such as radiometric decay.

True

There was not life on Earth before the Cambrian (544-505 million years ago)

False

Fossils are most common in which rock types?

Sedimentary

Which of the following radioactive isotopes is the most useful for dating very young (< 20,000 year old) wood and charcoal.

Carbon-14

Human fossils are not found with dinosaur fossils.

True

Life evolved in the ocean before it evolved on land.

True

For a given river, which of the following floods would have the highest discharge?

a) a 2-year flood
b) a 5-year flood
C) A 10-YEAR FLOOD
d) one cannot tell from the information provided.

Sand dunes require __________.

A supply of sand.

Flood control does not prevent floods from occurring on the Mississippi River.

True