GEO 102 Harrell University of Alabama Final Review

E) all of the above

Geologist Study

A) rocks and minerals

B) oceans and currents

C) the atmosphere

D) how living things interact with earth

E) all of the above

B) observations, hypothesis, tests, theory, law

Which is the correct order for the scientific method

B) 4.6 billion years ago

What is the scientifically accepted age of the Earth?

A) They were all moving away from us

A major piece of evidence for the big bang theory is that the light we see from all the galaxies in the universe is a red-shift (the light we see from them is from the red end of the light spectrum). The reason why these galaxies appear this way is because...

D) inner core, outer core, mantle, crust

In correct order from the center outward, Earth includes which units?

B) Earth's magnetic field

Earth's surface is protected from solar wind and cosmic radiation by_____________

B) covalent bond

which of the following are very strong molecular bonds resulting from two atoms simultaneously sharing electrons?

C) Silicates (Si04^-2)

Which is the most abundant group of minerals in the Earth's crust?

D) they have same composition but different crystal structure

Diamond and graphite are polymorphs. What does that mean?

B) mafic

There are two main types of silicate minerals. One is usually darker and denser than the other because it contains magnesium and iron. What is the name of that group?

D) All of the above

Which of the following is true for minerals?

A) They have a specific, internal, crystalline structure

B) They are naturally occurring

C) They have a specific chemical composition

D) all of the above

C) Cleavage

___________ is the tendency for minerals to break cleanly along planes of weak bonding

B) Hardness

The Mohs Scale is used to determine the ________ of a mineral

D) All of the above

The increase of temperature with depth is called geothermal gradient. What is the source of earth's internal heat?

A) gravitational compression

B) radioactive decay of uranium

C) remnant heat from cosmic bombardment during the early formation of the Earth

D) All of the above

B) crystallize from liquid, molten material

Igneous rocks are rocks that_______________

A) quickly

Aphanitic texture results from molten rock that cools

B) false

True or False. During an eruption, magma may flow down the slopes of a volcano

A) are primarily made of compacted and cemented sediment

Sedimentary rocks are rocks that______________

B) biochemical

Fossiliferous limestone is a type of which sedimentary rock category?

D) foliated and non-foliated

The two primary categories of metamorphic rocks are__________

D) both A and B

Plate boundaries can be identified by the location of

A) volcanoes

B) earthquakes

C) hot spots

D) both A and B

A) Marble

Limestone is the protolith of which metamorphic rock?

C) glacial deposits across multiple continents that are no longer in cold areas

One of Wegner's major pieces of evidence for plate tectonics was....

B) False

True or False. Wegener correctly identified the mechanism that causes continents to move over the surface of our planet

C) share a magnetic reversal pattern

One reason that we know continents move, is because the rocks on either side of the mid-ocean ridges...

C) mantle convection, ridge push, and slab pull

What are three major forces that drive the movement of tectonic plates?

C) it gets pulled into the mantle, melted, and recycled

What happens to ocean crust that is subducted?

A) a deep ocean trench

You will always find a convergent boundary at...

A) Divergent plate boundary

What type of boundary occurs when two tectonic plates move away from one another?

C) convergent: continent-continent

The Himalayan Mountains are an example of _____ plate boundary

C) transform plate boundary

What type of boundary occurs when two tectonic plates life past one another?

B) a point on the earth's crust where heat from the mantle is rising to the surface

What is a hotspot?

C) known to have experienced numerous polarity reversals, due to remnant magnetization of iron-rich minerals in rocks

The magnetic field of Earth in the geologic past is...

D) ocean-ocean convergent margins

Volcanic island arcs are a typical result of____

D) hot-spot volcanism

Hawaii is an example of

A) increases

The age of oceanic crust _____ with increasing distance from a mid-ocean ridge

D) discrete pieces of lithosphere at the surface of the solid Earth that move with respect to one another

Under the theory of plate tectonics, the plates themselves are______

B) Sedimentary rock layers 1-3, Pluton A, Pluton B, Fault, Sedimentary rock layer 4

Select the correct order of the geologic events (from oldest to youngest) in the above diagram

A) the time it takes for half of the parent isotope to decay to daughter isotope

How is the half-life of a radioactive parent isotope defined?

C) 4:12

According to the image above, after two half-lives have passed, what is the ratio of parent isotope to daughter isotope?

D) 200 million years

In the above question, if the half-life of the parent isotope is 100 million years, how old is the rock sample after two half-lives have passed?

A) True

True or False. The Mesozoic-Cenozoic boundary occurred 66 million years ago.

B) Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian

What is the correct order of the periods of the Paleozoic Era from oldest to youngest?

B) nonconformity

An unconformity in which sedimentary rocks overlie igneous or metamorphic rocks is termed a(n) _________

B) very close to shore, above wave base

San is often deposited in which type of marine (ocean) enviornment

A) Shark tooth

Which of the following is considered a body fossil?

A) shark tooth

B) Trilobite trackway

C) Dinosaur nest

D) Crab Burrow

Superposition

In an undisturbed sequence of sedimentary rocks, younger rock layers overlie older layers

Lateral Continuity

Sediments generally accumulate in continuous sheets in all directions and will either "pinch out" or run into a preexisting feature

Original Horizontality

Sediments are deposited in flat layers that are perpendicular to the direction of gravity

Cross-cutting relationships

When looking at a rock or structure that bisects another, the feature that has been cut is older

D) All of the above

Which of the following has been proposed as places where the origin of life may have occurred?

A) on another planet and brought here by an asteroid

B) in hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean

C) At hot springs like Yellowstone

D) All of the above

C) north american corn

Which of these organisms have been modified by artificial (human-driven) selection?

B) collisional mountain building at edges of continent core

What is an orogen?

C) the dark coats gave them better camouflage to avoid predators

We watched a video on pocket mice evolution in the desert. Why were the dark colored mice much more common on the basaltic lava flows?

C) dolphins and sharks both evolving dorsal fins and streamlined bodies

Which of these is an example of convergent evolution?

A) Alfred Wallace

Who else developed a theory of evolution through natural selection at about the same time as Darwin?

A) a population is separated into two by a geographic barrier

Allopatric speciation occurs when:

A) Nitrogen (N2)

Throughout Earth's history, which of these gasses has been the most abundant in the atmosphere?

A) A eukaryote has a cell nucleus, a prokaryote does not

What is different between a prokaryote and a eukaryote?

B) Increase in atmospheric oxygen levels

What event was the most likely cause of a snowball Earth?

D) the early atmosphere had more methane than the modern atmosphere

How did the atmosphere of early earth differ from the modern atmosphere?

B) near the beginning go the Proterozoic

When was the first significant rise of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere?

C) series of accreted island arcs from early continent building

Greenstone belts are:

B) evolution is a non-random process

Which of these statements about the theory of evolution through natural selection is true?

B) False

True or false. Limestone is usually deposited in polar (very cold) marine environments

A) hadean

Which of these time periods is oldest?

A) Hadean

B) Phanerozoic

C) Proterozoic

D) Archean

B) Varves

What sedimentary structure is indicative of a low-energy, deep-water lake in a temperate climate?

A) the first known multicellular organisms

What is the Edicaran Fauna

D) A and B are both correct

Which of these previous observations were important to Darwin developing his theory for evolutionary process?

A) uniformitarianism- a very old earth (Lyell)

B) More offspring are produced than can survive (Malthus)

C) Fixity of species (de Buffon)

D) A and B are both correct

D) All of the above

Which of these statements is part of the theory of natural selection?

A) there is heritable variation between individuals of a population

B) some variations increase the likelihood of an organism surviving

C) Organisms that survive are more likely to pass their variations to the next generation

D) All of the above

A) Human Appendix

Which of these is an example of a vestigial structure?

D) Marsupials evolved when these continents were connected only with each other and no others, so they dispersed (walked) across them

Why are marsupial mammals only found in the Americas and Australia?

B) 3.25 Ga

The earliest evidence for life on earth is closest to what age?

A) a layered formation created by bacterial mats

What is a stromatolite?

B) Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorbing infrared radiation emitted by the earth

The greenhouse effect is caused by?

A) the population evolved thicker beaks to deal with larger seeds

In the view we watched on Darwin's finches, researches studying the finches observed a change in the population in one of the finches species after a drought on their island destroyed their usual food seeds. What was the changed noted?

C) Rodina

What is the name of the first supercontinent to form on Earth, at around 1 billion years ago?

B) cyclothems

These sedimentary sequences of alternating marine and non-marine rocks that occur due to changes in sea level during periods of glaciation/melting are useful because they often indicate potential deposits of coal

B) Human arm and dolphin flipper

Which of these pairs are a homologous structures?

A) all life uses the same DNA to code for the same genes

What is one way that we know all life on Earth shares a common ancestor?

C) Acasta Gneiss

The oldest rock discovered on the Earth's surface is the?

B) grains become rounder

What generally happens when sediment is transported farther?

A) Shale

Which of these rocks generally forms in a deep ocean (abyssal plain) depositional environment?

D) All of the above

Which characteristics of a sedimentary facies gives us information on the depositional environment?

A) sedimentary structures

B) fossil content

C) chemical composition

D) All of the above

C) the opening and closing of ocean basins through plate tectonics

What is the Wilson Cycle?

A) greywacke

Which of these sandstones has a high percentage of lithic fragments and is poorly sorted with a 5-50% matrix (mud)?

B) evolution of living organisms producing free oxygen in the seas

Banded iron formations (BIFs) are evidence of what significant event?

D) tiktaalik

Which animal represents the transitional species between lobe-finned dish and land-living tetrapods?

A) turbidity currents

Graded bedding is often an indicator of a deeper water marine slope environment and results from underwater avalanches called?

B) False

True or False. Symmetrical ripples indicate current (wind or water) direction

C) Zircon

What mineral was obtained from the Jack Hills Metaconglomerate in Australia and, at 4.4 billion years old, represents the oldest sedimentary particle known from Earth?

C) Oxbow lakes

Exaggerated bends in a meandering stream sometimes get cut off from the main channel. These cut-offs eventually form what feature?

B) generated organic compounds from chemicals and conditions present on the early earth

What did Miller-Urey experiment do?

A) Anthracite

Which type of coal is considered the highest grade? (produces the most energy per unit)

C) gravel, sand, silt, clay

List of clastic (detrital) grains ordered largest to smallest

Glacier

very poorly-sorted sandstones, conglomerates, and rock flour, with moraines, striations, and dropstones

Beach

Often well-sorted sand with some cross bedding. Has symmetrical ripples, and possibly fossil shells

Meandering Stream

U-Shaped deposits of medium to fine sand with high-angle cross bedding and asymmetrical ripples, surrounded by beds of mud and silt that often contain root casts

Desert

Very well sorted quartz sand with low angle cross bedding. Sand grains look frosted under a microscope. Some asymmetrical ripples may be present

Ephemeral (playa) lake

Mudstone, halite and gypsum deposits with mud cracks, raindrops, and trackways preserved