ERSC1 Practice

1. When an earthquake occurs, the place underground where the rock first failed is known as the

a. quake point

b. epicentre

c. quake focus

d. Richter point

e. hypocentre

2. Extensional (as opposed to compressional) tectonic movement gives rise to a

a. normal fault

b. strike-slip fault

c. thrust fault

d. reverse fault

e. both c and d

3. Regarding seismic waves, those SURFACE waves where the ground ripples up and down in the direction of travel are called

a. P-waves

b. L-waves

c. Z-waves

d. S-waves

e. R-waves

4. An old-fashioned seismograph uses a pen firmly attached to a weight and these are suspended from a frame by a spring. The pen makes a trace on a rotating drum. During an earthquake, which components actually move?

a. Only the frame

b. Everything except the weight and pen

c. All components of the seismograph

d. Only the weight and pen

e. None of the given answers

5. Place the following waves in their correct order of speed, beginning with the fastest

a. Surface waves, S-waves, P-waves

b. R-waves, L-waves, P-waves

c. P-waves, S-waves, surface waves

d. L-waves, P-waves, S-waves

e. S-waves, P-waves, surface waves

6. Regarding earthquakes, which one of the following is FALSE?

a. The Mercalli intensity scale relies on more complex analysis of waves than the Richter scale

b. Triangulation can be used to determine the position of the origin of an earthquake

c. Southern Ontario can experience small earthquakes

d. The Mediterranean region is seismically active

e. A five (5) on the Richter scale is ten times as powerful as a four (4)

7. The Wadati-Benioff zone reflects

a. rocks accumulating in an accretionary prism

b. earthquakes along the inclined plane of a subducting plate

c. the distribution of earthquakes around the Atlantic Ocean

d. crushed and pulverized rock along any fault system

e. lateral movement along a transform plate margin

8. The Denali fault, over which the Trans-Alaska pipeline crosses, is a

a. joint

b. normal fault

c. thrust fault

d. reverse fault

e. strike-slip fault

9. Sea-floor spreading along mid-ocean ridges is typically characterized by

a. deep earthquakes

b. shallow earthquakes

c. shallow and deep earthquakes

d. no earthquakes or very few earthquakes

e. none of the given answers

10. When a tsunami moves from the deep ocean to the shore, where the water is shallower, it

a. speeds up

b. slows down

c. maintains a constant speed

d. decreases in wave height

e. both speeds up and increases in wave height

11. Seismic body waves

a. always travel in a straight line but have variable speeds

b. bend towards the slower medium through which they are travelling

c. bend towards the faster medium through which they are travelling

d. always travel in a straight line at uniform speed

e. none of the given answers

12. The solid inner core of the Earth was discovered by the reflection of

a. Rayleigh waves

b. P-waves

c. S-waves

d. Love waves

e. none of the above

13. Which ONE of the following is TRUE?

a. a seismic wave travels faster through peridotite (mantle) than sandstone (upper crust)

b. a seismic wave travels faster through a liquid than a solid

c. the mantle shows a gradual increase seismic velocity with depth

d. seismic tomography records the Earth’s surface elevation before and after an earthquake

e. The closer the earthquake, the deeper the mantle that can be analyzed

14. Parallel cracks in rock formed by a slight pulling apart under tensional stress, with no lateral or vertical movement either side of the crack, are known as

a. breccias

b. joints

c. reverse faults

d. normal faults

e. mylonite

15. Striations (grooves) in rocks along a fault caused by friction during sliding are called

a. slide grooves

b. fault grooves

c. ridgebacks

d. glide paths

e. slickensides

16. During mountain building, an uplifted block between two normal faults is called a

a. horst

b. graben

c. half-graben

d. hanging block

e. normal block

17. In the field, the angle and direction of a tilted bedding plane are described by measuring the

a. drop and slide

b. draw and balance

c. dip and strike

d. throw and bearing

e. declination and inclination

18. A fold in strata in which the centre of the fold is younger than the limbs of the fold is known as a(n)

a. anticline

b. dipcline

c. dome

d. syncline

e. both a and c

19. Which one of the following is NOT a dip-slip fault?

a. normal fault

b. thrust fault

c. strike-slip fault

d. reverse fault

e. None of the above

20. Which one of the following statements is TRUE

a. The Himalayas are subsiding

b. The western margin of Canada is tectonically inactive

c. Gentle deformation of a craton is known as eustacy

d. In crustal dynamics, the process where buoyancy pushes up and gravity pulls down is megastasis

e. Brock University is on a cratonic platform

21. He illustrated fossils, some under the microscope, in exquisite detail. He realized that many of these fossils were extinct. He was:

a. Robert Hooke

b. William Smith

c. Pliny the Elder

d. Nicholas Steno

e. Charles Darwin

22. The first person to demonstrate that “tongue stones” are really fossilized sharks’ teeth was

a. Robert Hooke

b. William Smith

c. Pliny the Elder

d. Nicholas Steno

e. Charles Darwin

23. During fossilization, the original calcite forming a shell may be substituted by a new mineral of entirely different chemical composition such as pyrite. This process is known as

a. permineralization

b. carbonization

c. recrystallization

d. desiccation

e. replacement

24. Which ONE of the following statements is TRUE?

a. Well-oxygenated bottom waters and slow burial are usually favorable for the preservation of fossils

b. Amber is the fossilized sugary sap from trees

c. The Burgess Shale of British Columbia contains Cambrian fossils of soft-bodied organisms

d. The fossil record gives us a nearly complete record of past life

e. The lithographic limestone of Solenhofen in Germany has yielded one of the earliest fossil amphibians

25. Which ONE of the following statements is FALSE?

a. Gastropods have shells divided into two similar halves

b. Trilobites are extinct arthropods divided lengthwise into three parts

c. Bryozoans are colonial organisms

d. Graptolites are extinct floating colonial organisms

e. Ammonites are extinct cephalopods related to the living Nautilus.

26. Working independently of Charles Darwin, he discovered evolution by natural selection. He was:

a. Carolus Linnaeus

b. Francis Crick

c. Gregor Mendel

d. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

e. Alfred Russel Wallace

27. Which one of the following groups is a prokaryote?

a. Animalia

b. Plantae

c. Fungi

d. Bacteria

e. Protista

28. This 18th century Scottish doctor and gentleman farmer established the principle of uniformitarianism.

a. James Hutton

b. James Ussher

c. Nicholas Steno

d. Charles Darwin

e. Adam Sedgewick

29. The relative geological time scale was mostly constructed during the

a. 16th century

b. 17th century

c. 18th century

d. 19th century

e. 20th century

30. From oldest to youngest, which is the correct order for the periods of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic?

a. Cretaceous, Triassic, Jurassic, Tertiary, Quaternary

b. Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Quaternary, Tertiary

c. Triassic, Cretaceous, Jurassic, Tertiary, Quaternary

d. Jurassic, Cretaceous, Triassic, Tertiary, Quaternary

e. Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, Quaternary

31. In an undeformed, continuously deposited sequence of sedimentary rocks (first locality) comprising ten beds numbered 1 (at the base) to 10 (at the top), a number of fossils have the following ranges: trilobites (beds 1 and 2), conodonts (beds 2 and 3), brachiopods (beds 3 to 6), ammonites (bed 5), gastropods (beds 6-8), and bivalves (beds 8-10). In a second locality, rocks of unknown stratigraphic position contain brachiopods and ammonites. These rocks are biostratigraphically correlated to which bed(s) from the first locality?

a. bed 1

b. bed 3

c. bed 5

d. bed 6

e. beds 3–6

32. A surface in a sedimentary succession representing a period of non-deposition or erosion is a(n)

a. unconformity

b. irregularity

c. intrusion

d. erratic

e. disjunction

33. From oldest to youngest, which is the correct order for the periods of the Paleozoic?

a. Cambrian, Silurian, Ordovician, Devonian, Pennsylvanian, Mississippian, Permian

b. Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian

c. Ordovician, Cambrian, Silurian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Devonian, Permian

d. Cambrian, Devonian, Ordovician, Silurian, Pennsylvanian, Mississippian, Permian

e. Cambrian, Ordovician, Devonian, Silurian, Permian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian

34. This geological period was defined from NW Wales, its name deriving from the Latin name for Wales:

a. Silurian

b. Permian

c. Cambrian

d. Ordovician

e. Devonian

35. A crystal of zircon is found to contain one quarter of 235U and three quarters of 207Pb. Knowing that 235U has a half life of 713 million years, and that it decays directly to 207Pb with no subsequent loss of either isotope

a. the crystal is 356.5 million years old

b. the crystal is 713 million years old

c. the crystal is 1069.5 million years old

d. the crystal is 1426 million years old

e. None of the above

36. Visible layers representing annually deposited sediment in lakes and oceans are called

a. alluviae

b. seasonites

c. layerites

d. turbidites

e. varves

37. A limestone rests on an eroded granite intrusion dated at 85 million years. The surface of the limestone is eroded and on it rests a lava flow dated at 38 million years. The granite, the limestone and the lava flow are all cut by a dike that is dated at 32 million years. The age of the limestone is

a. exactly 85 million years

b. exactly 38 million years

c. somewhere between 85 and 38 million years

d. somewhere between 85 and 32 million years

e. somewhere between 38 and 32 million years

38. Which one of the following statements is FALSE?

a. The nature of radioactive decay was discovered by Rutherford and Soddy

b. The parent isotope 235U and its daughter isotope 207Pb have different chemical behaviours

c. Fission tracks in volcanic glass are caused by cosmic rays

d. The ice-core record is one of the most valuable records of past climate change

e. Bertram Boltwood produced the first reliable radiometric dates

39. The age of Earth’s formation is presently based on the

a. radiometric dating of the oldest Moon rocks

b. cooling of Earth from an original temperature assumed to be as hot as the Sun

c. concentration of salt in the world’s oceans

d. radiometric dating of Earth’s oldest rocks

e. total thickness of all sediments deposited

40. Which statement is TRUE about the the Hadean Eon?

a. stable continental interiors called cratons first appeared

b. the Moon would have appeared much larger than today

c. the atmosphere was mostly hydrogen and helium

d. single-celled organisms first appeared

e. the surface of the Earth was cold and rocky

41. The Grenville orogeny at 1.1 Ma represents the final stage in the assembly of this supercontinent

a. Rodinia

b. Gondwana

c. Pannotia

d. Pangaea

e. Grenvillia

42. Increasing levels of free atmospheric oxygen through the Proterozoic are indicated by

a. a decline in banded iron formation

b. increasing levels of iron sulphides in sedimentary clasts

c. a decline in red beds

d. an absence of eukaryotic life

e. an absence of photosynthesizing organisms

43. The Ediacaran biota represents

a. the first forms of multicellular life

b. the first metazoan body fossils

c. the first fossils with hard parts

d. the first vertebrates

e. both c and d

44. During the Cambrian, the Niagara region was a(n)

a. ice cap

b. desert

c. tropical rain forest

d. mountain belt

e. shallow tropical sea

45. In the Middle Ordovician, the eastern margin of North America changed from a passive continental margin to a convergent plate boundary (first phase of the Appalacians) representing the

a. Taconic orogeny

b. Pangaean orogeny

c. Allegheny orogeny

d. Atlantis orogeny

e. Pannotian orogeny

46. By the end of this period, all major fish groups and the first amphibians had evolved, and forests had formed. Known as the “Age of Fish”, this period is the

a. Ordovician

b. Carboniferous

c. Silurian

d. Permian

e. Devonian

47. Crucial to the development of reptiles was the evolution of

a. an amniotic egg

b. a placenta

c. a swim bladder

d. lungs

e. limbs with five fingers

48. During this period, Tyranosaurus rex was a top predator, Triceratops was a common large three-horned herbivore, and flowering plants evolved. It was the

a. Jurassic

b. Cretaceous

c. Tertiary

d. Triassic

e. Devonian

49. The earliest birds had taken to the skies which they shared with flying reptiles, reptiles such as Ichthyosaurus were top predators in the seas, huge sauropod dinosaurs had evolved by the end of the period, but flowering plants had yet to appear. This was the

a. Triassic

b. Jurassic

c. Permian

d. Tertiary

e. Cretaceous

50. Which ONE of the following is FALSE regarding the Cenozoic?

a. The Alpine-Himalayan chain formed during the Cenozoic

b. Anatomically modern humans appeared at the beginning of the Cenozoic

c. India collided with Eurasia during the Cenozoic

d. The western margin of N. America changed from convergent- to a transform-plate boundary

e. The Quaternary Period is characterized by pronounced glacial–interglacial climate oscillations

51. Aligators, monitor lizards, and warm-temperate forests thrived in the Canadian high arctic during the

a. Miocene

b. Oligocene

c. Holocene

d. Eocene

e. Pleistocene

52. This presently unofficial but proposed new epoch of the geological time scale begins with the “Great Acceleration” at around the year 1950. It is called the

a. Agricocene

b. Technocene

c. Homocene

d. Anthropocene

e. Accelerocene

53. In petroleum geology, the “oil window” is

a. fracturing in a sedimentary sequence that allows oil and gas to migrate upwards towards the surface

b. a piece of glass in an oil refinery pipeline that allows oil flow to be monitored

c. a special kind of transparent material made from a petroleum product

d. the range in temperature where a source rock generates oil

e. None of the given answers

54. Which one of the following statements is TRUE?

a. Long-chain hydrocarbon molecules are gaseous at room temperature

b. Shale is a poor seal (cap) rock

c. Oxygen-poor bottom waters are needed for deposits to become a potential source rock

d. A source rock originating from terrestrial vegetation yields mostly oil

e. Oil and gas are mostly made up of carbon and oxygen atoms.

55. Which ONE of the following statements is TRUE?

a. Gas hydrate is a major economic source of gas in warm shallow marine waters

b. Important properties of a good reservoir rock are high porosity and high permeability

c. Structural deformations in strata have poor potential for trapping and storing oil and gas

d. Oil was first stored in empty milk churns and is still traded in “churns”.

e. Oil and natural gas do not typically occur in the word’s major sedimentary basins

56. Which is in the correct order for increasing coal rank?

a. Lignite, peat, bituminous coal, anthracite

b. Peat, lignite, anthracite, bituminous coal

c. Peat, anthracite, lignite, bituminous coal

d. Lignite, bituminous coal, peat, anthracite

e. Peat, lignite, bituminous coal, anthracite

57. The Sudbury impact structure in Ontario

a. formed during the Eocene

b. is one of the world’s largest deposits of nickel ore

c. is one of the world’s largest deposits of iron ore

d. yields ore mostly originating from the impactor (a large meteorite)

e. is one of the world’s largest deposits of aluminum ore

58. The production of cement uses which of the following rocks?

a. limestone and coal

b. sandstone and chert

c. limestone and clay

d. gypsum and clay

e. rock salt and siltstone

59. Which one of the following statements is FALSE?

a. Canada is an important source of diamonds

b. Geothermal energy is important in New Zealand and Iceland

c. Pyrite is an important source of iron ore

d. Manganese precipitates today as nodules on the sea floor

e. Sulphides form as “chimneys” on the sea floor due to hydrothermal activity

60. The ingredients typically used in a blast furnace to smelt iron ore are

a. iron ore, limestone, coke

b. slag, limestone, coke

c. pyrite, sandstone, shale

d. malachite, hematite, shale

e. pyrite, limestone, cordite