Which of the following is/are most susceptible to chemical weather by dissolution?
A. calcite
Frost wedging is the major weathering process contributing to the formation of which regolith material?
B. talus slopes
Clay minerals, silica (SiO2), and dissolved potassium bicarbonate in the soil water are products of which process?
D. chemical weathering of orthoclase feldspar
What two factors speed up rates of chemical reaction and weathering in rocks and soils?
D. warm temps; very moist
In which area are pedocal soils mostly likely to be found?
D. a moderately dry to semiarid grassland such as the western Great Plains
The finely divided, red, brown, and yellow soil-coloring minerals originate by what process?
B. precipitation of iron oxides and during the chemical weathering process
Which of the following statements about laterites or tropical rainforest is true?
A. laterite soils readily compact and hardened when dried and exposed to sunlight
Which one of the following is an important, mechanical weathering process for enlarging fractures and extending them deeper into large boulder and bedrock?
A. frost wedging
Which of the following best describes sets of fractures in relatively fresh bedrock, such as granite, that are roughly parallel to the land surface?
A. sheeting fractures
under similar war, moist climatic conditions, what would basalt and gabbro generally have higher chemical weathering rates than rhyloite and granite?
A. the ferromagnesian minerals in the gabbro and basalt are subject to oxidation and chemical weathering
Which one of the following statements concerning mechanical weathering is not true?
C. involves a major change in the mineral composition of the weathered material
Which one of the following statements best describes erosion?
C. movement of weathered rock and regolith toward the base of a slope
Assuming that water filling a crack in a rock undergoes cycles of freezing and melting. Which of the following statements is true?
A. water expands as it freezes, causing the crack walls to be pushed apart
What mineral particles are the dominant coloring agent in reddish, brownish, and yellowish soils?
A. dust-sized grains of iron oxides
Lateritic soils form under what climatic conditions?
A. warm and moist as in the wet, tropical forest
____, a common mineral found in igneous rocks, is the most abundant mineral in detrital sedimentary rocks.
C. quartz
Sandstone (Match the sediment with the appropriate rock name.)
B. sand
Shale (Match the sediment with the appropriate rock name.)
C. all clay sediment
Mudstone (Match the sediment with the appropriate rock name.)
C. clay and fine silt
Conglomerate (Match the sediment with the appropriate rock name.)
B. gravel
Which of the following best describes bedded gypsm and halite?
C. evaporates; chemical, sedimentary rocks
____ sandstone contains abundant feldspar, suggesting that the sand was derived by weathering and erosion of granitic bedrock.
C. arkosic
What is the main difference between a conglomerate and a sedimentary breccia?
D. breccia clasts are angular; conglomerate clasts are rounded
Which statement concerning sedimentary rocks is not true?
B. they were originally deposited at depth below the bottom of the sea
____ is not a common cementing agent for sandstones.
D. fluorite
Which of the following applies to the basic constituents of halite, gypsum, and sylvite?
C. transported as dissolved ions; deposited by evaporation
Flint, chert, and jasper are microcrystalline forms of ____
D. quartz
Which of the following sedimentary rocks would you expect to have originally been deposited by fast-moving streams?
A. conglomerate
Detrital grains of which minerals are extremely rare in detrital sediments? Why?
A. calcites; it is soft and relatively soluble
Which of the following sedimentary features would typically be found in shales but not in sandstones?
A. mudcracks
____ is the most common type of chemical sedimentary rock.
C. limestone
Which of the following sedimentary features can each be used to determine paleocurrent directions?
B. ripple marks and cross stratification
Coal beds originate in -
D. freshwater costal swamps and bogs
Which of the following forms is at the highest grade of regional metamorphism?
a. schist
b. hornsfel
c. phyllite
d. slate
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What platy, parallel, mineral grains are the most visual aspect of foliated metamorphic rocks?
D. micas
What major change occurs during metamorphism of limestone to marble?
A. calcite grains grow larger and increase in size
Which low-grade metamorphic rock, composed of extremely fine-sized mica and other mineral grains, typically exhibits well-developed rock cleavage?
A. slate
_____ is a strong, parallel alignment of coarse mice flakes and/or of different mineral bands in a metamorphic rock.
D. foliation
Which of the following best describes the conditions of contact metamorphism?
A. pressures are fairly low, the rock is in the upper part of the crust, and heat is supplied from a nearby magma body
____ forms from the metamorphism of limestone or dolostone
D. marble
___ is characterized by segregation of light-and dark-colored minerals into thin layers or bands.
B. granitic gneiss
Which of the following lists the rocks in order of increasing grain size and increasing grade of metamorphism?
B. slate, phyllite, schist
What is the major source of heat for contact metamorphism?
B. heat from a nearby magma body
In which setting would regional metamorphism be most likely?
C. at great depths in the crust where two continents are colliding
An Unconformity is a buried -
D. surface of erosion separating younger strata above from older strata below
The radioactive isotopes Uranium-238, Uranium-235, and Thorium-232 eventually decay to different, stable, daughter isotopes of -
a. lead
b. aragon
c. iron
d. strontium
a. lead
What fundamental concept states that in a horizontal sequence of conformable sedimentary strata, each higher bed is younger than the bed below it?
B. law of superposition
The ____ is the idea or concept that ancient life forms succeeded each other in a definite, evolutionary pattern and that the contained assemblage of fossils can determine geologic ages of strata?
D. principle of faunal succession
____ refers to the process of fossilization where the internal cavities and pores of the original organism are filled with precipitated mineral matter.
A. petrification
What is the age of the earth accepted by most scientists today?