Geology Final Exam

The science of _____ literally means "study of Earth."

The age of Earth is approximately ______

True or False:
Earth consists of four major spheres: hydrosphere, atmosphere, solid Earth, and ecosphere.
True False

An understanding of Earth is essential for....

The outer crust of Earth is known as the ______

Which one of the following statements concerning mierals is not true?

The nucleus of an atom contains _____

Some of the properties of minerals would include ____

Atoms of the same element possess the same number of _____.

A "native" element such as copper would be classified as a ____.

Igneous rocks form from _____ within the earth.

Rock outcrops on earth's surface consist of _____ percent of sedimentary rocks.

An example of a chemical sedimentary rock would be _____

Two of the most important metamorphic agents are _____

When magma reaches the earth's surface, it is known as ____

The most important chemical weathering agent is ______

Which of the following processes contribute(s) to the breakdown of rock materials?

Soils often contain variations and vertical differences observed as general zones or layers called ______

_____ is the interface in the Earth system

The slowest movement of soil and regolith downhill, often characterized by tilting fences is _____

The lowest point to which a stream can erode is ______

The largest reservoir of fresh water that is available to humans is _____

Karst topography can include a serious geologic hazard called a _____

Which of the following is not a problem associated with groundwater?

A name commonly used as synonym for the Ice Age is ____

A(n) ____ cross-valley profile is typical of canyons and valleys eroded and deepened by alpine or valley glaciers.

Desert pavement is the result of ____

During the most recent ice age, glaciers covered about ____ percent of Eareth's land area.

True or False:
The Basin and Range region of the western United States is an excellent example of a mountains desert landscape.
True False

In the early part of the 20th century, ______ argued forcefully for continental drift.

Pull-apart rift zones are generally associated with a _____ plate boundary.

Which of the following energy sources is thought to drive the lateral motions of Earth's lithospheric plates?

All of the following are evidence supportingthe theory of plate tectonics except for _______

Which of the following is an important fundamental assumption underlying hte plate tectonic theory?

Major earthquakes are often followed by somewhat smaller events known as ____

Overall, this type of seismic wave is most destructive.

Earthquake zones are closely correlated with _____

The oceanic crust is ___ in composition

The position on Earth's surface directly above the earthquake source is called the ____

____ is a major dissolved volatile constituent in both magma and volcanic gases.

The most violent volcanic activity is associated with _____

Kilauea is an example of a ______

Most of the active volcanoes of Earth are located in a belt known as the ______

True or False:
Ash and lapilli are different sized pyroclastic particles.
True False

Faults are ___ in rocks along which appreciable displacement has taken place.

The processes that collectively produce a mountain belt are called ______

A large strike-slip fault that cuts through the lithosphere is a ___ fault.

Terranes are accreted crustal blocks that collide with continental margins. At one time the terranes may have been ____.

Fault-block mountains are caused by uplifted normal faults. An example of this type of mountain building is _____.

Catastophism _______

Consider the names of the eras in the geologic time scale. What is meant by "zoic"?

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?

Which of the following is an essential characteristic of an index fossil?

What is the age of the earth accepted by most scientists today?

A worm would stand a poor chance of being fossilized because ______

Which of the following gases was NOT part of Earth's original atmosphere?

Which era of geologic time spans about 88% of Earth's history?

Mammals became the dominant land animals during the ____ era.

The major source of free oxygen in the atmosphere is from _____

Each continent contains large "core areas" of Precambrian rocks referred to as ____

Which era is sometimes called the "age of dinosaurs?"

It is thought that submarine canyons on the continental slope have been generated by ____

Sediments derived primarily from the products of weathering on the continents are called _____.

An echo sounder operatesby measuring the time required for a ______.

The oceans cover approximately ____ % of Earth's surface.

The ____ Ocean is largest.

"Black Smokers" are associated with ______.

The total amount of solid material dissolved in water is known as ______

Salinity in the ocean is highest in regions where _____ is high and ____ is low.

Most marine animals live nearthe surface of the ocean because of ____, which supports photosynthesis by marine algae that form the basis of the food chain.

Organisms, such as algae and bacteria, that drift with ocean currents are know as ______

In the food chain, each feeding stage is called a ____ level

True or False:
Productivity in the oceans is highest in tropical reasons
True False

Which of the following is correct regarding a wave in the open ocean?

A sandbar that completely crosses a bay, sealing it off from the open ocean is a ____

The energy that drives surface ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream comes from _____

Becuase the Coriolis effect, surface ocean currents are deflected to the _____ of theie path of Motion in the Northern Hemisphere.

Large estuaries are more common on a(n) ____ coastline.

True or False:
Although the Sun influences the tides, its effect is considerably less than the effect of the moon.
True False

The troposphere is the boundary between ____.

Ozone is concentrated in the ____

Practically all clouds and storms occur in this layer of the atmosphere

The storage of heat in the lower layerof hte atmosphere produced by certain heat absorbing gases is called the _____

Earth receives energy from the Sun in this way______

The 2 most important heat absorbing gases in the loweratmosphere are ____

The cloud form that is best described as sheets or layers that cover much or all of the sky is termed _____.

High clouds that form delicate veil-like patches extended wispy fibers are termed ____

This cloud may develop and "anvil head".

The highest relative humidity is likely to occur ______

True or False:
The capacity of air to "hold" water vapor is temperature dependent.
True False

True or False:
When air is cooled to its dew point, the relative humidity is 80%.
True False

Closely spaced isobars often indicate on a weather map indicated ____.

Upper air winds ____.

Low air pressure systems are usually associated with _____

If stormy weather were approaching, the pressure tendency would probably be _____

A Santa Ana (Chinook or Foehn) wind is a ____.

Fast moving currents of air found near the tope troposphere are called _____.

On a weather map ____ fronts are shown by a line with triangular points on one side.

A wind shift from south or southwest ot northwest is commonly associate with the passage of a ____ front.

Which one of the following statements is NOT true of tornadoes?

Typhoon is another name for a ____

True or False:
Warms fronts generally have sleeper slopes than cold fronts
True False

True or False:
Thunder is produced by lightning.
True False

Which of the following is considered to be a boundary between two different air masses?

The first modern astronomer to propose a Sun-centered universe was ______

This scientist determined the nature of the forces that kept the planets in their orbits.

3 laws of planetary motion were discovered by _____

The belt of constellations through which all the planets move is called the _____

The apparent westward drift of the planets as compared to the background stars is called _____

True or False:
The ancient Greeks proposed an Earth-centered view of the universe.
True False

True or False:
The planets maintain circular orbits around the Sun.
True False

T or F:
Galileo discovered that the Sun has "blemishes," which we call sunspots.
True False

T or F:
Galileo discovered Jupiter's four largest moons.
True False

T or F:
The moons rotation is very similar in time it's revolution around earth
True False

Pluto is now classified as a ____ in our solar system.

The ____ explains how our solar system probably formed from a giant cloud of gases and dispersed solid particles.

As the solar system was forming, ______ came closest to undergoing nuclear fusion and becoming a second sun.

______ has the great, dark spot on its surface.

How did the lunar maria most likely originate?

____ are found both on Mars and Earth.

Which one of the following is NOT true of Jupiter?

____ has atmospheric pressures at its surface that are roughly comparable to those at Earth's surface.

___ has a hot, turbulent atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide.

____ is the principal gas in the Venusian atmosphere and also a minor component of the atmospheres of Earth and mars.

Which one of the terrestrial planets has a surface landscape similar to that of the older areas of the Moon?

The belt (orbit) of the asteriods is located between ____

The first person to use a telescope for astronomical observations was ___

The layer of the Sun that radiates most of the light that reaches Earth is called the _____

The outermost layer of the Sun is called the _____.

The source of the Sun's energy is _____

The most conspicuous features on the surface of the Sun are dark areas called _____.

Streams of protons and electrons emitted from the Sun produce ____

During periods of high solar activity, huge cloudlike structures that appear as great arches extending from the Sun are often produced. These solar features are called _____.

T or F:
Blue stars are cooler than red stars
True False

T or F:
In the case of light, when a source is moving away, its light appears redder than it actually is.
True False

T or F:
The sun is considered an "average star"
True False

Our galaxy is called the ____

Which main-sequence stars are the most massive?

Which main sequence stars are the least massive?

Possibly the most cataclysmic event to occur in nature is ____

The most dense stars known to exist are ____

These stars are produced during a supernova event

A star in which light cannot escape because of the immense gravitational pull at its surface is called a ______

The Sun belongs to this class of stars.

The point in stellar evolution when a star has used up all its fuel and is radiating away its remaining thermal energy as light is the ___ stage.

Most stars are in this stage of evolution.

The final stage for a star which is as massive as the Sun is a ____

When a main-sequence star has exhausted the fuel in the inner region, it becomes a ____

Hubble's law states that galaxies are receding from us at a speed that is proportional to their ____

The discovery that the universe appears to be expanding led to a widely accepted theory called _____

Based on the observed red shifts in the spectral lines of distant galaxies, astronomers conclude that _____