Earth Science

Q: A major problem with Wegener's Continental Drift Hypothesis was that he could not find rocks or other geologic features that would have been continuous from one continent to the next if the continents had been together.

Q: Examine the words and/or phrases for each question below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option which does not fit the pattern. slab pull mantle drag ridge push hot spot track

Q: Which of the following is considered the most important driving factor for Plate Tectonics? A) slab pull B) layer cake C) whole mantle D) ridge push

Q: Which convection model suggests "sluggish flow" in the lower mantle? A) slab pull B) layer cake C) whole mantle D) ridge push

Q: The major driving force of Plate Tectonics is ________. A) subduction of cold, dense lithosphere B) subduction of hot lithosphere C) decompression melting and the rise of magmas at spreading ridges D) heating of magma near the surface of the lithosphere

Q: What is GPS (Global Positioning System) used for in the study of plate tectonics? A) It measures paleomagnetism. B) It measures velocity of a plate. C) It measures age of a plate. D) It measures elevation of a plate.

Q: A map of the ages of the sea floor shows ________. A) the direction of the plate motions B) the location of modern plate boundaries C) how much material was produced at the ridges during a given period of time D) how fast the plates are moving

Q: A very long-lived magma source located deep in the mantle is called a ________. A) magma welt B) basalt spout C) melt well D) hot spot

Q: Apparent changes in the position of the magnetic pole measured in rocks in Europe is attributed to ________. A) changes in the solar flux B) movement of lithospheric plates C) polar wandering D) random magnetic reversals

Q: The Hawaiian Island-Emperor Seamount chain formed as a result of ________. A) convergent plate boundary activities B) divergent plate boundary activities C) transform plate boundary activities D) hot spot activities

Q: Which of the following is not evidence collected by the Glomar Challenger in support of the Plate Tectonic model? A) Fossils increase in age with increasing distance from the ridges. B) Continental crust is typically several hundred million years old or older. C) Oceanic crust is less than 180 million years old. D) Sediments get thicker with increasing distance from the ridges.

Q: All of the following are evidence supporting the theory of plate tectonics except for ________. A) changes in the Moon's orbit due to shifting plates B) ocean floor drilling C) hot spots D) paleomagnetism

Q: Which parts of Pangaea broke apart first? A) Africa and Australia B) Europe and the United States C) Europe and Africa D) The United States and Africa

Q: Which of the following plates is getting significantly smaller? A) Pacific B) North America C) Africa D) Eurasia

Q: Which ocean formed as a direct result of the breakup of Pangaea? A) Pacific B) Arctic C) Mediterranean D) Atlantic

Q: The San Andreas fault zone in California is an example of ________. A) a transform plate boundary B) a continental rift C) a divergent plate boundary D) an ocean-continent collision

Q: Fracture zone associated with transform boundaries are ________. A) active faults B) inactive faults C) fractures in the seafloor that did not become faults D) topographic markers of where Pangaea originally broke apart

Q: Which one of the following is an important fundamental assumption underlying the plate tectonic theory? A) Earth's magnetic field originates in the outer core. B) Earth's surface area has been essentially constant over time. C) Radioactive decay slows down at the extreme pressures of the inner core. D) Earth's ocean basins are very old and stable features.

Q: Volcanoes form above subduction zones because ________. A) the subducting lithosphere melts as it descends and the magma rises to form volcanoes B) the lithosphere thickens above the subducting lithosphere and causes volcanoes to form C) the asthenosphere is displaced by the subducting lithosphere and rises to the surface to form volcanoes D) water is squeezed out of the subducting slab and the water triggers melting of the overlying asthenosphere

Q: An identifying characteristic of convergent boundaries is ________. A) linear mountain chains on the seafloor B) long linear valleys with faults along the sides C) deep, linear trenches in the seafloor D) seamounts and atolls on the seafloor

Q: Why do scientists think that lithosphere has to be destroyed somewhere on or in the earth? A) There is not enough lithosphere on the earth to account for what has been produced in the last 200 million years. B) Lithosphere is created at divergent boundaries and the earth is not getting any larger. C) The moon is moving away from the earth and this would not happen if the earth had more lithosphere to increase its mass. D) The earth is getting smaller as the new oceanic crust cools and contracts.

Q: Deep ocean trenches are surficial evidence for ________. A) rifting beneath a continental plate and the beginning of continental drift B) sinking of oceanic lithosphere into the mantle at a subduction zone C) rising of hot asthenosphere from deep in the mantle D) transform faulting between an oceanic plate and a continental plate

Q: The ________ is an example of an active, continent-continent collision. A) Arabian Peninsula slamming into North Africa under the Red Sea B) westward movement of the South American plate over the Nazca plate C) northern movement of Baja California and a sliver of western California toward the Hawaiian Islands D) northward movement of India into Eurasia

Q: When two continents converge, ________. A) the heavier continent is subducted B) the lighter continent is subducted C) the sediments trapped between them are pushed up and deformed to make a mountain range D) a volcanic arc forms on the upper plate

Q: The Himalayas formed as a result of ________. A) an ocean-ocean convergence B) an ocean-continent convergence C) a continent-continent convergence D) a hot spot

Q: Mount St. Helens and the other Cascade volcanoes are ________. A) young, active stratovolcanoes built on a continental margin above a sinking slab of oceanic lithosphere B) a row of young, active, shield volcanoes built as western North America moved over a hot spot deep in the mantle C) old, deeply eroded stratovolcanoes built before the Pacific Ocean existed D) old, deeply eroded, basaltic shield volcanoes built when western North America was over the present-day site of the Hawaiian hot spot

Q: Oceanic lithosphere subducts (sinks into the asthenosphere) because ________. A) old oceanic lithosphere is more dense that the asthenosphere B) the upwelling magma at divergent boundaries pushes the lithospheric plate into the asthenosphere C) the pressure from two plates colliding forces one plate into the asthenosphere D) The convection of the mantle pulls the lithosphere into the asthenosphere

Q: Oceanic island arcs are similar to continental volcanic arcs in that ________. A) oceanic island arcs form on continents when oceanic lithosphere is subducted B) oceanic islands arcs form by the same mechanism as continental arcs C) continental arcs make islands that are arc-shaped D) major continental mountain ranges formed from island arcs

Q: Material that was once considered to be asthenosphere can change to lithosphere by ________. A) rising to a shallow level B) thickening to 100 km C) heating so that it will flow D) cooling so that it will break

Q: Which of the following is in a place where continental rifting is occurring today? A) Himalayan Mountains in India and surrounding regions B) Andes in South America C) Mt. Kilimanjaro in East Africa D) Mt. Fuji in Japan

Q: What is a typical rate for seafloor spreading? A) 2 cm/s B) 2 cm/hr C) 2 cm/day D) 2 cm/yr

Q: All of the earth's ocean basins are ________. A) less than 2 million years old B) less than 20 million years old C) less than 200 million years old D) less than 2000 million years old

Q: Evidence that tensile stresses are actively pulling the lithosphere apart in an ocean ridge system is given by ________. A) the width of the ridge system B) the height of the ridge system C) the existence of a rift valley in a ridge system D) the lack of thick sediments on the ridge system sea floor

Q: Oceanic ridges represent ________ percent of the earth's surface. A) 5 B) 10 C) 20 D) 30

Q: New York and London are on two separate plates so the distance between the cities is ________. A) stationary B) increasing C) decreasing D) always changing direction

Q: When two plates move together, lithosphere is ________. A) not changed B) destroyed C) created D) melted

Q: The most obvious evidence of a Plate boundary where two plates move apart is(are) ________. A) earthquakes B) strike-slip faults on the sea floor C) mountain building along the plate boundary D) upwelling of hot material from the mantle

Q: Most deformation occurs along plate boundaries because ________. A) that is where the molten material makes it easy to deform rock B) the plates are in constant motion and as a result the boundaries are where they interact C) the plates were broken along their boundaries so that is where they are weakest D) plates are rigid in their interior but the boundaries are in the asthenosphere.

Q: The largest lithospheric plate is the ________. A) Caribbean Plate B) North American Plate C) Pacific Plate D) Eurasian Plate

Q: Which of the following statements apply to the asthenosphere, but not the lithosphere? A) zone in the upper mantle that deforms by plastic flowage B) cool, rigid layer of crust and upper mantle that forms the tectonic plates C) deforms mainly by brittle fracturing and faulting D) partial melting of rising granitic plumes produces huge volumes of basaltic magma

Q: The asthenosphere is the second layer of the Earth characterized by ________. A) soft rocks that flow easily B) hard rocks that break C) layers of both hard and soft rocks D) magma

Q: The lithosphere is the outer layer of the earth characterized by ________. A) soft rocks that flow easily B) hard rocks that break C) layers of both hard and soft rocks D) magma

Q: The figure below shows a ________ boundary. A) convergent B) divergent C) hot spot D) transform

Q: A transform boundary is characterized by ________. A) a deep, vertical fault along which two plates slide past one another in opposite directions B) stratovolcanoes on the edge of a plate and shield volcanoes on the adjacent plate C) two converging oceanic plates meeting head-on and piling up into a mid-ocean ridge D) a divergent boundary where the continental plate changes to an oceanic plate

Q: Plate Tectonic boundaries were first identified by ________. A) mapping the mountain chains B) mapping subduction zone C) mapping earthquakes and volcanoes D) mapping continental margins

Q: Which of the following major discoveries was not made near or after World War II? A) the extensive ranges of mountain chains on the sea floor B) deep focus earthquakes that occur in some regions of the earth C) rift valleys in Africa D) the absence of rocks older than 200 million years on the sea floor

Q: Which of the following is not a type of plate boundary? A) hot spot B) transform C) convergent D) divergent

Q: Wegener's work is a good demonstration of the scientific method because ________. A) he was right, but no one believed him B) his hypothesis passed all of the scientific testing to become a theory C) his hypothesis did not pass all of the scientific tests to become a theory D) he was wrong, and as a result, no one believed him

Q: The main objection to Wegner's theory of Continental Drift was ________. A) the ocean basins show no evidence of opening and closing. B) clear evidence of land bridges, like the one connecting Alaska and eastern Russia, clearly exist and explain most of Wegner's observations without Continental Drift. C) Wegner's gravitational mechanism for the movement of continents would also stop the Earth's rotation which has not happened. D) the tracks of the moving continents could not be identified on the ocean floor.

Q: ________ was (were) never proposed as evidence supporting the existence of Pangaea. A) Geometrical fit between South America and Africa B) Islands of Precambrian rocks along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge C) Late Paleozoic glacial features D) Similar fossils on different continents

Q: In Wegener's time, scientists thought that the occurrence of fossils of the same organism in two different, disconnected continents was proof that ________. A) there had once been land bridges separating the continents B) the weather patterns had changed over time such that some organisms could be blown by the wind from one place to another. C) there were icebergs in the Atlantic Ocean that could carry organisms from Africa to South America D) birds flew between the continents and carried the organisms with them.

Q: Glossopteris, a fossil found in Africa, Australia, India, South America, and Antarctica, is significant because ________. A) it demonstrated that wind could not have dispersed the organism over such a large area B) it demonstrated that water could not have dispersed the organism over such a large area C) it demonstrated that all of the continents where the fossil is found must have been tropical when the organism was alive D) it demonstrated that all of the continents where the fossil is found must have been cold when the organism was alive.

Q: Wegener thought that ________. A) there were once two big continents that were separated later by the Atlantic Ocean B) there was once one big continent that was later separated by the Atlantic Ocean C) there was once one big continent that later broke into several pieces D) there were once several continents that recombined to form the continents we have today

Q: The former late Paleozoic supercontinent is known as ________. A) Pandomonia B) Pancakea C) Pangaea D) Panatopia

Q: The change from thinking the continents are stationary to understanding that the outer layer of the earth moves slowly nearly all of the time occurred primarily because ________. A) we got space travel and could see the motions B) we improved our surveying instruments significantly C) we had two world wars and learned a lot from them about the oceans that explained how continents moved D) we began to make global observations that required recognition that the continents and oceans had not always been in their current positions

Q: Why did scientists not accept the Continental Drift hypothesis? A) It did not explain how ocean basins form. B) It was based on observations from the southern hemisphere which was unfamiliar to most geologists. C) It was proposed by a woman. D) It did not explain most modern observations.

Q: What was the main view how the world worked geologically prior to the 1960s? A) It was generally believed that the earth was flat. B) It was generally believed that mountains were produced by vertical forces. C) It was generally believed that continents and oceans moved. D) It was generally believed that oceans formed as a result of meteorite impacts.

Q: The loess deposited in many parts of the Midwest ________. A) was once glacial outwash deposits B) is in the form of transverse dunes C) is uniformly thick D) had its source in desert regions

Q: Why is wind less effective than moving water at picking up and moving materials? A) Air is less dense than water B) Air moves slower than water C) Air moves faster than water D) Air does not move very far

Q: Desert pavement is the result of ________. A) deflation B) abrasion by windblown sand C) erosion by running water D) intense chemical weathering

Q: Which one of the following statements is true? A) Desert landscapes are monotonous, relatively flat areas covered to various depths with sand. B) Deserts and dry lands are concentrated in areas of ascending air masses and relatively low atmospheric pressures. C) Despite infrequent rainfalls, erosional and depositional features of running water are important in desert landscapes. D) Wind is the major cause of erosion in deserts because there is little water but a lot of wind available.

Q: Inselbergs are ________. A) insulated icebergs floating in a hot spring B) blowouts cut from bedrock in mountainous areas C) lithified rock formed by cementation of wind-deposited, dune sands D) bedrock hills in a highly eroded desert landscape

Q: Which of the following is not a typical stage in the evolution of a Basin and Range type region? A) Water erodes the mountains and deposits sediment in the adjacent basins. B) Alluvial fans and bajadas form along the mountain fronts. C) Salt flats or playas and occasional playa lakes form. D) Sediment slowly moves downhill to the sea where it is ultimately deposited.

Q: Deserts and steppes occur at middle latitudes because of ________. A) subsiding air currents B) rising air currents C) high temperatures D) mountains that block the moisture and long distances from the oceans

Q: Deserts occur primarily in the Africa, Arabia, and Australia because of ________. A) subsiding air currents B) rising air currents C) high temperatures D) mountains that block the moisture and long distances from the oceans

Q: Climatologist define a "dry climate" as a climate in which ________. A) less than 25 cm (10 in) of rain falls in a year B) precipitation is blocked by high mountains C) precipitation is less than expected evaporation D) All of the answers are correct.

Q: The major difference between floods in humid regions and in dry regions is ________. A) in dry regions, flooding is a very slow process because there is less water B) in dry regions, flooding is a very fast process because there are fewer plants C) in dry regions, flooding lasts much longer than in humid regions because the water cannot soak into the baked desert soil. D) in dry regions, flooding lasts only a short time because the water is immediately soaked up by the dry desert soil.

Q: In a dry climate, weathering is significantly less than in a humid climate because ________. A) wind is not a significant weathering agent B) there is a shortage of moisture and organic acids C) rivers are ephemeral and do not cause weathering in the desert D) sand covers much of the rock surface and protects them from weathering in a desert

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