Q&A Hero

Q: Which energy use in this image requires the largest percentage of coal? A) Transportation B) Electric power C) Residential and commercial D) Industrial

Q: Of all the mineral and energy resources in this figure, which is the most important resource in terms of quantity consumed? A) Natural gas B) Iron C) Petroleum D) Stone

Q: This image shows the annual per capita consumption of various economically important materials. Based on this figure, which of the following categories does the average American consume the most from every year? A) Nonmetallic resources B) Metallic resources C) Energy resources

Q: Discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of wind energy.

Q: What environmental challenges are associated with extracting coal?

Q: Is water a renewable resource, nonrenewable resource, or both? Explain.

Q: Match the type of renewable energy with the source that generates it. A) Falling water pushes turbines. B) Organic material can be burned to produce energy. C) Trapping underground reservoirs of steam and hot water. D) Turbines are driven by rising and falling levels of coastal water. 1. Geothermal energy 2. Hydroelectric energy 3. Tidal energy 4. Biofuels

Q: Determine whether the following materials are renewable or nonrenewable resources. (Note: Your choices will be used more than once.) A) Renewable B) Nonrenewable 1. Gold 2. Petroleum 3. Wood 4. Iron ore 5. Cattle

Q: How does a reserve differ from an ore?

Q: What is the difference between a resource and a reserve?

Q: How are oceanic gas hydrates produced?

Q: Crushed stone, sand, and gravel are three examples of nonmetallic mineral resources that are building materials.

Q: Limestone is the most versatile and widely used nonmetallic mineral resource because it can be used for both building and industrial purposes.

Q: The gold deposits discovered at Sutters Creek that instigated the California Gold Rush of 1848 were in the form of placer deposits.

Q: Black smokers along the Juan de Fuca Ridge are responsible for massive sulfide deposits.

Q: Black smokers are results of hydrothermal activity at ocean ridges.

Q: A mineral deposit may lose its profitability due to economic changes such as rising production costs and stock market volatility.

Q: The use of renewable energy has been increasing for the last 40 years and is expected to continue to rise.

Q: Renewable energy sources such as wood can regenerate and be sustained indefinitely.

Q: The process of refining oil shales will produce higher yields of gasoline and heating oils, whereas the refining of light, sweet crude oil from the North Sea produces lower yields that are of lower quality.

Q: Oil sands are associated with sedimentary rocks such as sandstones, shales, and limestones.

Q: Cap rocks over reservoirs of petroleum and natural gas are nonporous and impermeable.

Q: Coal forms from ancient plant remains originally deposited in swamps and marshes. The original energy content of the coal was derived from the sun.

Q: A cap rock is a porous, permeable rock that will yield petroleum and natural gas.

Q: Uranium is the primary fuel used in nuclear power plants.

Q: Coal is still an important fuel in the United States, mainly used for producing electricity today.

Q: What is the main mineral source of phosphorous in phosphate fertilizers? A) Topaz B) Calcite C) Kaolinite D) Apatite

Q: Which mineral resource is the main component for plaster and drywall? A) Diamonds B) Calcite C) Gypsum D) Talc

Q: Nonmetallic minerals used for abrasives include ________. A) topaz and fluorite B) talc and gypsum C) apatite and hematite D) corundum and garnet

Q: List three economic materials that can be profitably extracted from placer deposits. A) Gold, platinum, and tin B) Diamonds, iron, and quartz C) Sand, gravel, and silt D) Granite, basalt, and gabbro

Q: Aluminum laterite is also known as the mineral ________. A) calcite B) olivine C) hematite D) bauxite

Q: ________ occurs when weathering concentrates minor amounts of metals scattered through unweathered rock into economically valuable concentrations. A) Passive collection B) Secondary enrichment C) Concentration D) Hydraulic fracturing

Q: What is the definition of a placer deposit? A) Sorting of particles by a water current according to a material's specific gravity B) Emplacement of hydrothermal fluids into a fracture C) Concentration of minor amounts of metals in soil via weathering D) Metallic deposit near the base of a black smoker due to precipitation

Q: Deeply weathered tropical soils that develop in warm, rainy climates are called ________. A) tillites B) placers C) laterites D) methane hydrates

Q: The mineral bauxite is refined to produce ________ for economic use. A) iron B) aluminum C) copper D) gold

Q: Prolonged tropical weathering of specific kinds of bedrock can produce deposits of which mineral? A) Gold B) Hematite C) Halite D) Bauxite

Q: When considering hydrothermal deposits, vein- or fissure-filling deposits of metallic ores such as gold or silver are common in ________. A) rocks of a contact-metamorphic zone that formed around a shallow granite pluton B) pyroclastic materials erupted from a stratovolcano C) impact structures from meteorites D) rocks that form in high-pressure subduction zones

Q: How can contact metamorphism result in the deposition of ore deposits? A) Magma differentiates during cooling, leaving the ores to settle out to the bottom of the magma chamber. B) Hot, mineral-rich water exits the seafloor, resulting in instant precipitation of minerals. C) Hot magma burns the country rock, which experiences a mineral phase change. D) Hot fluids in contact with the country rock can result in chemical reactions that facilitate the migration of metallic ions.

Q: ________ deposits such as gold and silver are generated from hot, ion-rich fluids. A) Kimberlite B) Hydrothermal C) Placer D) Evaporite

Q: ________ is a high-pressure ultramafic rock, often containing diamonds, which is carried to the surface in tapered volcanic pipes. A) Pegmatite B) Migmatite C) Kimberlite D) Platinum

Q: Which igneous rock will form through crystallization in a fluid-rich environment with enhanced ion migration? A) Scoria B) Pegmatite C) Obsidian D) Basalt

Q: In what geologic time period would the mammoth in this image have existed? A) Neogene to Quaternary Periods B) Cambrian Period C) Jurassic to Cretaceous Periods D) Permian Period

Q: In what kind of environment did the organism in this image live? A) Desert B) Rainforest C) Marine D) Swamp

Q: What organism is visible in this image? A) Amphibian B) Brachiopod C) Crinoid D) Trilobite

Q: What period had the greatest amount of cratonic formation? A) Hadean B) Proterozoic Eon C) Archean Eon D) Phanerozoic Eon

Q: Match the lettered blanks to their location in the Geologic Time Scale in this image. A) Neogene B) Cambrian C) Mesozoic D) Holocene 1. A 2. B 3. C 4. D

Q: Compare and contrast reptiles and mammals. Why were mammals able to occupy more diverse habitats than reptiles could?

Q: What were the first animals to leave the sea and adapt to a terrestrial environment? When did they do so? What physiological properties did they have that made them able to do so?

Q: Compare and contrast western and eastern North America during the Cenozoic Era.

Q: How does the process and rate seafloor spreading affect sea level?

Q: How does the formation, break-up, and subsequent formation of supercontinents explain the origin of cratons?

Q: What role did the creation of the ozone layer have in the distribution of life forms across the planet and why?

Q: What is the importance of cyanobacteria for our atmosphere? What did they produce and how? What happened to the first materials they produced?

Q: Evaluate the validity of the idea that Earth is "The Goldilocks Planet" in the solar system. Support your position with three points.

Q: Match the organism to the era it flourished in. (Note: Answers may be used more than once.) A) Paleozoic B) Cenozoic C) Mesozoic 1. Trilobite 2. Mammoths 3. Ichthyosaurs 4. Archaeopteryx 5. Marsupials

Q: Match the geologic era to the correct translation. A) Old Life B) New Life C) Middle Life 1. Mesozoic 2. Paleozoic 3. Cenozoic

Q: Match the major event in the fossil record to the correct geologic time period. A) Triassic to Cretaceous B) Tertiary C) Mississippian to Permian D) Early Cambrian E) Silurian to Devonian F) Cambrian to Ordovician 1. Age of Fishes 2. First life forms with hard parts 3. Age of Invertebrates 4. Age of Mammals 5. Age of Reptiles 6. Age of Amphibians

Q: Put the steps of formation of the early solar system in order from oldest to youngest. (Note: "First" refers to the oldest event and "Fifth" refers to the youngest.) A) Rapid expansion of compact, dense mass to create matter and space. B) Accretion of bodies to create protoplanets. C) Formation and rotation of solar nebula. D) Contraction of gases and start of nuclear fusion in the first stars. E) Accretion of rocky debris creates planetesimals. 1. First 2. Second 3. Third 4. Fourth 5. Fifth

Q: Some of the dominant marine reptiles of the Mesozoic were reptiles whose ancestors had evolved on land, but returned to life in the sea. What physiological evidence supports this interpretation?

Q: What geologic process triggered the Permian Extinction? Where did the trigger occur?

Q: Explain how interstellar debris will eventually form a planetesimal.

Q: Why is the molten metallic core of Earth necessary for life to exist?

Q: Recent studies have indicated that dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded rather than cold-blooded.

Q: Mammals did not evolve until the beginning of the Cenozoic and then did so to fill an evolutionary niche left behind by the dinosaurs.

Q: The flowering plants that developed during the Cenozoic were gymnosperms.

Q: Dinosaurs and large mammals coexisted during the Mesozoic era.

Q: Flying reptiles are a form of dinosaur.

Q: Stromatolites went extinct at the end of the Permian Period along with 95 percent of all marine species on Earth.

Q: Most Precambrian rocks lack fossils, which makes correlating rock units over large distances difficult.

Q: The acidity levels of the early oceans were much lower than today, so it took 4 billion years of weathering in order to reach the level of salinity present in the oceans today.

Q: Oxygen was one of the main gases in the early atmosphere.

Q: Pluto has been downgraded to the status of a protoplanet.

Q: The Geologic Time Scale records the history of Earth all the way back to the formation of the universe.

Q: The early Earth was not hospitable to life as we know it because of meteorite bombardment, an oxygen-poor atmosphere, and the molten state of the planet for the first few million years.

Q: Which organism, developing approximately 4.2 million years ago, represents the link between humans and apes? A) Homo habilis B) Homo erectus C) Homo sapiens D) Australopithecus

Q: Which group of animals will bear live young that are underdeveloped and must stay in the mother's pouch to complete their development? A) Placentals B) Marsupials C) Prokaryotes D) Angiosperms

Q: Which of the following does not characterize the early development and specialization of mammals? A) Increase in brain capacity B) Increase in body size C) Increase in lung capacity D) Specialization of teeth to accommodate diets

Q: The dominant plant group in the Cenozoic Era is ________. A) exosperms B) methanogens C) angiosperms D) gymnosperms

Q: What event was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs? A) Meteorite impact in the Yucatan Peninsula B) Eruptions of the Siberian Traps C) Assembly of Pangaea D) Rise of flowering plants

Q: Which of the following is a modern descendant of the gymnosperm plants of the Mesozoic? A) Orchids B) Junipers C) Lichen D) Oaks