Geology Exam #3

Question 0

What is a catastrophism?

Answer 0

Associated with religion in the past

Rapid change

Processes of a nature and/or magnitude NOT observed today

Ex. Impact of a giant asteroid

Question 1

What is an uniformitarianism?

Answer 1

“Present key to the past”

Slow change

Ex. Appalachian Mountains & Grand Canyon

Question 2

What are the three unconformaties?

Answer 2

Angular Unconformities- tilted rocks are overlaid by flat-lying rocks

Disconformities- strata on either side are parallel

Nonconformities- metamorphic or plutonic igneous rocks below and younger sedimentary rocks above

Question 3

Name Eons that were mentioned in class.

Also, out them in order from youngest to oldest

Answer 3

Phanerozoic Eon (we live in this eon)

Proterozoic Eon

Archean Eon

Hadaen Eon

Question 4

Name the Eras mentioned in class.

Answer 4

Cenozoic Era

Mesozoic Era

Paleozoic Era

Question 5

What is the Phanerozoic Eon?

Answer 5

We live in this eon

Started 542 million years ago

Question 6

What is the Cenozoic Era?

Answer 6

Present day

Started 66 million years ago

Often called “The Age of Mammals”

Mammals & flowering plants appeared

Question 7

What is the Mesozoic Era?

Answer 7

Started 251 million years ago

First flowers & birds

First & last dinosaurs

Mass extension at the end when a huge object struck the earth

Question 8

What is the Paleozoic Era?

Answer 8

542 million years ago

Life exploded

Question 9

What eon & era are we living in?

Answer 9

We live in the Phanerozoic Eon & the Cenozoic Era

Question 10

What is a bed load?

Answer 10

Sand or larger bouncing along stream beds

Question 11

What is discharge?

Answer 11

Volume of water / time

Cubic feet per second

Question 12

What is the highest discharge river in America?

Answer 12

Mississippi River

Question 13

What is the highest discharge river in the world?

Answer 13

Amazon River

Question 14

What is a watershed?

Answer 14

The part of the river where all the water drains too

Ex. Where the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico meet

Question 15

What is a dissolved load?

Answer 15

Ion and compounds

Not visible

Increases through dissolution

Reduced by precipitation

Question 16

What is a suspended load?

Answer 16

Silt and clay

Looks muddy

Increases through erosion

Reduced by deposition

Largest load in most rivers including the Mississippi River

Question 17

What is erosion?

Answer 17

Rapidly flowing water

Question 18

What is deposition?

Answer 18

Slow moving water

Question 19

What is the lowest base level for most streams?

Answer 19

Sea Level

Question 20

How does the profile of a river change from head to mouth?

Answer 20

Profile is a smooth curve

The slope of the bed decreases from the head to the mouth

Question 21

Which load moves the most sediments annually?

Answer 21

Suspended Load

Question 22

What is Zone of Saturation?

Answer 22

All pore spaces in the material are filled manly with water

Water within the pores is ground water

Target of groundwater exploration

Question 23

What is the Zone of Aereation?

Answer 23

Unsaturated area

Pore spaces in the material are filled mainly with air

Question 24

What is a water table?

Answer 24

The upper limit of the zone of saturation

Question 25

What is the aquifer?

Answer 25

A permeable layer of material Find aquifer in groundwater exploration****

Question 26

What is Aquitaine?

Answer 26

An impermeable layer of material

Question 27

Assume that water filling a crack in a rock undergoes cycles of freezing and melting. Which of the following statements is true?

Answer 27

Water expands as it freezes, causing the crack a walls to be pushed apart

Question 28

Feldspars are commonly decomposed during weathering to clay and materials, silcia, and soluble constituents.

Answer 28

True

Question 29

Sheeting is mainly a process of mechanical weathering

Answer 29

True

Question 30

What percent of the water in the world is salt/fresh?

Answer 30

97% Salt 3% Fresh

Question 31

What are the top water replenishers?

Answer 31

1: Ice sheets & glaciers from Antarctica & Greenland 2: groundwater 3: everything else

Question 32

What is the Cambrian explosion?

Answer 32

Marine invertebrates appear First insects, fish, amphibians, and reptiles

Question 33

The greatest mass extension in history was in the ________ Period

Answer 33

Permian

Question 34

When did flowering plants first appear?

Answer 34

Cenozoic Era

Question 35

When did dinosaurs live?

Answer 35

Mesozoic Era

Question 36

When did the Hadean Eon start?

Answer 36

4.6 billion years ago

Question 37

When was the Paleozoic Era?

Answer 37

542 million years ago

Question 38

When was the Mesozoic Era?

Answer 38

251 million years ago

Question 39

How long ago did the Cenozoic Era begin?

Answer 39

66.5 million years ago

Question 40

What period began 2.6 million years ago?

Answer 40

Quaternary Period

Question 41

What epoch happened 12,000 years ago?

Answer 41

Pleistocene Epoch

Question 42

Which eons are apart of the Precambrian?

Answer 42

Proterozoic, Archean, and Hadean

Question 43

Which era includes the Permian Period?

Answer 43

Paleozoic Era

Question 44

The Holocene is an epoch of which period, era, and eon?

Answer 44

Quaternary Period, Cenozoic Era, Phanerozoic Eon

Question 45

During which era did dinosaurs live?

Answer 45

Mesozoic

Question 46

In rocks of which era did the first fish fossil appear?

Answer 46

Paleozoic Era

Question 47

When did the Paleozoic Era begin?

Answer 47

542 million years ago