geology test 1 Flashcards by Nicole Reese

Geology as a science deals with

Great variations in scale and time

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A very important concept in geology is that

Earth is constantly changing

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Measurements show that climate is changing at an alarmingly fast rate, but the details of the mechanism for the change are still being worked out. Does this make global climate change a Theory, Hypothesis, Observation, Fact, or a completely disproven idea?

Observation

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The assumption, presented in your textbook, that the natural world behaves in a consistent and predictable manner that is comprehensible given sufficient study is consistent with which of the following

Uniformitarianism

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You have learned that Earth has four important spheres: the Biosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, and Geosphere. They interact to make the environment we live in. Which of the following geologic features most closely shows the interaction of all four spheres

Soil

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Wet mud and earthworms found on the edge of a lake would be considered to be part of

A combination of spheres

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“Big Bang” is estimated to have occurred

between 10 billion and 15 billion years ago

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The Nebular Hypothesis states that

Earth and the other planets formed at essentially the same time from the same primordial matter as the Sun

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Why are the inner planets different from the outer planets

The inner planets contain heavier elements because they were very hot and had a weak gravitational field that could not hold the lighter elements

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On Earth, chemical differentiation led to the formation of layers in Earth based on the ______________of the materials that make up those layers

density

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What is the major difference between the crust and the mantle?

Composition

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If you have a metamorphic rock, and you bury it and heat it until it melts, and then bring it closer to the surface where it cools and solidifies again, the resulting rock would be

Igneous

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One of the most important reasons geologists study rocks is

To understand the geological history of Earth

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The boundary between the oceanic crust and the continental crust is

in the continental slope

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The oldest rocks on Earth would be exposed primarily in the

shields

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Ocean floor lies about 3.8 k m (2.4 miles) beneath the sea surface, while continents extend about 0.8 k m (0.5 miles) above the sea surface because

Continents are less dense than ocean floor and both are floating on weak mantle material

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The primary difference between Physical and Historical Geology is that

Physical Geology is about the processes that have shaped Earth over time and Historical Geology is about how we can reconstruct the record of change on Eart

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Prior to the 1960s, most scientists thought the continents were

Old and stationary

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What was the major problem with Wegener’s suggestion that tidal forces could move continents?

Tidal forces are not strong enough to move continents

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A plate boundary where one plate is moving under another plate is a _____________ boundary

Convergent

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The major difference between the lithosphere and the asthenosphere is

Their behavior. Lithosphere will bend or break, while asthenosphere will flow

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The Himalayan mountain range is the result of ___________

A continent–continent collision

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What happens at divergent boundaries?

The seafloor spreads and magma rises up to fill the gap, forming underwater features like oceanic ridges and submarine volcanoes

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What type of plate boundary is the San Andreas fault zone

Transform

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Which of the following Plate boundaries is the least common

Transform

The sediments on the ocean floor get thicker with increasing distance from the ridges because

The seafloor gets older as it moves away from the ridge and so more sediment has time to accumulate farther from the ridge

Which one of these processes does NOT contribute to plate motions

Tidal forces

Which of these locations is located on a divergent boundary

Iceland

The rate of seafloor spreading is typically around

50 mm/yr

Why does subduction occur

Because the oceanic lithosphere becomes more dense than the asthenosphere with age

The three most common volatiles in magma are

Carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and water vapor

Why are lava flows typically finer grained than intrusive igneous rocks

The lava flow cools quickly on the surface of Earth so the mineral grains do not have time to grow

What does texture usually tell us about an igneous rock

How quickly the rock cooled

Glassy igneous rocks form when the magma

cools so fast that mineral grains cannot crystallize and grow

According to Bowen’s Reaction series, which of these minerals will crystallize first

Olivine

A Batholith is

a large group of intrusions that coalesce

Which of the following rocks is likely to have the most quartz within it and why

Granite, because it is an intrusive rock that formed from the cooling of relatively high-silica magma

Decompression melting occurs because

The melting temperature of hot material is lowered as the confining pressure decreases

The chemical equivalent of granite is

Rhyolite

Where does most magma come from

The upper mantle

Bowen’s reaction series is based on

Laboratory experiments involving melting rocks

What is the most important factor for whether magma cools slowly or quickly

The temperature of the environment: higher T = slower magma cooling

What is the difference between primary and secondary magmas

A primary magma is the parent from which the secondary magma forms through differentiation

Sedimentary rocks are particularly important to humans because

They contain resources such as water, oil and gas, uranium, and iron

Which of the following is not a category of sedimentary rocks

Mechanical

Which of the following sedimentary rocks would you expect to have been formed from sediments deposited in a “quiet” environment like a lake or swamp?

Shale

Which of the following sedimentary rocks would you expect to have originally been deposited by fast-moving streams

Conglomerate

If shale is such a common rock in the sedimentary rock world, why isn't it as prominently exposed at the surface as sandstone

Shale crumbles easily, causing increased mechanical weathering, whereas sandstone resists weathering more effectively

Which of the following sediments would be most likely to give direct information about the type of rocks the particles were derived from

Gravel

Which of the following sedimentary rocks is most likely to have a crystalline texture

Limestone

Which of the following is NOT one of the three major depositional environments

Island

Much of the CO2 in the atmosphere is believed to come from

volcanoes

How does carbon get into the oceans to form the shells of animals?

It combines chemically with water to form H2CO3, which can be reduced to a bicarbonate ion during weathering and transported to the sea

Sandstone is a type of sedimentary rock that is classified based on its

predominant grain size

Petrified wood forms by

the replacement of wood with chert

Dolostone is somewhat of a mystery to scientists because

It is abundant but no marine organisms use it to make shells

Sedimentary rocks are particularly important to humans because

They contain resources such as water, oil and gas, uranium, and iron

Which of the following is not a category of sedimentary rocks

Mechanical

Which of the following sedimentary rocks would you expect to have been formed from sediments deposited in a “quiet” environment like a lake or swamp

Shale

Which of the following sedimentary rocks would you expect to have originally been deposited by fast-moving streams

Conglomerate

If shale is such a common rock in the sedimentary rock world, why isn't it as prominently exposed at the surface as sandstone?

Shale crumbles easily, causing increased mechanical weathering, whereas sandstone resists weathering more effectively

Which of the following sediments would be most likely to give direct information about the type of rocks the particles were derived from

Gravel

Which of the following sedimentary rocks is most likely to have a crystalline texture

Limestone

Which of the following is NOT one of the three major depositional environments

Island

Much of the CO2 in the atmosphere is believed to come from

volcanoes

How does carbon get into the oceans to form the shells of animals

It combines chemically with water to form H2CO3, which can be reduced to a bicarbonate ion during weathering and transported to the sea

Sandstone is a type of sedimentary rock that is classified based on its

predominant grain size

Petrified wood forms by

the replacement of wood with chert

Dolostone is somewhat of a mystery to scientists because

It is abundant but no marine organisms use it to make shells

What is the main reason the mineralogy of a rock changes during metamorphism

Some minerals are only stable under limited conditions of temperature and pressure, so they change when the conditions change.

Why is it important to know that every metamorphic rock has a parent rock

All metamorphic rocks form from a pre-existing solid rock, and the composition of the parent rock will predict what new minerals will form during metamorphism

What is the most important factor driving metamorphism and why

Heat, because it causes atoms within a mineral to vibrate more rapidly allowing them to migrate more freely

A porphyroblast is

An unusually large mineral that is surrounded by finer grained minerals

Which of the following factors is most likely to produce foliation

Differential stress

Which of the following types of foliated rock is likely to result from the flattening and alignment of micas

Schist

Why do some metamorphic rocks develop a foliation

Because the minerals have distinctly different dimensions in at least two dimensions

The parent rock type for most foliated metamorphic rocks is

Shale

Black smokers are commonly associated with

Ocean crust formed at nearby divergent boundaries

In which setting would regional metamorphism be most likely

At great depths in the crust where two continents are colliding

Which response best represents the conditions of contact metamorphism

Low pressures, shallow burial, and heat supplied by a nearby magma body

If you know the metamorphic facies of a metamorphic rock (example: zeolite), what can you deduce about the rock

Pressure and temperature of formation

In which of the major types of metamorphism does confining pressure play a major role

Burial metamorphism