Midterm 2 Flashcards
Almost all intermediate to deep focus earthquakes occur along _____ plate boundaries.
Convergent
James Hutton formulated the Principle of
___ -_____ relationships.
Cross-Cutting
The Alberta oilsands found in the McMurray formation, a regional sandstone deposited in a large epeiric seaway which extended from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico during the _____ Era and the _____ Period.
Mesozoic Era
Cretaceous Period
Contact metamorphism results when ____ or _____ alters the surrounding country rock.
lava OR magma
The ____ _____ forms the core of North America and has been tectonically _____ during the Phanerozoic.
Canadian Shield, Inactive
The supercontinent that formed near the end of the Paleozoic from an assembling of all the continents was called _____.
Pangea
Earthquakes are vibrations caused by the sudden release of ____, usually along a ______ ______.
energy, fault margin
Areas of buried shield rock and younger sedimentary platform cover are collectively called ____, which are tectonically _____.
cratons, stable
The _______, highly skilled hunters and cave painters, lived from about 35,000 to 10,000 years ago, and were successors of the ____.
Cro-magnon, neanderthals
According to the elastic rebound theory rocks will :
a. Rocks will bend before they break
b. snap back into their original shape after faulting
c. break when their capacity to store energy of deformation has been exceeded
d. bend before they break AND snap back to original shape after faulting.
E. ALL OF THE ABOVE
WHich of the following is not a factor affecting earthquake intensity?
e. the time elapsed since the last earthquake
The min. number of seismographs needed to determine an earthquakes epicenter is?
C. 3
The Precambrian comprises what % of geologic time?
b. 88%
During the Archean, approximately how long was the length of a day on Earth?
b. 10 hours
ALL of the following make it difficult to determine the Precambrian history of earth, except one choice which is untrue. Which one is untrue?
A. There is Precambrian rocks ONLY on THREE continents.
Found on more than only three continents
What factor(s) led to the enormous scale of banded iron deposition during the Proterozoic?
a. abundance of dissolved iron in seawater
b. increase in photosynthesizing bacteria
c. chemical affinity of iron to combine available oxygen
d. All of the above
All of these
The Archean atmosphere could be described as what?
d. Oxygen deficient
Which of the following evolutionary trends characterize primates?
a. increase in brain size
b. change in overall skeletal structures
c. stereoscopic vision
d. grasping hands with opposable thumbs
E. ALL OF THESE
Which of the following does NOT apply to trilobites?
a. abundant in modern oceans
extinct
How did ordovician reefs differ from those of the cambrian?
a. Cambrian reefs were generally small
b Cambrian reefs were built primarily of Archeocyathids
c. Ordovician reefs represent a diverse community of organisms
d. Ordovician reefs were dominated by suspension feeders
E. ALL OF THESE
Because of the nature of the world-wide climatic conditions in the Mesozoic, organisms _____.
b. Could occupy extensive geographic regions.
A seismic risk map can be used to
B. Choose locations to avoid for hospitals and other important buildings.
What was the large landmass composed mostly of {modern} North America and Greenland that evolved during the Proterozoic Eon?
D. Laurentia
The time of the greatest post- Paleozoic indundation of the craton occurred during which geologic period?
Cretaceous
Rocks of the shield are primarily ___ and__
igneous and metamorphic