U3: Recording Earth's Geological History Flashcards
What is one piece of evidence that Wegener used to prove continental drift?
a) matching rock units on the east and west coasts of South America
b) evidence of glaciers in Canada
c) matching fossils in East and West Africa
d) evidence of coal swamps in the northeast United States
e) matching magnetic stripes in the sea floor
d) evidence of coal swamps in the northeast United States
Why was Wegener’s hypothesis not widely accepted at the time he proposed it?
a) Matching fossils on separate continents were common.
b) Most scientists in North America distrusted German scientists.
c) None of the continents appeared to have a geographic fit.
d) Wegener could not sufficiently explain the forces that moved the continents.
e) There were no matching magnetic stripes on the seafloor.
d) Wegener could not sufficiently explain the forces that moved the continents
A lithospheric plate is defined as
a) a rigid plate-like portion of the uppermost crust separated by asthenosphere.
b) the uppermost portion of the lithosphere.
c) a portion of the lithosphere separated from other portions of the lithosphere by a plate boundary.
d) the crust plus the upper portion of the mantle.
e) a limited portion of the lithospheric mantle
c) a portion of the lithosphere separated from other portions of the lithosphere by a plate boundary
What features would you expect to see at a convergent boundary?
a) mid-ocean ridges and the formation of new lithospheric plate material
b) subduction zones and colliding lithospheric plates
c) seafloor-spreading plates sliding alongside one another
d) hot-spot tracks of volcanic islands
e) transverse fracture zones forming new crust
b) subduction zones and colliding lithospheric plates
What features would you expect to see at a divergent boundary?
a) accretionary prisms and continental arcs
b) side-by-side movement and destruction of lithospheric plates
c) hot-spot tracks of volcanic islands
d) mid-ocean ridges and seafloor spreading
e) the highest types of mountains in the world, such as the Himalayas
d) mid-ocean ridges and seafloor spreading
The youngest rocks and thinnest sediments on the seafloor can be found
a) adjacent to subduction zones.
b) at mid-ocean ridges.
c) on the continental shelf.
d) in the abyssal plain.
e) near oceanic trenches
b) at mid-ocean ridges
Hot spots
a) are locations thought to be at the top of mantle plumes, where volcanoes form.
b) are almost always associated with plate boundaries.
c) form as the result of melting that occurs at subduction zones.
d) cannot be explained by plate tectonics.
e) are found primarily along continental boundaries
a) are locations thought to be at the top of mantle plumes, where volcanoes form
Paleomagnetism is
a) an ancient form of seismology used to detect earthquakes.
b) a magnetic anomaly that allows scientists to locate the geographic poles of the Earth.
c) the place on the Earth where the magnetic field lines point straight down.
d) a concept used by Wegener to prove continental drift.
e) the record of past magnetism that can be detected in the Earth’s rocks
e) the record of past magnetism that can be detected in the Earth’s rocks
The pattern of marine magnetic anomalies on the seafloor is evidence of
a) seafloor spreading.
b) the depth of the seafloor.
c) subductions zones.
d) the types of microfossils found on the seafloor.
e) the latent heat of the seafloor
a) seafloor spreading
Which American geologist explored the Grand Canyon in 1869?
a) James Hutton
b) Charles Lyell
c) Albert Einstein
d) John Wesley Powell
e) Ronald Reagan
d) John Wesley Powell
What fundamental principle of geology can be simplified to mean ‟the present is the key to the past”?
a) superposition
b) evolution
c) uniformitarianism
d) catastrophism
e) punctuated equilibrium
c) uniformitarianism
Which Scottish geologist developed the principle of uniformitarianism?
a) Lord Kelvin
b) James Hutton
c) William Smith
d) Nicolas Steno
e) Georges Cuvier
b)James Hutton
What type of fossil is petrified wood?
a) molds and cast
b) carbonized impression
c) permineralized organism
b) trace fossil
c) permineralized organism
If a dike cuts across a sedimentary bed this would be an example of
a) superposition.
b) cross-cutting.
c) baked contact.
d) inclusions.
b) cross-cutting
A sequence of (rock) beds that can be traced over a fairly broad region is known as a stratigraphic
a) formation.
b) column.
c) correlation.
d) contact.
e) unconformity.
a) formation
