Course Introduction
Environmental Geology Exam Review
Environmental Geology explores the interactions between human society and the geologic environment, emphasizing how geological processes influence our use and management of Earth's resources. The course examines natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, floods, and volcanic activity, while also addressing topics like groundwater contamination, soil degradation, and resource extraction. Through the study of case histories and practical examples, students learn to evaluate geologic risks, apply scientific reasoning to environmental challenges, and assess strategies for sustainable development and environmental protection.
Recommended Textbook
Earth An Introduction to Physical Geology 4th Canadian Edition by Edward J. Tarbuck
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Page 2
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Geology and Plate Tectonics
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Sample Questions
Q1) The series of processes by which one rock type can transform to another, and record Earth's internal or external past environmental conditions as it does so, is called
A)the Wilson cycle
B)the uniformitarian cycle
C)the rock cycle
D)the tricycle
Answer: C
Q2) Consider the tectonic plates on either side of an oceanic-ridge boundary.How are the plates moving with respect to the boundary?
A)sliding along it
B)moving toward it
C)moving away from it
D)falling into it
Answer: C
Q3) List the two, broad, traditional subject areas of geologic study.
Answer: physical and historical geology
Q4) When was our planet created, according to James Ussher?
Answer: 4004 B.C.E.
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Chapter 2: Minerals: The Building Blocks of Rocks
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Q1) ________ is the most common variety of the mineral group amphibole.
Answer: Hornblende
Q2) In silicate minerals, cleavages occur ________.
A)across the dominant silicate structures
B)in between the dominant silicate structural units
C)in random directions, unrelated to the silicate framework
D)in between mineral crystals
Answer: B
Q3) The physical property denoting a mineral's tendency to crack along parallel, planar surfaces is known as what?
Answer: cleavage
Q4) The real kryptonite is not a mineral but a(n)________. Answer: element
Q5) What is the name of dark-coloured mica?
A)calcite
B)biotite
C)quartz
D)olivine
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: Igneous Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which igneous texture indicates two, distinctly different sizes of mineral grains?
A)aphanitic
B)porphyritic
C)phaneritic
D)glassy
Answer: B
Q2) Which of the following minerals crystallize early in Bowen's reaction series?
A)biotite
B)quartz
C)olivine
D)muscovite
Answer: C
Q3) A compositionally stratified magma chamber could give rise to a variety of volcanic products from a single volcanic centre, like at Mount Mazama.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) What general term denotes molten rock below the Earth's surface?
Answer: magma
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Chapter 4: Volcanoes and Volcanic Processes
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Q1) What term describes a liquid's characteristic stiffness and resistance to flow?
Q2) ________ the big volcanoes of Hawaii
A)shield volcanoes
B)composite/stratovolcanoes
C)cinder cones
Q3) What destroyed the city of St.Pierre, Martinique in 1902?
A)mudflows
B)mafic lava flows
C)heavy ashfall
D)a nuée ardente
Q4) What type are the volcanoes of the Cascades and Alaska's Aleutian Islands?
A)composite volcanoes
B)shield
C)cinder cones
D)stratospheric
Q5) Correctly rank the these three magmas in order of increasing viscosity: andesitic, mafic, felsic.
Q6) Vents that emit only heated, volcanic gases and water are called fumaroles.
A)True
B)False
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Weathering and Soil
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Sample Questions
Q1) The natural decomposition of limestone through chemical weathering mostly produces solid, insoluble calcium hydroxide.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Thermal cooling, especially of igneous rocks, results in the formation of regular patterns of joints.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Residual soils form by weathering of the local, underlying bedrock.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which of the following statements concerning humus is false?
A)is typically found above the B soil horizon
B)consists of decaying and partly decayed leaves and other plant materials
C)is readily leached from the B horizon in weakly acidic, soil solutions
D)is less abundant in wet, tropical, forested areas than in temperate, forested areas
Q5) How has agriculture, silviculture, and urbanization influenced soil erosion and transported sediment loads?
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Chapter 6: Sedimentary Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a form of calcium carbonate found in cave formations and hot springs deposits?
A)travertine
B)chert
C)lignite
D)gypsum
Q2) What are the main sources of carbon from the lithosphere?
Q3) Consider the small delicate Early Cenozoic ancestors of the modern horse.Which part of these animals was most commonly preserved as fossils?
A)skull
B)vertebrae
C)hair
D)teeth
Q4) Name three kinds of organisms which have built reefs at different times in Earth history.
Q5) What is the most common group of rocks exposed or cropping out on continents?
Q6) What are the three, most common, cementing agents for sandstones?
Q7) How are playa lakes formed and what kind of deposits occur there?
Q8) Which sedimentary rock forms by lithification of gravels?
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Chapter 7: Metamorphism and Metamorphic Rocks
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Q1) What term describes the zone of contact metamorphism where hornfels forms, surrounding an intrusive magma body?
A)astrobleme
B)hydrothermal vein
C)oracle
D)aureole
Q2) During metamorphism, what is the major effect of chemically active fluids?
A)increase the pressures in deeply buried, regional-metamorphic zones
B)aid in the movement of dissolved ions and silicate constituents from parent minerals and facilitate growth of new metamorphic mineral grains
C)prevent partial melting so solid rocks can undergo very high temperature regional metamorphism
D)facilitate the formation of schistosity and gneissic banding in hornfels and skarns
Q3) Contact metamorphism is most readily apparent at shallow depths, where the thermal gradients are the steepest (hot intrusion/cold roof rock).
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Geologic Time
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Q1) The rare element iridium has been implicated in which "ancient health" crisis?
A)poisoning of primitive algae in the Hadean Eon
B)extinction of the woolly mammoths in late Pleistocene time
C)disappearance of Neanderthal man during the early Cenozoic Era
D)extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period
Q2) What is the name of a Phanerozoic era that means ancient life?
Q3) Phanerozoic, marine, sedimentary strata of the same age on different continents can usually be correlated by their fossil assemblages.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which organisms were benthic (bottom dwellers)and extensively used as index fossils respectively for the Mesozoic and Lower Paleozoic?
A)ammonoids and conodonts
B)chitnozoans and graptolites
C)diatoms and diatoms
D)flatclams and trilobites
Q5) The Proterozoic Era is the first and oldest division of the Phanerozoic Eon.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Crustal Deformation
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Q1) Describe the most common way for a monocline to form.
Q2) While weaker rocks like shale or rock salt will fracture or flow when subjected to stresses, harder rocks like granite, quartzite and peridotite rarely deform.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Briefly explain the difference between stress and strain.
Q4) Evidence demonstrating the enormous forces within the Earth includes thousands of kilometres extent of rock layers that are ________.
Q5) A circular to elliptical structure developed by upward arching of the older central strata is a ________.
Q6) Granite or glacial ice is the weakest naturally occurring solid to exhibit ductile flow on a large scale?
Q7) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)elastic
B)ductile
C)folding
D)tension
Q8) Quartzite or marble is more likely to exhibit brittle behaviour?
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Chapter 10: Earthquakes and Earth's Interior
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Q1) What is observed in paleoseismology?
Q2) As a P wave passes, material particles vibrate at right angles to the path followed by a point moving with the wave.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The ________ is the point on the surface directly above the site of initial earthquake rupture.
Q4) Which is not a criterion for determining an earthquake's Mercalli intensity?
A)amplitude of the maximum seismic wave
B)damage done to buildings
C)descriptions of the event
D)secondary effects like ground rupture or landslides
Q5) When seismic waves pass from one material (layer)to another, the path of the wave is ________, according to the changes in elastic properties like compressibility, rigidity, and density.
Q6) Briefly explain or draw and label the elastic -rebound earthquake cycle.
Q7) ________ is the Japanese word, commonly used by scientists, to denote seismic sea waves induced by earthquakes or other disturbances that suddenly shift the depth of the seabed.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: The Ocean Floor
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Q1) ________ and ________ comprise most biogenous sediments.
Q2) The release of water and other volatiles from a subducting plate triggers melting in the overlying wedge of asthenosphere and gives rise to volcanic island arcs or mountain chains like the Andes.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The ________ is a gently sloping submerged surface that extends from the shoreline to the deep-ocean basin.
Q4) If you are sailing across the continental shelf in Queen Charlotte Sound and your echo sounder reported the bottom at 200 milliseconds (0.200 sec)at the maximum depth crossing the axis of Mitchell Trough, how deep is the seabed in the middle of this drowned submarine valley? Use the equation: depth (m)= 0.5 * (1500 m/s * total 2-way travel time in sec)
A)150 metres
B)15 metres
C)1500 metres
D)500 metres
Q5) In terms of distinctiveness in depth and ruggedness, the three different regions of the seafloor are: ________.
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Chapter 12: Plate Tectonics: The Framework for Modern Geology
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Q1) What are three mechanisms that at places contribute to plate motions?
Q2) Wegener's supercontinent that began to break up about 200 million years ago was named ________.
A)Gondwanaland
B)Laurasia
C)Pangaea
D)Rodinia
Q3) Which of the following most accurately describes the volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands?
A)shield volcanoes fed by a long-lived hot spot below the Pacific plate
B)composite volcanoes associated with subduction and a convergent plate boundary
C)shield volcanoes associated with a mid-Pacific ridge and spreading centre
D)composite volcanoes associated with a mid-Pacific transform fault
Q4) ________ the San Andreas fault
A)convergent
B)transform
C)divergen
Q5) Rifting and normal faulting are characteristic of a ________ plate boundary.
Page 14
Q6) ________, in the north Atlantic Ocean is a volcanic island formed over a hot spot on a divergent plate boundary.
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Chapter 13: Mountain Building and Continental Frameworks
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Q1) Fault-block mountains occur in regions dominated by ________ faulting.
Q2) An Andean or Aleutian margin has the biggest accretionary wedge?
Q3) Mountains without active volcanic arcs are associated with a(n)________ margin.
A)continent-continent
B)continent-ocean
C)ocean-ocean
D)divergent
Q4) Mountain belts are generally narrower than mountain ranges.
A)True
B)False
Q5) A(n)________ convergent plate margin is associated with a volcanic island arc.
A)Andean
B)Aleutian
C)accretionary
D)collisional
Q6) The ________ mountains in North America were formed by a continent-continent collision in the Paleozoic.
Q7) The earliest and most primitive crust to form was probably oceanic.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 14: Mass Wasting: The Work of Gravity
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Q1) Bedding planes and fractures can both act as slip surfaces for rockslides.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Among the human factors which may have prepared or triggered the 1903 Frank Slide were deforestation on, and coal mining beneath, the slope that failed.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Thermokarst topography is produced by hot springs dissolving limestone terrain.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What term denotes the exposed slip (fracture)surface beneath a slump block?
A)scoop
B)sole
C)toe
D)scarp
Q5) Palsas are periglacial mounds of peat with lenses of ice.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Pingoes are mounds on tundra that are cored by sand and gravel or ice?
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Q7) What is the general term for the downslope movement of rock, regolith and soil?
Chapter 15: Running Water
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Q1) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)Spring floods
B)flash floods
C)ice-jam floods
D)dam-failure floods
Q2) ________ is the boundary line separating adjacent, stream drainage basins.
Q3) Saltation refers to excessive halite falling into a stream and dissolving in it.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)gradient
B)velocity
C)capacity
D)discharge
Q5) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)infiltration
B)sublimation
C)runoff
D)transpiration
Q6) A ________ is a stream segment along its course.
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Chapter 16: Groundwater
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Q1) Permeability is the name for the physical force that pushes water below the water table through a porous solid material.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Two ways that sink holes can form are by ________ and ________.
Q3) An aquifer is ________.
A)a saturated, porous, and permeable layer or stratum that has high water flow
B)a layer or stratum in which groundwater flows downward to the water table
C)an unsaturated bed or stratum below a spring
D)the best place to dispose of soluble toxic waste
Q4) What percentage of the Earth's water is in the form of groundwater?
A)97.2%
B)94%
C)0.6%
D)0.03%
Q5) When examining the geology of a region for potential aquifers, what characteristics or factors would you consider? Also, what areas (based on natural and human factors)would you avoid?
Q6) A stream flowing into a sinkhole is called a ________.
Q7) What feature originates where the water table intersects the land surface?
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Chapter 17: Glaciers and Glaciation
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Q1) Upon what evidence did Agassiz base his ice age theory?
A)astronomical calculations for cyclic variations in Earth's orbit
B)glacial landscapes in the Swiss Alps that extended far beyond existing ice fronts
C)spectroscopic measurements for variations in the solar output
D)stacks of glacial drift with intervening "warm period" soil horizons
Q2) Even when a glacier is retreating, the up-valley ice is still moving forward toward the down-valley terminus of the glacier.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Boulders that are lithologically different than the local bedrock (like a loose Precambrian gneiss found sitting on top of bedded Paleozoic limestones)are called
A)come from aways
B)ecstatics
C)erratics
D)transportees
Q4) Would most features of alpine glaciation be preserved in the geologic record? Why or why not? What about continental glaciation?
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Chapter 18: Deserts and Winds
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Q1) What is the cause of Canada's Arctic deserts like those on Cornwallis and Ellismere Islands?
A)permanent high pressure and dry north polar easterlies
B)a rainshadow from the Mackenzie Mountains in the Northwest Territories
C)overgrazing by musk oxen and melting of the Arctic ice cap
D)subtropical high from the descending limb of the Tropic of Cancer's Hadley cell
Q2) How do barchan and parabolic dunes differ?
Q3) ________ dunes are linear sand ridges at right angles to the prevailing wind direction in coastal areas, with a steady supply of sand.
A)Transverse
B)Barchan
C)Longitudinal
D)Parabolic
Q4) Where do the low-latitude deserts tend to occur?
Q5) What is the normal range of annual precipitation in Canada's Arctic polar deserts?
Q6) What is the term for a streamlined, wind-sculpted rock ridge oriented parallel to prevailing wind direction?
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Chapter 19: Shorelines
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Q1) How does the backshore of a barrier island differ from the backshore of the mainland.
Q2) A(n)________ current forms during an incoming or rising tide.
A)flood
B)drift
C)rip
D)ebb
Q3) Tidal bulges are caused purely by the gravitational attraction of the Sun and Moon.
A)True
B)False
Q4) How can crashing, collapsing, storm waves generate explosive forces and stresses on rocky outcrops and manmade structures?
A)Oscillating, refractive waves shake the hard materials into small fragments.
B)The weight, momentum, and pressure of storm waves compresses air into cracks, shattering rock.
C)Backwash breaks out blocks of rock or concrete and carries them to deeper water.
D)Storm waves hurl big rocks up into the suspended load, hammering the shore.
Q5) What is fairweather wave base?
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Chapter 20: Mineral and Energy Resources
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Q1) Briefly outline the pros and cons of alternate energy sources such as nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric.
Q2) Which of the following statements is false?
A)Saskatchewan is Canada's major coal producer.
B)Canada supplies over 20 countries with coal.
C)Much Canadian coal is used in steel production.
D)Nova Scotia was a major coal producer for over a century.
Q3) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)SEDEX
B)placer
C)stratiform
D)MVT
Q4) How much of Canada's electricity needs are met with nuclear power?
Q5) Which of the following statements is false?
A)Hydroelectric dams have limited life spans.
B)Sediments gradually fill reservoirs behind dams.
C)Canada still has rivers that have not been dammed for hydroelectric power.
D)Hydroelectric dams have no effect on wildlife.
Q6) Why is liquid petroleum formed only over a limited depth range?
Q7) The mineral apatite is mined as the source of ________.
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