Geology for Engineers
Exam Answer Key
Course Introduction
Geology for Engineers introduces the fundamental principles of geology with a focus on their application in civil, environmental, and geotechnical engineering. The course covers topics such as the structure and composition of the Earth, rock and soil types, geological processes, site investigation techniques, and hazards like earthquakes, landslides, and subsidence. Students will learn how geological factors influence material selection, foundation design, slope stability, and project safety, developing skills to assess, interpret, and communicate geological information effectively in engineering contexts.
Recommended Textbook Earth An Introduction to Physical Geology 4th Canadian Edition by Edward J. Tarbuck
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Chapter 1: An Introduction to Geology and Plate Tectonics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Sea-floor spreading occurs at ________ boundaries.
Answer: divergent
Q2) The idea that all of the tremendous geologic changes in Earth's history were concentrated in a few brief millennia is termed ________.
A)uniformitarianism
B)gradualism
C)catastrophism
D)Ussherism
Answer: C
Q3) The ________ is the relatively rigid zone above the asthenosphere that includes the crust and upper mantle.
Answer: lithosphere
Q4) During subduction, oceanic lithosphere descends into the asthenosphere.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q5) The convective flow of liquid, metallic iron in the ________ is thought to generate Earth's magnetic field.
Answer: outer core
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Chapter 2: Minerals: The Building Blocks of Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) Nonmetallic minerals like halite and gypsum have no industrial uses.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) All ferromagnesian minerals contain which two elements?
A)calcium, sodium
B)iron, magnesium
C)iron, potassium
D)chlorine, silicon
Answer: B
Q3) Which carbonate mineral reacts readily with cool, dilute hydrochloric acid to produce visible bubbles of carbon dioxide gas?
A)calcite
B)quartz
C)dolomite
D)plagioclase
Answer: A
Q4) Name a characteristic of a mineral.
Answer: natural, solid, usually inorganic, orderly structure, definite composition
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Chapter 3: Igneous Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) The size, shape, and geometric arrangement of mineral grains in igneous rocks is called ________ and it indicates ________.
A)aphanitic form, how much water was present in the melt
B)igneous geometry, the original % of partial melting
C)geomorphology, depth of origin for the original magma
D)texture, the environmental conditions in which the rock formed
Answer: D
Q2) What are vesicles?
A)open voids in an igneous rock left when phenocrysts dissolved away
B)the larger mineral grains of a porphyritic texture
C)the fragments comprising a volcanic breccia
D)open spaces formed in the rock as the lava solidified around gas bubbles
Answer: D
Q3) Intermediate rocks like andesite and diorite ________.
A)are major constituents of the oceanic crust
B)rarely contain plagioclase feldspar, pyroxenes or amphiboles
C)form mainly in convergent continental margins
D)contain the semiprecious gems beryl, topaz, and tourmaline
Answer: C
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Chapter 4: Volcanoes and Volcanic Processes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Kilauea and Mauna Loa are what kind of volcanoes?
A)explosive, rhyolitic volcanoes
B)andesitic composite volcanoes
C)basaltic shield volcanoes
D)small, basaltic cinder cones
Q2) Which statement is most correct concerning volcanic effects on our atmosphere?
A)Active volcanism is responsible for maintaining atmospheric levels of nitrogen.
B)Gases from volcanoes condense to make natural fertilizer, boosting plant growth.
C)If it were not for active volcanism there would be no free oxygen in the atmosphere.
D)Pollution of the atmosphere by sulfur compounds contributes significantly to acid rain.
Q3) Vents that emit only heated, volcanic gases and water are called fumaroles.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Crater Lake in Oregon actually occupies a caldera, not a crater.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Weathering and Soil
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Sample Questions
Q1) What are the environmental effects of acid rain?
Q2) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)weathering
B)mass wasting
C)mantle convection
D)erosion
Q3) Quartz weathers readily to aluminum-rich clay minerals.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Calcite, a major component of some monumental and building stones, slowly dissolves in weakly acidic waters.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What scientific value or application do paleosols have?
Q6) The B soil horizon is called the zone of leaching.
A)True
B)False
Q7) What are two different common types of minerals that chemically weather by oxidation?
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Q8) What are the final geologic end-products of chemical weathering of limestone?
Chapter 6: Sedimentary Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) What does the degree of rounding indicate in a sediment?
A)the distance travelled or duration of time involved in sediment transport
B)where the minerals originally came from
C)the velocity of transport
D)whether the sediment was deposited in a stream or the ocean
Q2) What rock type would be made from angular rock fragments >70 millimetres in size?
A)breccia
B)sandstone
C)siltstone
D)shale/mudstone
Q3) Which of the following rocks is lithified from sediment that was deposited in deep water and was essentially unmodified by post-depositional current action?
A)cross-bedded dune sandstone
B)wacke with graded bedding
C)well-sorted, quartz sandstone
D)reddish mudstone with mud cracks
Q4) Clays and muddy sediments lithify to form shales and mudstones.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: Metamorphism and Metamorphic Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) List the three most important agents of metamorphism.
Q2) At high pressures and elevated temperatures of regional metamorphism, silicate rocks are more resistant to flowage and deformation than at low temperatures and pressures.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What medium grade regional metamorphic rock is produced from shale as the parent rock?
Q4) The intensity and grade of ________ metamorphism is most intense where ________.
A)burial (zeolite facies), the soil horizon gives way to unaltered bedrock
B)cataclastic (dynamic), muds are shattered by raindrop impacts
C)contact, clays are recrystallized and reacted entirely to chlorite
D)regional, continents collide forming a mountain belt
Q5) A sillimanite hornfels would ________.
A)be formed at the highest grade of regional metamorphism
B)lie on the outermost edge of a contact aureole where hornfels are preserved
C)lie entirely within the core of the contact aureole occupied by the high grade D)usually form from the complete subduction of ocean crust deep into the mantle
Page 9
Q6) What are two ways that pressure (stress)drives metamorphism?
Q7) Give the name of a rock formed by regional metamorphism of a conglomerate.
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Chapter 8: Geologic Time
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Phanerozoic Eon comprises approximately the ________ of geologic time.
A)last 15%
B)first 85%
C)last 85%
D)first 15%
Q2) Unconformities often mark times of uplift and erosion.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)Cretaceous
B)Eocene
C)Silurian
D)Neogene
Q4) In a new unstudied geologic area you find both a nonconformity over igneous and metamorphic rocks, and an angular unconformity over deformed sedimentary rocks.Which represents the greatest hiatus (missing time)?
Q5) What process involves identifying and matching rocks of similar ages in different areas?
Q6) After the normal fault A moved, which was the next younger geologic feature?
Q7) What are the massive particle types in the nuclei of atoms?
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Chapter 9: Crustal Deformation
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Sample Questions
Q1) In thrust faulting, ________.
A)grabens develop on the footwall block
B)the crust is shortened and thickened
C)horizontal, tensional stresses drive the deformation
D)the hanging wall block slips downward along the thrust fault
Q2) A thrust fault has ________.
A)slickensides parallel to its strike
B)a shallow inclination less than 45° and a hanging wall that slid down relative to the footwall
C)a shallow inclination less than 45° and a hanging wall that rode up over the footwall
D)a steep inclination more than 45° and a hanging wall that rode up over the footwall
Q3) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)normal fault
B)reverse fault
C)thrust fault
D)strike-slip fault
Q4) A ________ fault develops in response to horizontal, tensional stresses in crustal rocks.
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Chapter 10: Earthquakes and Earth's Interior
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Sample Questions
Q1) Name two belts of great earthquakes, or describe their location?
Q2) ________ refers to the tendency for a foundation material to lose its internal cohesion and fail mechanically during earthquake shaking.
A)Slurrying
B)Liquefaction
C)Ooey-gooefication
D)Seismoflowage
Q3) A shallow-focus, large earthquake occurs directly under the South Pole.A seismic station at the North Pole would receive ________.
A)S waves from this quake but not P waves
B)both P waves and S waves from this quake separated in arrival times by two minutes
C)neither P waves nor S waves from the quake
D)P waves from this quake but no S waves would be detected
Q4) What three factors are measured on a fault to determine the Moment Magnitude (MW)for the largest earthquakes?
Q5) What is unusual about the seismicity of Canada's west coast, Cascadia subduction zone?
Q6) The ________ is the site of initial rupturing associated with an earthquake.
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Chapter 11: The Ocean Floor
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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
Q2) Oceanic ridges are elevated compared to the surrounding ocean floor because ________.
A)newly formed lithosphere is hotter and therefore less dense than the surrounding rocks
B)the older, colder lithosphere is less dense and tends to rise
C)the mantle is pushing up the lithosphere along the ridge
D)of the shield volcanoes that develop due to seafloor spreading
Q3) Where are most of the current active continental margins located on Earth today? Why? What is the relationship of the age of rocks on the ocean floor to the location of these active margins?
Q4) ________ and ________ comprise most biogenous sediments.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Plate Tectonics: The Framework for Modern Geology
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Cascadia subduction zone and arc is formed as oceanic lithosphere is subducted beneath western North America.
A)True
B)False
Q2) ________ the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
A)convergent
B)transform
C)divergen
Q3) ________ plate boundaries have the largest magnitude earthquakes.
A)Divergent and transform
B)Transform and convergent
C)Divergent and convergent
D)All plate boundaries have large magnitude earthquakes.
Q4) Where lithosphere is sinking into the mantle, it is a ________ plate boundary.
A)convergent
B)transform
C)divergent
D)strike-slip
Page 14
Q5) What are three mechanisms that at places contribute to plate motions?
Q6) How do the sheeted dyke complexes of the ocean crust form?
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Chapter 13: Mountain Building and Continental Frameworks
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Sample Questions
Q1) Mountains and mountain building processes have little direct influence upon regional climate.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which statement best describes an intracratonic basin?
A)circular bowl-shaped depressions that develop well within continental interiors
B)synonymous with meteorite crater
C)a circular syncline that developed in the Canadian Rockies
D)a sag pond in the Fraser delta
Q3) India was rifted from Antarctica about 130 million years ago, drifted northwards throughout the Cretaceous and Early Cenozoic, to finally crash into Asia 10 million years ago.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)plateau basalts
B)submarine deposits
C)oceanic plateaus
D)micro-continents
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Chapter 14: Mass Wasting: The Work of Gravity
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Sample Questions
Q1) Solifluction occurs wherever ________ sit upon ________ that will not allow excess water to drain away to deeper levels.
A)glaciers, frozen soils
B)loose soil, volcanic ash
C)talus cones, well jointed bedrock
D)water-saturated soils, dense clay hardpan or impermeable bedrock or permafrost
Q2) When descending cohesive material moves "en masse" along a curved surface of rupture that just formed, it is termed a ________.
A)creep
B)flow
C)slump
D)sag
Q3) 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
Q4) Solifluction is an important mass wasting process in areas of permafrost.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: Running Water
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Sample Questions
Q1) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)cut bank
B)point bar
C)natural levee
D)delta
Q2) A V-shaped valley and no floodplain indicate a youthful, downcutting stream.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which one of the following is true concerning a major river system?
A)Upstream tributaries generally have lower gradients than the major river.
B)Channel bed roughness and turbulence generally increase downstream.
C)Upstream tributaries generally have higher competencies than the major river.
D)Discharge decreases below junctions with perennial tributaries.
Q4) A city located on a large river has a history of moderate flooding over its 150-year history.However, the severity and magnitude of flooding has increased dramatically in the past 30 years.Give some possible reasons, both natural and human-induced, as to why such increased flooding might occur.
Q5) ________ is the boundary line separating adjacent, stream drainage basins.
Q6) The side view of a stream's course is the ________.
Q7) ________ is the total quantity of solid sediments carried by a river.
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Chapter 16: Groundwater
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Sample Questions
Q1) After ice sheets and glaciers, ________ contains the next highest percentage of Earth's freshwater that is readily accessible to humans.
A)groundwater
B)the atmosphere
C)lakes and rivers
D)Dasani/Coca-cola Ltd.
Q2) Perched water tables exist where aquifers intercept water flowing through aquitards.
A)True
B)False
Q3) According to environmental regulations, groundwater pollutants that are flammable, corrosive, explosive, or toxic are lumped into a single category known as
Q4) After ice sheets and glaciers, ________ contains the next highest percentage of Earth's freshwater.
Q5) Ground water aquifers can be seen directly in natural caverns and mines.
A)True
B)False
Q6) The ________ is the upper bounding surface of the zone of saturation.
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Chapter 17: Glaciers and Glaciation
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Sample Questions
Q1) Because ice floats on seawater, coastal outlet and piedmont glaciers seldom erode much below the elevation of sea level at the times the glaciers are active.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Name two of the five factors that control the differences in the power of glacial erosion?
Q3) Other than massive erosional and depositional work, name three indirect effects of the glacial cycles of the last Ice Age.
Q4) Abrasion and plucking generally involve what part of a glacier?
A)the internal, flowage zone
B)the snout zone
C)the surface, brittle zone
D)the basal, sliding zone
Q5) During the retreat of the last ice sheets, how long ago did modern sea level become established?
A)6000 years
B)11,000 years
C)17,000 years
D)20,000 years
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Chapter 18: Deserts and Winds
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Sample Questions
Q1) Rain shadow deserts occur mainly at middle latitudes.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Rainshadow deserts are common in the lee of major mountain ranges such as in
A)vast, dry, steppe lands like the Great Plains and central America
B)north central Africa
C)the dry valleys of the Okanagan and farther south in eastern California and Nevada
D)Europe north of the Alps
Q3) Which of the following drylands lies in the rainshadow caused by prevailing Pacific westerlies and the high peaks of the Coast Mountains and North Cascades?
A)Okanagan Valley
B)Atacama
C)Patagonian
D)Sonoran
Q4) How do barchan and parabolic dunes differ?
Q5) Why do most desert streams not travel far?
Q6) What type of transport load does a stream carry that wind does not?
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Chapter 19: Shorelines
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Sample Questions
Q1) ________ are constructed parallel to the shoreline and designed to reflect wave energy out to sea.
A)Groins and jetties
B)Seawalls and breakwaters
C)Barrier islands
D)Tidal deltas
Q2) Wave-cut cliffs and wave-cut platforms are good evidence for an erosional coastline.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Briefly discuss the movement of sand on a beach environment.Include those factors, both natural and human-induced, that affect sand movement.
Q4) ________ is not a dynamic characteristic of a wave.
A)Fetch
B)Wavelength
C)Period
D)Velocity or speed
Q5) What are rip currents?
Q6) A ________ is a high rocky pinnacle that rises from a wave-cut platform.
Page 22
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Chapter 20: Mineral and Energy Resources
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Sample Questions
Q1) The five most important Canadian minerals in terms of production value are
A)gold, nickel, potash, copper, zinc
B)platinum, iron, sulphur, gypsum, halite
C)silver, quartz, garnet, tin, aluminum
D)clay, mica, serpentine, chlorite, zeolite
Q2) The potassium minerals sylvite and carnallite are the first to form upon evaporation of sea water.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Where of the following are wind turbines not common in Canada?
A)British Columbia
B)Ontario
C)Prince Edward Island
D)Nunavut
Q4) The mineral apatite is mined as the source of ________.
Q5) Chalcopyrite and bornite are sulphide ore minerals of ________.
Q6) List three, different types of fossil fuels.
Q7) How many homes can the Meager Creek geothermal power facility potentially serve in British Columbia?
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