Geoscience Exam Materials
Course Introduction
Geoscience is the study of the Earth, encompassing its structure, processes, materials, history, and the systems that shape our planet. This interdisciplinary field covers topics such as minerals and rocks, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, surface processes, geologic time, and Earths resources. It combines principles from physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics to analyze Earths dynamic processes and their impacts on the environment and society. Geoscience is essential for understanding natural hazards, managing resources, mitigating environmental issues, and exploring Earths past, present, and future.
Recommended Textbook
Foundations of Earth Science 7th Edition by Frederick K. Lutgens
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Chapter 1: Matter and Minerals
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Q1) Atoms of different elements can "stick together" (making compounds)via electrons sharing or trading arrangements called ________.
Answer: bonds
Q2) The micas, biotite and muscovite, both exhibit one direction of cleavage.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Which common mineral is composed entirely of silicon and oxygen?
A)calcite
B)diamond
C)olivine
D)quartz
Answer: D
Q4) Electrons are found in the nucleus of an atom.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q5) Common minerals that exhibit a single plane of cleavage are the micas. An example of a mica is ________.
Answer: either biotite or muscovite
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Chapter 2: Rocks: Materials of the Solid Earth
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Q1) The reason we see so much mud and sand along the shore of the land is that clay minerals and quartz are ________ at Earth's surface. Answer: stable
Q2) Obsidian is characterized by its ________ texture. Answer: glassy
Q3) The rock ________ is a description of how one rock may be transformed into another kind of rock through various internal and external processes. Answer: cycle
Q4) Compaction and cementation are the most common forms of lithification. A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q5) Which one of the following is a metamorphic rock?
A)limestone
B)rhyolite
C)slate
D)quartz
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: Landscapes Fashioned by Water
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Q1) Building a dam on a stream raises its ________, causing it to cease erosion and begin to deposit sediment.
Answer: base level
Q2) Loose, granular particles assume a stable slope called the angle of repose.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) The Grand Canyon was carved entirely by the Colorado River.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) If you were to examine the longitudinal profile of a typical river, you would probably find that the gradient is ________.
A)steepest near the mouth
B)steepest near the headwaters
C)roughly the same at the mouth and the headwaters
D)steepest in the zone of transport
Answer: B
Q5) External processes include weathering, mass wasting, and ________.
Answer: erosion
5
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Chapter 4: Glacial and Arid Landscapes
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Sample Questions
Q1) 9)sea ice
10)ice sheet
11)alpine glacier (or "valley glacier")
12)ice shelf
Q2) Which of the following lakes formed over an immense area of the northern United States and southern Canada during the Quaternary Ice Age?
A)Lake Agassiz
B)Lake Bonneville
C)Great Salt Lake
D)Walden Pond
Q3) When a valley glacier leaves the mountains and enters the relative flat lands below, it may spread out to form ________.
A)an ice cap
B)a piedmont glacier
C)an ice shelf
D)a lateral moraine
Q4) Between wind, water, and glacial ice, ________ is easily the least effective agent of erosion.
Q5) ________ is drier than steppe.
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Chapter 5: Plate Tectonics: A Scientific Revolution Unfolds
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Q1) Which one of the following most accurately describes the volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands?
A)volcanoes associated with subduction and a convergent plate boundary
B)volcanoes fed by a long-lived hot spot below the Pacific lithospheric plate
C)volcanoes associated with a mid-Pacific oceanic ridge and spreading center
D)volcanoes associated with a mid-Pacific transform fault
Q2) Iceland sits on a(n)________ plate boundary.
Q3) Lithospheric plates can consist of which of the following components?
A)continental crust, oceanic crust, and ocean water
B)continental crust, lithospheric mantle, and asthenospheric mantle
C)continental crust, lithospheric mantle, and oceanic crust
D)continental crust only, NOT oceanic crust
Q4) Hawaii is the oldest island of the Hawaiian Island chain.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Alaska's Aleutian Islands formed as part of a(n)________ along a(n)________ boundary.
Q6) The North American plate is currently ________ in size.
Q7) The ________ is Earth's outermost rocky layer that is broken into plates.
Q8) The ________ is weaker and less rigid than the overlying lithosphere.
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Chapter 6: Restless Earth: Earthquakes, Geologic Structures, and Mountain Building
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Q1) The distance between a seismological recording station and the earthquake source is determined from the ________.
A)earthquake magnitude
B)intensity of the earthquake
C)length of the seismic record
D)arrival times of P and S waves
Q2) A(n)________ is an instrument that is used to record earthquake vibrations.
Q3) Mountain belts form by ________.
A)accretion of terranes
B)orogenesis
C)eruption of a continental volcanic arc
D)all of the above
Q4) In general, buildings constructed on ________ fare better in an earthquake than buildings constructed on ________, as this material amplifies seismic shaking.
Q5) Which one of the following statements about the crust is NOT true?
A)It is the thinnest of the major subdivisions.
B)It is thickest where prominent mountains exist.
C)Continental rocks are compositionally different than oceanic rocks.
D)Oceanic crust has an average composition of granite.
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Chapter 7: Volcanoes and Other Igneous Activity
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Q1) Repeated eruptions of relatively fluid lava from fissures can eventually cause an area to be covered by flood basalts.
A)True
B)False
Q2) ________ are pyroclastic materials ejected from volcanoes as liquid droplets; they cool and form a solid crust before they land.
Q3) ________ volcanoes are closely associated with convergent plate boundaries and subduction zones.
Q4) Discuss the six different tectonic settings in which volcanism can occur, and why magma is produced at each location.
Q5) Lava flows are the greatest volcanic hazard.
A)True
B)False
Q6) When magma intrudes other rocks, it may ________ before reaching the surface, producing intrusions called plutons.
Q7) Crater Lake in Oregon actually occupies a caldera, not a crater. A)True B)False
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Chapter 8: Geologic Time
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Sample Questions
Q1) A datable mineral crystal contains 40% parent isotope. How many half-lives have passed since the crystal formed?
A)1
B)more than 1 but less than 2
C)more than 2 but less than 3
D)more than 3
Q2) Which is most useful for determining the age of the raisins in raisin bread, relative to the bread in which they are found?
A)principle of superposition
B)principle of original horizontality
C)principle of cross-cutting relationships
D)principle of inclusions
Q3) The earliest 88 percent of geologic time is represented by the time span informally called the ________.
A)Paleozoic
B)Precambrian
C)Mesozoic
D)Phanerozoic
Q4) Most sedimentary rocks cannot be dated directly by ________ methods.
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Chapter 9: Oceans: The Last Frontier
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Q1) 1)oceanography
2)salinity
3)thermocline
4)pycnocline
5)bathymetry
6)terrigenous
7)hydrogenous
8)biogenous
Q2) ________ is the total amount of solid material dissolved in water.
Q3) A(n)________ marks the site where old, oceanic lithosphere begins its descent into a subduction zone.
Q4) Sand, silt, and clays deposited on the ocean floor are described as terrigenous sediments.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The Atlantic and Pacific basins have oceanic ridges but the Indian Ocean has no oceanic ridge.
A)True
B)False
Q6) A pile of clam shells is an example of ________ sediment.
Page 11
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Chapter 10: The Restless Ocean
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Q1) You visit a coastal area for the first time. You note the presence of marine terraces, sea stacks, and sea arches. Based on these features, the area is likely to be ________.
A)experiencing a spring tide
B)in need of beach nourishment
C)an emergent coast
D)a submergent coast
Q2) A baymouth bar is an example of "hard stabilization," a feature constructed by people to control wave erosion.
A)True
B)False
Q3) As a deep-water wave enters shallow water, the part of the wave in the most shallow water slows down. The deeper-water portion of the wave crest keeps moving at a relatively rapid speed. This wave refraction causes the entire wave crest to progressively rotate toward being ________ with the shoreline.
Q4) If a spit grows as it is deposited, and extends completely across the former mouth of an estuary, separating it from the open sea, it has become a(n)________.
Q5) Turbulent water created by breaking waves is known as ________.
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Chapter 11: Heating the Atmosphere
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Sample Questions
Q1) Approximately how many kilometers (miles)above Earth's surface does the atmosphere end and outer space begin?
A)47 kilometers (30 miles)
B)82 kilometers (52 miles)
C)145 kilometers (90 miles)
D)There is no clearly defined upper limit to the atmosphere; it gradually fades into space.
Q2) Carbon dioxide and ________ are the most important heat absorbing gases in the lower atmosphere.
Q3) Because stratospheric ozone occurs at 10 to 50 kilometers elevation (6 to 31 miles above Earth's surface), it is not vulnerable to human influence.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A field covered with several inches of freshly-fallen snow has a high albedo.
A)True
B)False
Q5) A day of the year when the length of the night is equal to the length of the day is known as a(n)________.
Q6) Ozone is concentrated in the middle part of the ________.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Moisture, Clouds, and Precipitation
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Q1) Which of the following is a cloud of vertical development?
A)cirrus
B)stratocumulus
C)nimbostratus
D)cumulonimbus
Q2) The opposite of sublimation is deposition.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A raindrop large enough to reach the ground without completely evaporating contains roughly 1 million times more water than a single cloud droplet.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The change of state from a gas to a liquid is called ________.
A)evaporation
B)sublimation
C)condensation
D)melting
Q5) ________ temperature changes are those which do not involve the addition or subtraction of heat.
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Chapter 14: Weather Patterns and Severe Weather
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Q1) On average, cold fronts are about twice as steep as warm fronts.
A)True
B)False
Q2) At the center of a hurricane is a relatively calm region called the ________.
Q3) Hail, thunder, and tornadoes are all characteristic features of a(n)________ front.
Q4) The eye of a hurricane is ________.
A)the portion with the highest wind speeds
B)warmer than the rest of the storm
C)along the leading edge of the storm
D)the area of most intense rainfall
Q5) Divergence aloft helps maintain surface lows.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Doppler radar is a useful tool for detecting tornadoes.
A)True
B)False
Q7) Sometimes lightning is produced without any associated thunder.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: The Nature of the Solar System
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Q1) Surrounding a comet's nucleus is the broad, glowing area called the ________.
Q2) Approximately how much further away from the Sun is Neptune, as compared to Earth?
A)3 times as far
B)10 times as far
C)30 times as far
D)310 times as far
Q3) Carbon dioxide is the major gas in the atmosphere of Venus.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The ________ motion of some of Jupiter's moons indicates that they were likely captured due to the planet's immense gravity.
Q5) How is Earth unique as compared to other planets in our solar system? How is it similar? And finally, what geologic information might we obtain by visiting Mars or Venus that would further link Earth to these planets?
Q6) The "celestial sphere" is a feature of the Ptolemaic model of a geocentric universe.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 16: Beyond Our Solar System
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Q1) The fate of the universe (i.e., whether it expands forever or eventually collapses back on itself)is determined by its ________.
Q2) A star's ________ can be determined from its color.
Q3) Why are neutron stars called "neutron stars"?
A)They are new versions of old stars; "Neu Tron" means " New Star" in Hungarian.
B)They are so dense that protons and electrons fuse to form neutrons.
C)They appear to emit short pulses of radio waves.
D)They are composed of neutrons gathered from the surrounding nebula by the terrific gravity of the neutron star. Electrons and protons, being less massive, aren't as likely to be pulled in.
Q4) A star is observed through a telescope, and a measurement of the star's spectrum is made. The left side of the star appears to be bluer than the center of the star, but the right side appears to be redder. What's going on here? Interpret these observations as fully as possible.
Q5) The biggest explosions in the universe are ________ associated with the death of high-mass stars.
Q6) Clumps of gas and dust dispersed through a large volume of space are the birthplace of stars. They are called ________.
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