Physical Geology
Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Physical Geology is an introductory course that explores the dynamic processes shaping the Earth's surface and interior. Through the study of minerals, rocks, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, and surface processes such as weathering, erosion, and sedimentation, students gain a fundamental understanding of the physical forces that drive the formation and transformation of the planet. Emphasizing both observation and scientific reasoning, the course integrates laboratory work and field experiences to provide hands-on opportunities for students to analyze earth materials and interpret geologic features in the natural world.
Recommended Textbook Essentials of Geology 3rd Edition by Stephen Marshak
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Page 2
Chapter 1: The Earth in Context
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Q1) Of the three primary chemical layers of the Earth (crust,mantle,core),which is the thickest layer?
A) crust
B) mantle
C) core
Answer: C
Q2) Aside from Earth,the terrestrial planets are ____________.
A) Mars, Mercury, and Venus
B) Mars, Venus, and Jupiter
C) Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
D) Mars and Saturn
Answer: A
Q3) The lithosphere is composed of the ____________.
A) crust only
B) crust, mantle, and outer core
C) top 100 m of sediments and sedimentary rocks
D) crust and the uppermost part of the mantle
Answer: D
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Chapter 2: The Way the Earth Works: Plate Tectonics
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Q1) Beneath a blanket of sediments,oceanic crust is primarily composed of two rocks,____________.
A) granite and diorite
B) gabbro and basalt
C) sandstone and shale
D) slate and gneiss
Answer: B
Q2) The oldest sediments on the ocean floor are about ____________ years old.
A) 50 thousand
B) 4 billion
C) 200 million
D) 2.5 million
Answer: C
Q3) At a subduction zone,the overriding plate ____________.
A) is always composed of continental lithosphere
B) is always composed of oceanic lithosphere
C) may be composed of either oceanic or continental lithosphere
Answer: C
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4
Chapter 3: Patterns in Nature: Minerals
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following minerals is hardest?
A) quartz
B) calcite
C) talc
D) fluorite
Answer: A
Q2) For the majority of minerals,the streak color obtained when the mineral is scratched against a porcelain plate is ____________.
A) likely to be diagnostic only if the mineral is hard enough to scratch porcelain
B) more variable than the color in hand sample among crystals
C) less variable than the color in hand sample among crystals
D) always dark brown or black
Answer: C
Q3) With regard to minerals,hardness refers to ____________.
A) an ability to resist breaking when being struck with hammer
B) an ability to resist being scratched by other substances
C) an ability to resist chemical reactions with other substances
D) an absence of cleavage
Answer: B
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Up From the Inferno: Magma and Igneous Rocks
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Q1) Coarse-grained gabbro is most similar in mineral composition to fine-grained
A) andesite
B) basalt
C) komatiite
D) rhyolite
Q2) As compared to mafic igneous rocks,all felsic igneous rocks ____________.
A) cool and solidify more quickly
B) cool and solidify more slowly
C) solidify at higher temperatures
D) solidify at lower temperatures
Q3) A volcano emits ash,which falls from the sky,settles in layers,and is eventually cemented.The resultant rock is termed ____________.
A) pumice
B) granite
C) tuff
D) ignimbrite
Q4) When magma crystallizes,____________ are formed.
A) intrusive igneous rocks C. volatiles
B) extrusive igneous rocks D. pyroclastic debris
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Chapter 5: The Wrath of Vulcan: Volcanic Eruptions
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Q1) Mt.St.Helens killed a geologist studying the volcano because ____________.
A) the geologist disregarded orders to keep a safe distance from the vent
B) the eruption produced a greater volume of ash than anyone predicted
C) a landslide produced a lateral blast of volcaniclastic debris that no one anticipated
D) lahars swept down all sides of the volcano and buried all towns within 100 km
Q2) Olympus Mons,the largest known volcano in the Universe,is found on
A) Earth
B) Mars
C) Neptune
D) Io, a moon of Jupiter
Q3) Of the three primary forms of subaerial volcanoes,____________ consist of alternating layers of tephra and solidified lava.
A) stratovolcanoes
B) cinder cones
C) shield volcanoes
Q4) Mt.Fuji in Japan is an example of a ____________.
A) stratovolcano
B) cinder cone
C) shield volcano
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Pages of Earths Past: Sedimentary Rocks
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Q1) A sandstone with a large proportion of feldspar due to the physical weathering of granite is more precisely termed a(n)____________.
A) arkose
B) breccia
C) greywacke
D) wacke
Q2) The majority of the rocks that occur at the surface of Earth are ____________.
A) intrusive igneous rocks
B) extrusive igneous rocks
C) sedimentary rocks
D) metamorphic rocks
Q3) Geologically,medium-sized sediment refers to ____________.
A) cobbles
B) pebbles
C) sand
D) silt
Q4) Which transport medium carries the largest particles?
A) ice
B) water
C) wind
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Metamorphism: a Process of Change
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Q1) The development of a preferred orientation of large,flaky mica crystals within metamorphic rock is termed ____________.
A) slaty cleavage
B) phyllitic luster
C) schistosity
D) compositional banding
Q2) The mineral assemblage within metamorphic rock is ____________.
A) always identical to that found within the protolith
B) dependent only on the mineral assemblage of the protolith
C) dependent only on the temperature and pressure of formation
D) dependent on both the mineral content of the protolith and the temperature and pressure of formation
Q3) As compared to the amphibolite metamorphic facies,the greenschist facies
A) consists of lower-grade rocks
B) consists of higher-grade rocks
C) is an identical temperature and pressure regime; greenschists and amphibolites bear different mineral assemblages only because of differences in protolith chemistry
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Chapter 8: A Violent Pulse: Earthquakes
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Q1) Surface waves ____________.
A) travel more rapidly than body waves
B) cause most of the damage to buildings during earthquakes
C) are the first waves initially produced in an earthquake
D) are the first waves to arrive at a seismograph station after an earthquake
Q2) Vertical motion seismographs record earthquakes through the production of a squiggly diagram called a ____________.
A) wave sheet
B) seismogram
C) pictogram
D) camera lucida
Q3) Which earthquake severity scale takes into account the type of rock that has been fractured?
A) Richter scale
B) Mercalli scale
C) moment-magnitude scale
Q4) California is the only state in the United States that experiences frequent or strong earthquakes.
A)True
B)False
Page 10
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Chapter
Deformation and Mountain Building
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Q1) Change in shape,induced by stress,is termed ____________.
A) plastic deformation
B) pressure release
C) strain
D) metamorphosis
Q2) A body of rock affected by tensile stress will likely undergo ____________.
A) shortening
B) stretching
C) shear strain
Q3) A fold shaped like an upside-down bowl is a(n)____________.
A) anticline
B) basin
C) dome
D) syncline
Q4) Regions of continents that have not been subjected to orogeny during the past one billion years are termed ____________.
A) exotic terranes
B) accreted terranes
C) cratons
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Chapter 10: Deep Time: How Old Is Old
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Q1) Numerical ages for recent geologic events can sometimes be determined by the study of ____________.
A) layering (growth lines) in shells
B) annual growth rings in trees
C) seasonal layering in glacial ice
D) all of the above
Q2) If the lithology and fossil content of two bodies of rock on opposite sides of a canyon are identical,then these remaining outcrops were likely physically connected at one time and formed part of an extensive,sheet-like layer of rock.This idea summarizes the principle of ____________.
A) superposition
B) original continuity
C) original horizontality
D) uniformitarianism
Q3) Which of the following is always the same for multiple isotopes of a single element?
A) atomic number
B) atomic mass number
C) tendency to decay radioactively
D) none of the above
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Page 12
Chapter 11: A Biography of Earth
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Q1) The late Paleozoic Hercynian orogen is an event related to the____________.
A) uplift of the modern Rocky Mountains
B) uplift of the Ancestral Rockies
C) assembly of the supercontinent Pangaea
D) assembly of the supercontinent Rodinia
Q2) Greenstones are metamorphosed sedimentary rocks; as sediments,they were deposited in the oceans during the ____________.
A) Hadean
B) Paleozoic
C) Proterozoic
D) Archean
Q3) The Cambrian Period is a time in Earth history when ____________.
A) the first abundant shelly organisms appear in the fossil record
B) Earth's interior was so hot that a solid outer crust, if present, was likely being extensively remelted
C) stable continental interiors, termed cratons, first formed
D) the dinosaurs appeared and came to dominate large-scale terrestrial life
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Riches in Rock: Energy and Mineral Resources
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Q1) Which mineral resources are considered renewable?
A) base metals only
B) nonmetallic minerals only
C) iron and aluminum ores
D) No mineral resources are renewable.
Q2) The United States has active mines within its boundaries that are sufficient to maintain a steady supply of all important metals.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the three most commonly used metals is sometimes mined as a native metal?
A) aluminum
B) copper
C) iron
D) None of the above is correct.
Q4) Hydrocarbons consisting of short carbon chains ____________.
A) are more volatile than hydrocarbons with longer chains
B) are more viscous than hydrocarbons with longer chains
C) are typically stable in a solid state at room temperatures
D) all of the above
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Unsafe Ground: Landslides and Other Mass Movements
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Q1) For dry sediments,the angle of repose is approximately ____________ degrees.
A) 10
B) 15
C) 20
D) 30
Q2) The principal difference between a slump and a debris slide is ____________.
A) the shape of the path taken by the moving mass
B) the grain size of the moving mass
C) that the former mass contains abundant water whereas the latter is dry
D) that the former mass contains pyroclastic debris from a volcanic eruption
Q3) One of the most problematic aspects of landslides is that large-scale,cataclysmic examples are the norm,whereas small-scale landslides are much rarer.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which of the following types of mass movement is likely to move most rapidly?
A) slump
B) creep
C) rock slide
D) debris slide
15
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Chapter 14: Running Water: the Geology of Streams and Floods
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Q1) In a region characterized by a parallel series of ridges and valleys,a ____________ drainage network is expected.
A) dendritic
B) radial
C) rectangular
D) trellis
Q2) The shape of a delta is primarily determined by ____________.
A) the shape of the river channel near the mouth
B) the average grain size of the suspended and bed loads
C) whether river currents, wave-driven currents, or tidal currents are locally predominant
D) the type of rock that is weathering at outcrops near the headwaters of the river
Q3) The outer edge of a meander,where material is being eroded,is a(n)____________.
A) meander neck
B) cut bank
C) point bar
D) abandoned meander
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Page 16
Chapter 15: Restless Realm: Oceans and Coasts
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Q1) As compared to freshwater,saline ocean water is ____________ and therefore provides ____________ support to floating objects.
A) less dense; more buoyant
B) less dense; less buoyant
C) denser; more buoyant
D) denser; less buoyant
Q2) Wave crests ____________.
A) refract (bend) so as to impact the shore in a nearly parallel manner
B) refract so as to impact the shore nearly perpendicular to the shoreline
C) reflect directly backward from the angle at which they approached the shoreline
D) are reflected off the shoreline, but never refract
Q3) What percentage of seawater,on average,consists of dissolved salt ions?
A) 1.5%
B) 3.5%
C) 5.5%
D) 6.5%
Q4) Which type of continental coastline features a much broader continental shelf?
A) passive continental margins
B) active continental margins
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Chapter 16: A Hidden Reserve: Groundwater
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Q1) A periodic explosive eruption of steam and water from within the ground up through the surface is termed a ____________.
A) flowing artesian well
B) geyser
C) spring
D) recharge area
Q2) Which statement about recharge areas is INCORRECT?
A) They typically are elevated with respect to neighboring areas.
B) They are regions of relatively high precipitation.
C) They are the same as discharge areas.
D) They are areas where water infiltrates the sediment from above.
Q3) Rock or sediment with water-filled pores,wherein upward percolation is blocked by an overlying,impermeable layer,is termed a(n)____________.
A) aquitard
B) confined aquifer
C) unconfined aquifer
D) unsaturated zone
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18
Chapter 17: Dry Regions: the Geology of Deserts
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Q1) Playas are places where you would expect to find abundant ____________ exposed at the surface.
A) coal
B) igneous rock
C) evaporites (salts)
D) limestone
Q2) Native Americans produced petroglyphs by etching into ____________.
A) rocks that had been painted by earlier inhabitants
B) rocks that had been coated with desert varnish
C) dark basalts
D) obsidian
Q3) In most deserts,the scarcity of rainfall means that most of the physical weathering and erosion is accomplished by the wind.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The highest recorded temperature on Earth was in a ____________.
A) tropical rainforest in Brazil
B) low-latitude, high-elevation desert in Mexico
C) high-latitude, high-elevation desert in Mongolia
D) low-latitude, low-elevation desert in Libya
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Amazing Ice: Glaciers and Ice Ages
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Q1) An intermediate product in the transformation of snow to glacial ice is
A) firn
B) sublimation
C) ablation
D) terminus
Q2) An important long-term factor determining whether glacial ice will form on the continents has likely been the proportion of which gas in the atmosphere?
A) oxygen
B) nitrogen
C) carbon dioxide
D) carbon monoxide
Q3) An angular peak surrounded by three or more bowl-shaped depressions formed by a mountain glacier is termed a(n)____________.
A) arĂȘte
B) cirque
C) horn
D) tarn
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Page 20
Chapter 19: Global Change in the Earth System
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Q1) Which of the following processes releases carbon dioxide to the atmosphere?
A) photosynthesis
B) weathering of silicate rocks
C) volcanism
D) deep burial of peat to produce coal
Q2) All changes within the Earth system are unidirectional and cannot be reversed.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Nearly all biological and chemical systems on Earth are disconnected and are best studied in mutual isolation.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The hole in the ozone layer has been brought about by anthropogenic emissions of
A) carbon dioxide
B) methane
C) chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
D) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
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