Planetary Geology
Chapter Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Planetary Geology explores the geological processes and features that shape the planets, moons, asteroids, and other bodies within our solar system and beyond. The course examines planetary surfaces, interiors, and atmospheres, comparing them to Earths geology to understand similarities and differences. Key topics include impact cratering, tectonics, volcanism, erosion, and the influence of water and ice across various celestial bodies. Through remote sensing data, spacecraft missions, and laboratory studies, students gain insights into planetary formation, evolution, and the potential for habitability elsewhere in the universe.
Recommended Textbook
Earth An Introduction to Physical Geology 4th Canadian Edition by Edward J. Tarbuck
Available Study Resources on Quizplus
20 Chapters
3286 Verified Questions
3286 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/study-set/462 Page 2
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Geology and Plate Tectonics
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
198 Verified Questions
198 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8278
Sample Questions
Q1) The law of superposition applies primarily to sedimentary rocks and lava flows.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) The ________ is the solid, rocky shell between the crust and outer core.
Answer: mantle
Q3) ________ was never proposed as evidence supporting the existence of the Pangaea supercontinent.
A)Geometric fit between South America and Africa
B)Islands of Proterozoic rocks along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
C)Late Paleozoic glacial features
D)The Glossopteris flora
Answer: B
Q4) Observing Earth from beyond the moon's orbit, the most apparent features are
A)vast areas of ocean and swirling cloud patterns
B)the boundaries between the continents and the oceans
C)white polar ice caps, green rain forests and brown deserts
D)plumes of erupting volcanoes
Answer: A
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 3
Chapter 2: Minerals: The Building Blocks of Rocks
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
185 Verified Questions
185 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8279
Sample Questions
Q1) ________ is a common pink variety of the feldspar group of framework silicate minerals.
Answer: Orthoclase
Q2) What is the name given to an atom that gains or loses electrons in a chemical reaction?
A)molecule
B)ion
C)proton
D)nucleon
Answer: B
Q3) Given the similar chemical compositions of the real mineral jadarite and the fictional mineral kryptonite, what is different about real kryptonite?
Answer: Real kryptonite is an element in the periodic table, not a mineral.
Q4) Ruby and sapphire are red and blue forms of the mineral ________.
A)diamond
B)turquoise
C)emerald
D)corundum
Answer: D
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 4
Chapter 3: Igneous Rocks
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
190 Verified Questions
190 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8280
Sample Questions
Q1) Felsic rocks like granite ________.
A)are major constituents of the continental crust
B)are extremely rare on Earth but abundant on the Moon
C)form mainly in volcanic island chains
D)make up most of the ocean floor and volcanic island chains
Answer: A
Q2) Which igneous rock is the phaneritic equivalent of komatiite?
Answer: peridotite
Q3) The main factors which directly govern the development of texture in all igneous rocks are ________.
A)buoyancy, crystal settling, and partial melting
B)cooling rate, dissolved volatiles, and silica content
C)volcano or pluton size and shape
D)weathering and climate
Answer: B
Q4) Lava rarely if ever has a vesicular texture.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 5
Chapter 4: Volcanoes and Volcanic Processes
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
155 Verified Questions
155 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8281
Sample Questions
Q1) Which igneous rock comprises the Hawaiian Islands and most other islands of volcanic origin in the oceanic basins?
Q2) What term describes a liquid's characteristic stiffness and resistance to flow?
Q3) Which type of mafic lava flow has a fairly smooth, flow folded, ropy surface?
A)aa
B)block and ash flow
C)pahoehoe
D)scoria
Q4) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)pahoehoe
B)aa
C)volcanic bomb
D)pillow lava
Q5) Which best describes a caldera?
A)a small, steep-sided, volcanic depression bored out by an eruptive plume
B)a large circular volcanic depression caused by collapse after a large scale, explosive felsic eruption
C)a collapse pit less than 1 square kilometre on the summit of a volcano
D)a large depression hundreds of kilometres across full of volcanic deposits
Q6) The circum-Pacific belt of volcanoes is commonly referred to as ________.
Page 6
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 5: Weathering and Soil
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
157 Verified Questions
157 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8282
Sample Questions
Q1) Write a balanced chemical reaction for the acid weathering of calcite or limestone.
Q2) Water, freezing and melting in cracks in rocks, produces a weathering effect known as what?
Q3) What term describes the layer of partly decayed plant matter at the top of the soil profile in most forested areas?
Q4) How long do the acid generating gases from fossil fuel combustion remain in the lower levels of the atmosphere and how far do they travel?
A)less than a few hours; a few kilometres
B)a few hours to a few days; up to several thousand kilometres
C)weeks to months; only locally
D)several years; around the world
Q5) Which of the following describes a characteristic process in the formation of a pedalfer soil?
A)Soil bacteria produce organic acids that precipitate calcium carbonate in the B horizon.
B)Iron oxides and aluminum-rich clays are precipitated in the B horizon.
C)Humus accumulates below the solum in the C horizon.
D)Clays are eluviated upward from the C horizon.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 7
Chapter 6: Sedimentary Rocks
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
234 Verified Questions
234 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8283
Sample Questions
Q1) What is the global carbon cycle?
Q2) Once sedimentary particles are eroded they maintain a constant size and shape.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Why do clays settle so slowly?
Q4) Which sediment gets lithified to become sandstone?
A)sand
B)gravel
C)clay and fine silt
D)all clay sized sediment
Q5) Flint, jasper, and travertine are microcrystalline forms of calcite.
A)True
B)False
Q6) What economic value do shales have, such as the Queenston Formation below the Niagara escarpment?
A)cut dimension stone for buildings
B)fine grained detrital gold
C)high oil contents
D)raw materials for brick making, pottery or tiles
Q7) What kinds of sediments initially form as solid masses of intergrown crystals?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 8
Chapter 7: Metamorphism and Metamorphic Rocks
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
143 Verified Questions
143 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8284
Sample Questions
Q1) Which facies would you expect to find with hydrous low temperature-low pressure burial metamorphism?
A)zeolite
B)amphibolite
C)granulite
D)blueschist
Q2) Long linear metamorphic fold belts mark ________.
A)modern or former convergent continental margins
B)the youngest mountains with the slowest rates of uplift
C)divergent plate settings (rifts)
D)zones with the lowest geothermal gradients
Q3) ________ foliated, fine-grained metamorphic rock formed from mudstone and shale
A)hornfels
B)marble
C)gneiss
D)phyllite
Q4) What contact metamorphic rock can exhibit a porphyroblastic texture?
Q5) What strongly banded and irregularly folded, metamorphic rocks show good evidence for having formed by partial melting?
Q6) Regional metamorphism is most intense where ________ collide.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 9
Chapter 8: Geologic Time
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
143 Verified Questions
143 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8285
Sample Questions
Q1) In addition to the law of superposition, Nicolaus Steno is credited with first recognizing the principle or law of ________.
Q2) Which of the following is an essential characteristic of an index fossil?
A)The organism lived only in specific environments such as beaches or estuaries.
B)The organism only lived for a short span of geologic time but was very widespread.
C)The fossils are exceptionally abundant for a long time span and readily preserved.
D)The fossils occur in deep-water marine sediments, but the organism actually lived in the sunlit, surface layer of the ocean.
Q3) Numeric age dates based on radioactivity are very important for studying Proterozoic geologic history because fossils are rare or absent.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Name two geologic processes that can invalidate attempts at radiometric dating?
Q5) What general term denotes a buried, erosional surface where rock layers are missing?
Q6) Give an example of a fossil type and inferences about its original environment.
Q7) What is the noble-gas, daughter product of the radioactive isotope, K-40?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 10
Chapter 9: Crustal Deformation
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
145 Verified Questions
145 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8286
Sample Questions
Q1) Fractures which appear in unloaded rock, yet do not involve any fault slippage, are called joints.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The word ________ is used to describe movement on faults.
Q3) How do large scale faults like the San Andreas in California differ from small scale faults?
Q4) In detail, the elegant fold and flow patterns developed in deformed rock are achieved by ________.
A)a single application of a complex set of stresses
B)Earth's "Great Laundress"
C)an ongoing combined effect of: distortion, sliding, and rotation of individual mineral grains
D)very rapid application of two or more strains
Q5) Are horsts and grabens bounded by normal or reverse faults?
Q6) Briefly explain the difference between stress and strain.
Q7) List two familiar substances that exhibit brittle behaviour and two other substances that exhibit ductile behaviour under ordinary strain rates (conditions).
Q8) A(n)________ has strata on both limbs dipping inward toward the axis.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 11
Chapter 10: Earthquakes and Earth's Interior
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
185 Verified Questions
185 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8287
Sample Questions
Q1) What are the Earth's three most distinctive internal regions (layers)based on composition?
Q2) Name three geologic changes that can be monitored and which may precede an earthquake?
Q3) What amplitude would a ML6.0 earthquake with a 50 sec S-P arrival difference show on a seismogram?
A)20 millimetres
B)5 millimetres
C)10 millimetres
D)50 millimetres
Q4) What instrumentation permits the "Tsunami Warning System" to assess the possibility of a tsunami and decide when to raise the coastal alert?
A)tilt meters on the island of Oahu
B)networked seismographs, tide gauges, and sea buoys around the Pacific Basin all telemetred to the centre in Hawaii
C)GPS satellites that monitor the sea surface height to +/- 5 centimetre accuracy
D)a trip wire attached to a rubber ducky in the middle of the Pacific
Q5) ________ are the first to arrive at distant seismic stations.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 12
Chapter 11: The Ocean Floor
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
172 Verified Questions
172 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8288
Sample Questions
Q1) ________ and ________ comprise most biogenous sediments.
Q2) What is the most active, long term, deep diving, manned submersible used for studying the seafloor and deep ocean depths?
A)Alvin
B)Nautilus
C)Simon
D)Theodore
Q3) Trenches are often parallel to, and genetically related to ________.
A)mid-ocean ridges
B)hot spot volcanic island chains
C)oceanic transform faults
D)volcanic island arcs or continental margin mountain belts with active volcanism
Q4) Which ocean floor sediment type includes calcareous ooze?
A)biogenous
B)terrigenous
C)hydrogenous
D)orogenous
Q5) ________ are the regions where basalt is the most abundant substrate exposed on the seabed.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 13
Chapter 12: Plate Tectonics: The Framework for Modern Geology
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
162 Verified Questions
162 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8289
Sample Questions
Q1) In the nomenclature of J.Tuzo Wilson, a very long-lived magma source rising from deep in the mantle is called a(n)________.
A)hot spot
B)old flame
C)basalt fount
D)melt welt
Q2) In plate collisions the colder, denser, oceanic plate subducts and the volcanic arc forms on the more buoyant overriding plate.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Lake Tanganyika and Lake Nyasa both form from waters that occupy the downdropped rift valley of the East African Rift.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Name one of the six intermediate sized plates.
Q5) Pangaea began to break up in Permian time, about 500 million years ago.
A)True
B)False
Q6) What is the inclination of the earth's magnetic field near the north pole?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 14
Chapter 13: Mountain Building and Continental Frameworks
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
161 Verified Questions
161 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8290
Sample Questions
Q1) Most of mainland Alaska, over half of B.C.and the Yukon, and most of Washington, Oregon, Nevada and California are ________.
A)accreted terranes transported to the north from more equatorial regions, including: Paleozoic through Mesozoic seafloor, island arcs, submarine deposits, and displaced continental fragments
B)an Andean style arc complex, of intermediate and felsic plutonics and volcanics, that formed in Cenozoic time by subduction of Pacific plates beneath North America
C)tectonically deformed and strongly metamorphosed Early Precambrian accretionary wedge deposits from the earliest, west coast, active margin
D)the geologic equivalents of cratonic stratigraphy found all across North America, but these have been intensively deformed by episodes of convergent margin mountain building in Mesozoic and Cenozoic time
Q2) What kind of a continental margin would have a staircase-like topographic profile downwards to thick accumulations of shallow water shelf sandstones?
Q3) The ________ mountains in North America were formed by a continent-continent collision in the Paleozoic.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 15
Chapter 14: Mass Wasting: The Work of Gravity
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
131 Verified Questions
131 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8291
Sample Questions
Q1) Unconsolidated, dry, angular, granular materials such as gravel and sand will support maximum slope angles of about 33 to 35 degrees on land.What is the name for this maximum slope angle?
Q2) Frost action will make a slope less stable.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which one of the following materials has the maximum, sustainable, slope angle, as determined by the angle of repose?
A)unfractured granite
B)moist, sandy soil with a clay-rich matrix
C)dry sand
D)unsorted, crushed rock used for highway paving
Q4) What two circumstances immediately preceded the 4:10 AM April 29, 1903 Frank Slide.
Q5) Which of the following contains ice wedges?
A)patterned ground
B)felsenmeer
C)thermokarst
D)pingo
Q6) What is the fastest moving of the mass wasting processes?
Page 16
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 15: Running Water
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
139 Verified Questions
139 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8292
Sample Questions
Q1) ________ is the boundary line separating adjacent, stream drainage basins.
Q2) The ________ describes the movement of water through Earth's hydrosphere.
A)aqualytic cycle
B)aquatic cycle
C)precipitation cycle
D)hydrologic cycle
Q3) All major rivers in Canada drain into only 5-6 basins.Name three of these.
Q4) How does urbanization (buildings, paving, lawns etc.)affect runoff and infiltration in a small, previously forested, drainage basin?
A)Both decrease.
B)Runoff decreases; infiltration increases.
C)Both increase.
D)Infiltration decreases; runoff increases.
Q5) After a meander is cut off, the gradient through the newly formed cutoff is steeper than the gradient along the abandoned meander loop.
A)True
B)False
Q6) The lowest elevation limiting stream erosion is called ________.
Q7) ________ streams have interconnecting channels around stable vegetated bars.
Page 17
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 16: Groundwater
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
159 Verified Questions
159 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8293
Sample Questions
Q1) Explain how a stream with an 11 day transit time for its entire length can sustain flow for short periods of drought that exceed 11 days?
Q2) Provide two means of dealing with polluted groundwater.
Q3) Porosity is a measure of the volume of open fracture space in rocks and interstitial space in unconsolidated geologic materials like alluvium and soils.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which one of the following logically explains why parts of some cavern systems are aerated?
A)The caves formed and later the water table rose.
B)A nearby, downcutting stream lowered the water table after the caves had formed.
C)Streams formerly flowing on the surface were diverted into the groundwater system through sinkholes.
D)The main water table is perched above the cavern roofs, allowing air to enter.
Q5) Provide three factors which contribute to an irregular surface for the water table.
Q6) A ________ is a circular to elliptical, closed depressions in karst areas.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 18
Chapter 17: Glaciers and Glaciation
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
183 Verified Questions
183 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8294
Sample Questions
Q1) All of the following are thought to possibly contribute to ice ages except for
A)eccentricity
B)precession
C)comets
D)plate tectonics
Q2) ________ is one of the three ways a glacier can move over its bed.
A)Basal slip
B)Crevassal slip
C)Frost heaving
D)Morainal sliding
Q3) Rock flour consists of silt-sized rock and mineral particles produced by glacial abrasion.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Where is the equilibrium line on a glacier?
A)at about 150 metres depth
B)below the zone of wastage
C)where the zone of accumulation meets the zone of ablation
D)beneath the terminal moraine
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 19
Chapter 18: Deserts and Winds
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
132 Verified Questions
132 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8295
Sample Questions
Q1) How are sand grains transported by the wind?
A)high in the moving air column as suspended load
B)by saltation as bed load in the first metre above the land surface
C)by deflation of abraded desert pavement
D)by being picked up in swirling dust devils and carried to distant blowouts
Q2) Which one of the following is determined by the angle of repose for dry sand?
A)longitudinal dune gradient angle
B)windward slope of a transverse dune
C)a vertical cut bank in loess
D)inclination angle of a dune slip face
Q3) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)pitted stone
B)yardang
C)ventifact
D)steppe stone
Q4) Like barchans, the tips of a parabolic dune point downwind.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Where do the low-latitude deserts tend to occur?
Q6) What is a short-lived desert stream called?
Page 20
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 19: Shorelines
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
153 Verified Questions
153 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8296
Sample Questions
Q1) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)jetties
B)groin
C)seawall
D)beach nourishment
Q2) The shoreline represents an interface between the land, sea, and air.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What causes the pair of tidal bulges?
A)One is caused by the pull of the moon, the other by the sun.
B)The east and west shores of the Americas pushing the water out of the way like giant mixer blades.
C)The larger one closest to the Moon is gravitational; 180° away it is inertial.
D)The shape of the whole Earth gets deformed into a flattened ellipsoid by the Moon's gravity; the other bulge is due to centrifugal force bending the rocks back but delayed by a quarter revolution.
Q4) Which is higher, the tidal bulge on the side facing the moon, or the one farthest away, and why is this so?
Q5) Waves are forms of ________ that move through the water, not the water itself.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 21
Chapter 20: Mineral and Energy Resources
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
159 Verified Questions
159 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/8297
Sample Questions
Q1) Where did North America's worst oil-caused environmental disaster occur?
A)Alaska coast, 1989
B)Strait of Georgia, 2001
C)Grand Banks, 1995
D)Gulf of Mexico, 2010
Q2) Typical of developed industrial nations, Canada consumes more non-metallic resources like aggregate, gypsum, potash, and sulfur than it does metals and metallic resources like copper, molybdenum, and gold.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Geothermal power generation in ________ relies hot waters related to near surface volcanic heat from modern igneous intrusions.
A)Nunavut
B)Iceland, Italy, New Zealand, and the USA
C)Saskatchewan
D)Nova Scotia
Q4) How much potential do heavy oil sands have in contributing to Canada's oil production?
Q5) Why is liquid petroleum formed only over a limited depth range?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 22