Planetary Geology
Exam Answer Key
Course Introduction
Planetary Geology explores the geological processes and surface features of planets and moons throughout our solar system and beyond. The course examines the structure, composition, and evolution of planetary bodies, including impact cratering, volcanism, tectonics, erosion, and sedimentation. Through analysis of remote sensing data, spacecraft imagery, and comparison with Earth analogs, students gain insights into planetary formation, surface dynamics, and the unique environments of terrestrial and gas giant planets, as well as their satellites. This course provides a foundational understanding of how planetary geology informs our search for past or present extraterrestrial life and helps unravel the history of our solar system.
Recommended Textbook
The Changing Earth Exploring Geology and Evolution 6th Edition by James S. Monroe
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Understanding Earth: A Dynamic and Evolving Planet
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Sample Questions
Q1) How are the rock cycle and plate tectonics related?
Answer: Interactions between plates determine,to some extent,which of the three rock groups will form.Plates may melt to form igneous rocks,be altered to form metamorphic,or sink to allow sediments to become sedimentary rocks.
Q2) Fossils are ____.
A) useful for reconstructing past environmental conditions
B) evidence that evolution has occurred
C) evidence that Earth has a long history predating humans
D) the remains or traces of once living organisms
E) all of these
Answer: E
Q3) Any theory that explains the origin of the solar system must also explain the following properties of all or most of the planets: a(n)____________________ direction of rotation and division into ____________________ planets and ____________________ planets,according to their chemical and physical properties.
Answer: counterclockwise,terrestrial,Jovian
Q4) The portion of Earth that has the largest volume is the ____________________.
Answer: mantle
Page 3
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Chapter 2: Plate Tectonics: A Unifying Theory
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Q1) Glacially deposited strata were important in the development of continental drift theory because ____.
A) the distribution of glacial deposits indicated that the entire Earth must have been glaciated
B) the distribution of coal-swamp deposits indicated that the entire Earth must have been very warm
C) the glacial deposits indicated that there must have been many very large glaciers on several continents
D) the glacial deposits indicated that all of the southern continents must have been closer to the South Pole and contiguous
E) the glacial deposits indicated that climate can change dramatically over geologic time
Answer: D
Q2) Paleomagnetism is the study of the ____________________ magnetism in rocks.
Answer: remnant
Q3) At divergent plate boundaries,plates are moving ____________________.At these locations,new ____________________ forms.
Answer: apart,lithosphere
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Minerals The Building Blocks of Rocks
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Q1) All minerals are compounds.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Placer deposits form because
A) gold is lighter weight than other rocks and minerals and floats to the surface.
B) hot fluids travel through bedrock and create mineral veins.
C) minerals with covalent bonds transition to ionic bonding.
D) running water separates and concentrates minerals and rock fragments by their density.
Answer: D
Q3) Give an example of a native element. Answer: gold/silver/copper/diamond/graphite
Q4) C¹² has 6 protons.How many protons does C¹³ have? ____ How many neutrons does C¹³ have? ____ Nitrogen-14 (N¹ )has 6 protons and 8 neutrons: true or false?
Answer: 6,7,false
Q5) Give an example of a nonferromagnesian silicate. Answer: quartz/feldspar/muscovite/clay
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Chapter 4: Igneous Rocks and Plutons
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Q1) The increase in Earth's temperature with depth is called the ____________________.
Q2) Why does lava retain heat so well?
Q3) Bowen's Reaction Series explains the order of mineral formation with decreasing temperature.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Why do pegmatite mineral crystals grow so large?
Q5) Laccoliths are sills that inflate,causing the overlying rock to bow upward.
A)True
B)False
Q6) What two types of volcanic features result from volcanism above a mantle plume? How are hot spots related to plate boundaries?
Q7) Explain how batholiths and stocks formed via plate tectonics.
Q8) How does a batholith differ from a stock?
Q9) The process of assimilation includes the incorporation of felsic country rock.
A)True
B)False
Q10) How does lava differ from magma?
Q11) What are flood basalts?
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Page 7
Chapter 5: Volcanoes and Volcanism
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Q1) The one place on earth where mid-ocean ridge volcanism occurs above sea level is
Q2) Pyroclastic material that is less than 2 mm in diameter is called ____________________.Particles ranging from 2 to 64 mm in diameter are known as ____________________,while ____________________ are pieces larger than 64 mm in diameter.
Q3) Sometimes the pyroclastic material that flows from a volcano is so hot that it fuses together to form a deposit known as ____________________.
Q4) Alaska's volcanoes are
A) composite with huge calderas.
B) fissure with large lava flows.
C) the result of seafloor spreading.
D) all dormant or extinct.
Q5) Why does most volcanism at spreading ridges go undetected?
Q6) Where are most volcanoes located?
A) the Mediterranean belt
B) the mid-oceanic ridges
C) the circum-Pacific belt
D) the East African Rift Zone
E) Indonesia
Page 8
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Chapter 6: Weathering, Erosion, and Soil
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Sample Questions
Q1) The biggest problem areas for acid rain include
A) the eastern United States and much of Europe.
B) China and Australia.
C) western Europe and the western United States.
D) the Amazon, Congo and Pacific rainforests.
Q2) Carbonate minerals,like calcite,dissolve readily in a solution that is _______.
Q3) Briefly explain the sequence in which a soil develops.
Q4) What factors and sequence of events commonly lead to soil erosion in rainforests?
Q5) Weathering is classified into which of the following categories?
A) mechanistic and compositional
B) mechanical and physical
C) chemical and physical
D) physical and chemical
E) organic and inorganic
Q6) Laterite soils are rich in organic matter.
A)True
B)False
Q7) The economically valuable mineral resource produced by intense chemical weathering that is found only in laterite soils is called ____________________.
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Chapter 7: Sediment and Sedimentary Rocks
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Q1) If all the grains in a sedimentary rock are about the same size,the rock can be characterized as ____.
A) poorly sorted
B) well-sorted
C) compacted
D) poorly graded
E) cemented
Q2) Graded beds refer to sedimentary beds that show an increase in grain size from bottom to top.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What makes up a chemical sediment?
Q4) What are some of the characteristics of sedimentary rocks that are used in determining the depositional environment represented by a facies?
Q5) Sediment becomes sedimentary rock by the process known as _______.
Q6) A vertical sequence of a(n)____________________ facies shows an offshore facies superposed on nearshore facies.
Q7) Is banded iron formation a chemical or detrital sedimentary rock? Explain.
Q8) Under what conditions does coal form?
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Chapter 8: Metamorphism and Metamorphic Rocks
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Q1) Metamorphism takes place ____.
A) in the liquid state, melted by contact with magma
B) in the solid state with or without fluid activity
C) only at great depth
D) in the liquid state, melted by contact with magma, and only at great depth
E) all of these
Q2) Gneiss is a high-grade metamorphic rock that is streaked or has segregated bands of light and dark minerals.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What is the significance of foliation in a metamorphic rock? (Not what is foliation,but what does it mean in terms of the rock's history?
Q4) What is the reaction of country rock with solutions from a cooling magma known as?
A) hydrothermal solution
B) hydroxide alteration
C) geothermal alteration
D) hydrothermal alteration
E) hydrostatic alteration
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Chapter 9: Earthquakes and Earth's Interior
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explain why the portions of the San Andreas fault that are "locked" are or are not safer than the parts where the two plates slide more or less continually.What is the name of the theory that deals with this issue?
Q2) We know that the mantle is not molten because P-waves can travel through it.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The analysis of the alignment of the planets and moon is a scientifically accepted method used to predict earthquakes.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Why are earthquakes more likely to occur in Tokyo,Anchorage,and Los Angeles than they are in New York,London,or Paris?
Q5) What is paleoseismology,and why is it important?
Q6) Why are there so few earthquakes within plate interiors?
Q7) The Modified Mercalli Scale is a quantitative measure of an earthquake's intensity.
A)True
B)False
Q8) The study of earthquakes is called ____________________.
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Chapter 10: Deformation,Mountain Building,and Earth's
Crust
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Sample Questions
Q1) Movement along the San Andreas is ____.
A) compressional
B) tensional
C) right lateral
D) left lateral
E) vertical
Q2) The type of strain which occurs depends not only on the kind of stress applied,but also on what?
A) the amount of pressure and degree of temperature
B) the rock type
C) the duration of the stress
D) the amount of pressure, the degree of temperature and the duration of the stress
E) the amount of pressure, the degree of temperature and the rock type
Q3) How do geologists stabilize a slope for highway construction?
Q4) Small accreted lithospheric blocks of foreign origin that differ completely from the rocks in surrounding regions are called ____________________.
Q5) An episode of mountain building is known as a(n)____________________.
Q6) What does tension stress result from?
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Chapter 11: Mass Wasting
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Sample Questions
Q1) After gravity,what is the major cause of mass wasting?
A) slope gradient
B) weakening by weathering
C) overloading
D) vegetation loss
E) increased water content
Q2) Slow mass movement transports a greater volume of material than does rapid mass movement.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The material accumulated at the base of cliffs where rocks fall is known as ____________________.
Q4) A flow that is up to 30 percent water and at least 50 percent clay-sized particles is a _______.A flow with less water but larger particles is a _______.
Q5) How can vegetation affect the likelihood of mass wasting?
Q6) If you were surveying hillside property on which you planned to build a home,what are some of the evidences of former mass wasting you would look for?
Q7) What factors collectively define a slope's shear strength?
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Chapter 12: Running Water Streams and Rivers
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Sample Questions
Q1) A stream erodes material from its banks and bed by ____.
A) suspension
B) hydraulic action
C) abrasion
D) suspension and hydraulic action
E) hydraulic action and abrasion
Q2) Most of a stream's kinetic energy is involved in eroding and transporting sediment.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A change in base level leading to formation of stream terraces can come about by ____________________ of the land over which the stream flows or a(n)____________________ of sea level.
Q4) The renewal of erosion which results in creation of stream terraces is generally attributed to a change in ____________________ level,or a change in climate resulting in greater ____________________,and thus discharge.
Q5) Water that returns to the oceans as surface flow from streams is
Q6) Briefly explain the trade-offs that accompany any flood control project.
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Chapter 13: Groundwater
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Sample Questions
Q1) What factors affect the surface configuration of the water table in an area?
Q2) What is karst topography?
Q3) The maximum level of arsenic permitted in drinking water by the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency is
A) 10 parts per million
B) 10%
C) 0.010 parts per million
D) 1%
Q4) About 22 percent of all usable water in the United States comes from groundwater. A)True B)False
Q5) Briefly explain the role of streams in the formation of caverns,and the process by which several levels of vertically connected caves may form.
Q6) Why does the Leaning Tower of Pisa lean? Is it likely to lean so much it will some day fall over?
Q7) How are stalactites different from stalagmites? Why do they typically form in pairs and often merge to form a column?
Q8) What is hard water? How is it found,and what are its negative effects?
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Chapter 14: Glaciers and Glaciation
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Sample Questions
Q1) A conical hill of stratified drift is an esker.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Why do scientists study glaciers to better understand climate change? What do studies of glaciers contribute to our understanding of current climate trends?
Q3) An ice mass of compacted and recrystallized snow that flows under its own weight on land is called a(n)____________________.
Q4) Name some erosional landforms that might help you recognize that a valley had previously been occupied by a valley glacier.
Q5) The zone of ____________________ is the portion of a glacier where additions exceed losses.
Q6) Glaciers move primarily by ____________________ flow.
Q7) The two major types of glaciers are ____________________ and ____________________.
Q8) The Matterhorn in Switzerland is a glacial ____________________ landform known as a(n)____________________.
Q9) From the human perspective,what climatic effect of the Little Ice Age had the greatest impact?
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Chapter 15: The Work of Wind and Deserts
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is Coriolis effect caused by?
A) wind shear between water and the atmosphere
B) the axial tilt of the Earth
C) the rotation of the Earth
D) differences in air pressure in different regions
E) Milankovitch cycles
Q2) Loess is important because it ____.
A) is an important source of building material
B) is rich in important ore deposits
C) sometimes contains petroleum
D) makes fertile soil
E) is an important source of groundwater
Q3) Briefly explain how mesas and buttes form.
Q4) The close-fitting mosaic of pebbles,cobbles,and boulders covering the floor of many deserts and semi-arid regions is called what?
A) ventifacts
B) desert pavement
C) longitudinal dunes
D) yardangs
E) barchan dunes
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Chapter 16: Oceans, Shorelines, and Shoreline Processes
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Q1) What is a wave-cut platform,and how does one develop?
Q2) Briefly explain how sea level could fall in one region while it is generally rising elsewhere.
Q3) What are narrow surface currents that flow in the same general direction as the approaching waves?
A) rip currents
B) nearshore currents
C) longshore currents
D) upwelling currents
E) refraction currents
Q4) What determines the characteristics of beaches?
Q5) List the primary ways that oceanographers learn about the seafloor and briefly explain each.
Q6) If hydraulic action and abrasion undercut headlands,structures known as ____________________ may form.When these join they form a(n)____________________,which might later collapse to give a(n)____________________.
Q7) The two important types of near shore currents are ____________________ currents and ____________________ currents.
Q8) Why are waves in ponds and lakes smaller than those in oceans?
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Chapter 17: Geologic Time: Concepts and Principles
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Q1) If an isotope has a half-life of 50 million years,and 1/8 of the sample remaining consists of that isotope,what is the age of the rock from which it was taken?
A) 400 million years
B) 300 million years
C) 150 million years
D) 800 million years
E) none of these
Q2) What are the requirements for a useful guide fossil?
Q3) A body of rock that is intruded by another rock must be ____________________ in age than the intrusion.
Q4) To determine the age of sedimentary rocks containing fossils,____________________ zones are established,plotting the overlapping geologic ranges of different species of fossils.
Q5) What is the principle of superposition,and what is its importance? Who is credited with discovering it?
Q6) Fragments of a rock that are contained in a layer of another rock must be ____________________ in age than the layer of rock which surrounds them.
Q7) ____________________ dating is used to obtain absolute age dates.
Page 20
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Chapter 18: Organic Evolution The Theory and Its Supporting Evidence
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Sample Questions
Q1) The number of chromosomes is ____________________ for a given species but ____________________ among different species.
Q2) Who proposed the modern biological classification scheme?
A) Thomas Malthus
B) Georges Cuvier
C) Jean Baptiste de Lamarck
D) Charles Darwin
E) Carolus Linnaeus
Q3) How can traits in organisms evolve over time?
Q4) Alleles are the pair of controlling factors in genes,and both have equal dominance.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Vestigial structures are those that have only small pieces remaining on an organism.
A)True
B)False
Q6) What is a mass extinction?
Q7) What is phyletic gradualism?
Q8) ____________________ are the only record of prehistoric life. Page 21
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Page 22
Chapter 19: Precambrian Earth and Life History
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Sample Questions
Q1) Between 1.3 and 1.0 billion years ago,the __________ orogeny occurred in the supercontinent __________.
Q2) What is symbiosis?
Q3) What are molecules which are intermediate between inorganic compounds and living organisms called?
A) protobionts
B) proteinoids
C) bacteria
D) amino acids
E) monomers
Q4) Subunits within the shield are delineated by radiometric ages and structural trends.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are heterotrophic organisms?
Q6) Besides the origin of life itself,what was the most significant biological event of the Archean?
Q7) Continents are cored by large areas of exposed ancient rocks called ____________________,which are tectonically ____________________ regions.
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Chapter 20: Paleozoic Earth History
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Q1) The Precambrian igneous rocks of the shield areas record evidence for ____.
A) continental growth by accretion
B) extensive Precambrian orogenic activity
C) extensive pre-Phanerozoic erosion
D) continental growth by accretion AND extensive Precambrian orogenic activity
E) all of these
Q2) What are mobile belts of a continent?
Q3) The boundary between the Tippecanoe and Sauk sequences is a vast unconformity with deep erosional relief.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is the Tippecanoe sequence?
Q5) Describe how the first geologic map was created.
Q6) What was the probable source for detrital sand in the basal Kaskaskia unit?
A) Ozark domes
B) the Appalachian mobile belt
C) the Canadian Shield
D) all of these
E) Ozark domes and the Appalachian mobile belt
Q7) The Absaroka sequence spans which periods of geologic time?
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Chapter 21: Paleozoic Life History
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Q1) The earliest vascular land plants were characterized by which of the following?
A) seed-producing and rootless
B) seedless and root-bearing
C) seedless and rhizome-bearing
D) seed-bearing and rhizome bearing
E) none of these
Q2) The dominant type of flora in non-swampy areas of the Late Paleozoic was ____________________.
Q3) Organisms that live in the marine ecosystem above the seafloor are called ____________________.
Q4) Based on embryo studies,blood proteins,and biochemistry of muscle activity,chordates may be more closely linked to echinoderms than to other phyla. A)True
B)False
Q5) Three examples of phytoplankton are ____________________,____________________,and
Q6) What was the distribution of trilobites in time and space during the Paleozoic? What niches did trilobites fill? Most were bottom dwellers,crawling around on the seafloor eating detritus.
Page 25
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Chapter 22: Mesozoic Earth and Life History
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Q1) Mountain building in western North America did not begin until the Late Cretaceous Period.
A)True
B)False
Q2) More species went extinct at the end of the Permian than at the end of the Mesozoic.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Because of the nature of the world-wide climatic conditions in the Mesozoic,organisms ____.
A) had few habitats to occupy
B) could occupy extensive geographic regions
C) could only occupy restricted geographic regions
D) were not affected
E) stayed where they were
Q4) What is the name of the type of gold deposit found at Sutter's Mill,Coloma,California in 1848,and how are they formed? How did prospectors extract the gold from the deposit?
Q5) The Atlantic Ocean began to form in the ____________________ Period.
Q6) What was the effect of the global rise in sea level during the Cretaceous?
Page 26
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Chapter 23: Cenozoic Earth and Life History
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Q1) Briefly state the arguments against the climate change hypothesis for the Pleistocene extinction.
Q2) The geologic province caused by the collision of India with Asia is known as the Alpine-Himalayan Orogenic Belt.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Homo sapiens clearly evolved from ____________________.
Q4) The cause for cessation of Laramide deformation was a(n)____.
A) decrease in the angle of the subducted slab
B) change from subduction to rift tectonics
C) increase in the angle of the subducted slab
D) change from subduction to transform tectonics
E) cessation of subduction
Q5) New seafloor is being created in the East African rift.
A)True B)False
Q6) The present topography of the Appalachians was formed by erosion during the Mesozoic.
A)True
B)False
Page 27
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Chapter 24: Geology in Perspective
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Q1) What activities do humans engage in that make them geologic agents,and how effective are human activities at being geologic agents?
Q2) Ask the students: Has learning the scientific basis of many issues caused you to change your mind or formulate an opinion on a topic? For example,do you now have a better sense about issues such as evolution,global warming,ozone depletion,etc.?
Q3) What will the effects of an additional 3 billion people by the end of the 21st century be on environmental issues? How will these people secure the things that they need?
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