Final Exam Geo

Front 1

A typical source rockof oil, which started out as mud in which dead organic matter settled,

Back 1

is shale

Front 2

The oil window is therelatively narrow range of temperatures in which oil can form

Back 2

90–160°C

Front 3

Oil forms because algaeand plankton decomposed under conditions of

Back 3

heat, pressure, andlow oxygen

Front 4

Natural gas burnsmore cleanly than..

Back 4

oil does

Front 5

Coal develops in the following order:

Back 5

peat

lignite (low rank coal)

bituminous coal (mid-rank coal)

anthracite (high rank coal) - develops at a depth along mountain belt borders where temperatures reach300°C

Front 6

Formation of Coal

Back 6

Macroscopic organicmaterial (leaves, stems, trunks) of swampy areas undergoes heat and pressure inan oxygen-poor environment over a geologically long time.

Front 7

FALSE STATEMENTS

Back 7

Coal in the western United States is of Carboniferous age, and coal in the Midwest is of Cretaceous age.

Large oil fields contain such great quantities of oil because they’ve developed from the largest dinosaurs.

Green plants produce food through photosynthesis, which is the combination of oxygen and chlorophyll to yield carbon dioxide and water.

Tunnel collapse and methane gas explosion are still dangers of underground coal mining; fortunately, black lung disease has been eliminated by use of a vaccine.

Coal is considered a renewable resource because it’s currently forming in swamps.

Front 8

Strip mining can bedone economically down to a depth of

Back 8

about 100m

Front 9

Coal couldn’t formuntil

Back 9

vascular land plantsbecame abundant

Front 10

Underground coal miningis dangerous because

Back 10

of possible tunnel collapse and possible methane gas explosions.

Front 11

Oil shale..

(False- wasn’t discovered until the 1980s, when the price of oil was very high.)

Back 11

contains kerogen, which is a precursor to oil, when heated to 500°C yields liquid oil and gas

is currently not an economic fuel source due to the high costs of mining, reclamation, and producing energy to process the shale

can be burned directly and has been used as a fuel since ancient times.

Front 12

Coal bed methane is atype of natural gas

(False- willhave to be mined from extremely deep mines.)

Back 12

bonded to the carbonmolecules of coal poses a serious risk of explosion.

trapped in deep layersbelow current mining levels is a possible future energy resource.

is held inplace in deep strata by the natural water pressure there.

Front 13

Acquiring and usingenergy resources can damage the environment.

Back 13

For example, coalburning produces carbon dioxide gas, which contributes to the greenhouse effectand global warming.

coal burning produces sulfur dioxide, which combines withatmospheric water to produce sulfuric acid, which leads to acid rain.

oildrilling can damage land, and oil spills have polluted land, groundwater, andsurface water.

nuclear power requires disturbing land and using energy in orderto extract uranium from soil or rock ore.

Front 14

The largest oilreserves in the world are in

Back 14

countries around the Persian Gulf.

Front 15

Drag lines are usedin strip mining operations both to

Back 15

remove overlying soiland rock from the coal seams and to replace topsoil after the mining is done.

Front 16

Experts believe it ishighly probable that humans will have exhausted all usable quantities of oil by

Back 16

the year 2150.

Front 17

The search for anenergy source to replace oil is complicated by

Back 17

a fear of nuclearenergy and the desire that new sources be economical, environmentally friendly,and clean

Front 18

The Oil Age we livein has a limited future because

Back 18

known reserves are diminishing fast andcurrent consumption exceeds the rate of discovery of new oil by a factor of 3

Front 19

Withdrawal ofgroundwater faster than natural recharge occurs has caused

Back 19

extreme landsubsidence in the San Joaquin Valley, California.

Front 20

Groundwater typicallymoves

Back 20

slowly within theground through porous rock layers like sandstone.

Front 21

Groundwatercontaminants such as...

may originate..

Back 21

sulfur, iron, calciumcarbonate, and methane

originatewithin rock or sediment through which groundwater flows.

Front 22

In an area of rolling hills..

(not- sometimes parallel to the slope of the water table and sometimes straight down, but never upward.)

Back 22

groundwater moves from where the water table is at a high elevation to where the water table is at a low elevation.

from regions under hills to regions under valleys.

along a curved path.

under the influence of both gravity and pressure differences.

Front 23

Porositydecreases..

(not- when rockdevelop joints or faults)

Back 23

with increasing depth of the rock layer.

as sediment is changed to sedimentary rock.

with increasing compaction of sediments or rock.

with the cementing of sediments by mineral grains from groundwater.

Front 24

Aquifers-

Aquitards-

Back 24

transmitwater easily

transmit water poorly or not at all.

Front 25

The permeability of arock depends on

Back 25

the number, size, andstraightness of available conduits.

Front 26

Cork is

Back 26

very porous but veryimpermeable

Front 27

Water moves upward inthe capillary fringe due to

Back 27

electrostatic attraction between its moleculesand mineral surfaces.

Front 28

The water table

Back 28

may be defined by the surface of a permanent stream, lake, or marsh.

becomes a downward-pointing, cone-shaped surface around the bottom of a well.

lies within a few meters of the surface in humid areas.

mimics the topography of the land it underlies.

Front 29

The chief source ofgroundwater is

Back 29

Precipitation

Front 30

The water table of an area goes down as

Back 30

more wells are established there

Front 31

The slope of thewater table is called

Back 31

the hydraulicgradient.

Front 32

The water tablefluctuates as

Back 32

the amount of precipitation changes.

Front 33

The rate ofgroundwater flow depends on

Back 33

thepermeability of the material it flows through and on the hydraulic gradient.

Front 34

Darcy’s law is..

(not- is amethod to determine the degree of saturation of water at any specified depth.)

Back 34

an equation used byhydrologists.

states that discharge equals the hydraulic conductivitycoefficient times the hydraulic gradient times the area involved.

takes intoaccount the permeability of the rock and the viscosity of the fluid.

can beused to decide practical issues, such as whether sufficient groundwater existsto supply a city’s needs.

Front 35

Dissolved ions ingroundwater

(not- aremore abundant in young groundwater than in old groundwater, which has precipitatedout most of its ions over time.)

Back 35

can create hard water, rich in calcium andmagnesium.

can precipitate out as carbonate minerals and clog plumbing pipes.

include iron, which leaves a rusty stain on materials it touches.

can makewater too salty to be used for irrigating crops.

Front 36

Likely locations ofsprings

Back 36

interconnectedfractures that open onto a hillside

an impermeable rock layer intersectinga hillside

Front 37

The lowering of watertables has been a growing problem in the..

Back 37

U.S. desert southwest

Front 38

In coastal areas,salt water can

Back 38

enter an aquifer,float on the fresh water there, and be drawn up in wells

Front 39

The U.S. federalgovernment once planned to dispose of nuclear wastes in the ground at

Back 39

Yucca Mountain,Nevada

Front 40

Naturally occurring clays can slow the spread of groundwater contamination by

Back 40

eitherchemically trapping them, or because of the low permeability of clays.

Front 41

Causes for formationof springs?

(not- theintersection of the water table with a recharge area)

Back 41

where groundwaterflows against a steep impermeable area (such as a healed fault) and hassufficient head to reach the ground surface.

wherea perched water table intersects a land surface.

where a network ofinterconnected fractures transmitting water under sufficient head intersectsthe ground surface.

the intersection of the water table and the ground surfacein a discharge area.

Front 42

What is the name ofthe thin zone at the top of the water table

Back 42

capillary fringe

-which may “suck”water molecules upward a few millimeters or centimeters into the unsaturatedzone?

Front 43

Water underground

(not-usually moves in vast underground rivers called aquifers.)

Back 43

is subdivided into three categories: soilmoisture, vadose-zone water, and groundwater.

can adhere to soil particles andeventually evaporate back into the atmosphere or be absorbed by plant roots.

partially fills pores in the unsaturated zone (vadose-zone water).

completelyfills pores in the saturated zone (groundwater).

Front 44

Which of thefollowing does not affect permeability?

Back 44

the slope of the water table

Front 45

Affects Permeability?

Back 45

the degree to which pore spaces are connected to one another.

the number/spacing of connected conduits.

the width (effective diameter) of pore spaces/fracture openings.

the actual length of flow pathways

Front 46

Hydraulic head is..

Hydraulic gradient is..

Back 46

is a measure of the potential energy available to drive the flow of groundwater

the change of hydraulic head between two points.

Front 47

Groundwater may fully saturate the pore spaces of a rock yet

Back 47

be effectively unable to flow through it.

Front 48

FALSE

Back 48

Primary porosity refers to the largest 10% of pore spaces; secondary porosity refers to the remaining 90% of smaller pores.

A perched water table is one that sits high on a hill rather than low in a valley.

Pore collapse and other effects of a lowered water table can be fixed by several years of rising groundwater.

Soil moisture is precipitation that sinks deep, fills the zone of saturation, and resides there for many decades.

Because sand grains are larger than mud grains, primary porosity is greater in sand than it is in mud.

Groundwater flows upward in a recharge area and downward in a discharge area.

In terms of human usage and availability, groundwater is a renewable resource.

Front 49

All deserts are

Back 49

arid

Front 50

A basin or waterway that sometimes contains water:

Back 50

wadi

wash

arroyo

playa

(not- bajada)

Front 51

Deserts reradiate much of their heat back into space at night..

(not- but even then the temperature never goes below freezing.)

Back 51

because dry desert air doesn’t retain heat well.

because they lack cloud cover, which would act as a blanket and reradiate heat back to Earth.

and thus may have daily ground surface temperature changes of as much as 80°C.

even if they are the hottest of deserts.

Front 52

Which of the following is a characteristic feature of deserts?

Back 52

flash floods

Front 53

Which of the following is a characteristic of all deserts?

Back 53

little or no vegetation

Front 54

The subtropics host the world’s largest deserts, including

Back 54

the Sahara and the Kalahari.

Front 55

Because of typical convection cell movement in the atmosphere,

(Not- air from the equator spreads north and south, and moisture moisture condenses out of it in latitudes from 20° to 30° north and south of the equator.)

Back 55

hot, moist air close to the equator rises.

rising air expands and cools.

the cooled dry air sinks and warms.

cooled sinking air absorbs moisture from the area below.

Front 56

Desert varnish

Back 56

is a product of chemicalweathering over time.

is a dark, rust-brown surface coatingof iron oxide, manganese oxide, and clay.

happens when bacteria chemicallyalter wind-deposited surface dust.

can be chipped away to createlight-colored petroglyphs

Front 57

Moderate winds can

(not- raise sand grains several kilometers high and carry them downwind hundreds of kilometers.)

Back 57

move sand grains by saltation.

create vortices that lift fine sediment as dust devils.

carry sediment as both suspended and bed load.

round and frost sand grains by knocking them together.

Front 58

Moderate wind can produce faceted rocks called

Back 58

ventifacts

Front 59

Which feature might result where wind erosion acts on a resistant rock layer overlying a softer rock layer?

Back 59

yardang

Front 60

Which term has nothing to do with temporary desert lakes?

(do- halite playas gypsum borax)

Back 60

erg

Front 61

Flat-lying sedimentary strata or volcanic rock layers may erode to form isolated structures called

Back 61

mesas, buttes, and chimneys.

Front 62

What type of sand dune is shown in the figure below?

Back 62

Parabolic

Front 63

The light blue area that stretches between the two black arrows in the photo below is

Back 63

a bajada

Front 64

Which type of sand dunes would form where there is abundant sand totally covering the ground surface, and only moderate winds?

Back 64

Transverse

Front 65

Which would be the steepest hike?

Back 65

up the slip face of a dune

Front 66

Sand dunes

Back 66

can migrate downwind more than 25 m in a year.

may be stabilized if they are covered with vegetation.

in cross-sectional view show cross beds of sand.

commonly have ripples on their surfaces.

Front 67

What ofthese characteristics enhances desert survival?

(not- verysmall ears)

Back 67

a pattern of nocturnal (night) activity,

minimal sweating

deep tap roots

fleshy stems and leaves

Front 68

What do the Sahel and the U.S.-Canadian Great Plains of the 1930s have in common?

Back 68

natural and anthropogenic (human-induced) desertification

Front 69

A19th-century explorer crossing a desert has run out of water.

Back 69

He has the best chance of surviving if he can find an ephemeral stream.

Front 70

Which of thefollowing is a desert LEAST likely tohave?

Back 70

a location at 10° north latitude

Front 71

In which ofthe following desert environments would you find the most sand?

Back 71

erg

Front 72

Which of thefollowing is NOT the result of winderosion?

Back 72

calcrete

Front 73

Deserts inthe interior of Asia developed as a result of..

Back 73

distance from oceans

Front 74

Desertification

(not- is a natural phenomenon; if left alone, Earth’s climate fluctuations are minor, and deserts and nondeserts remain constant.)

Back 74

is the process of transforming nondesert areas to desert.

increases with increasing human population.

can be reversed, but huge amounts of water and money are required to do so.

is geologically quick; it can happen within a few decades.

Front 75

Which of thefollowing has NOTHING to do with the Dust Bowl?

Back 75

1940s and the wartime water shortage

Front 76

Continental-interiordeserts exist because..

Back 76

air masses have traveled so far in getting there that they’ve precipitated most of their moisture along the way, even if they didn’t cross mountains.

Front 77

Colored rocklayers of Painted Desert, Arizona, result from..

Back 77

oxidized iron.

Front 78

Two chemicalcomponents of desert varnish are..

Back 78

manganese and iron.

Front 79

It would beeasier to climb to the top of a hogback than to

Back 79

the top of a chimney.

Front 80

Uluru(formerly Ayers Rock) in Australia is an

Back 80

inselberg.

Front 81

Which of the following events or processes would likely remove a lag deposit?

Back 81

A flash flood

Front 82

If you drinklake water from an interior basin, you’ll probably be drinking..

If you drink from a stream thatfeeds the lake, you’ll probably be drinking..

Back 82

salty water

fresh water

Front 83

If you’re hiking across an alluvial fan..

If you’re hiking across an entire bajada..

Back 83

there will be a stream emerging from the mountains on one side of you and plains on the other.

your scenery will be the same, but you’re in for a longer hike.

Front 84

Which pair of rivers listed below flow through deserts and discharge to seas or oceans?

Back 84

The Nile & Colorado

Front 85

Talus aprons are..

and can..

Back 85

which are triangular accumulations of broken-up rock along the base of cliffs

gradually become coated with desert varnish.

Front 86

FALSE

Back 86

By definition, deserts are areas with 25 cm (10 in.) or less annual rainfall.

The hottest verified Earth temperature was 166°F in Death Valley, California.

Rain-shadow deserts are located on the upwind, coastal sides of mountain ranges because air rises over the mountains and absorbs moisture as it rises.

Most sand dunes migrate upwind.

Desert pavement is a generic term meaning any hard-packed sandy surface.

Front 87

Glacial ice is ______ in appearance.

Back 87

bluish

Front 88

Continental glaciers...

(not- never reach seas or oceans.)

Back 88

move because of the pull of gravity.

spread across the landscape laterally in response to their own weight.

move by gravitational spreading.

move because their basal ice can’t support the weight of their overlying ice.

Front 89

Erosive glacial features are?

(not- drumlin)

Back 89

Fjord

chatter marks

truncated spur

roche moutonnée.

Front 90

The depth ofa crevasse is limited by the

Back 90

pressure at which ice begins to deform plastically.

Front 91

According to Milankovitch, which of the following is a contributing factor to ice-age cycles?

Back 91

variations in the shape of Earth's orbit

Front 92

Continental ice sheets today are found only in

Back 92

Antarctica and Greenland.

Front 93

Snow that has lost much of its air and has turned into packed, granular material is called

Back 93

firn.

Front 94

Varieties of moraines..

Back 94

Terminal

recessional

medial

lateral

Front 95

Large boulders carried long distances by glaciers and dumped where they obviously don’t belong are called..

Back 95

erratics.

Front 96

Glaciers grind down the rock they move over, producing a fine material called rock

Back 96

flour.

Front 97

Which termhas nothing to do with glaciers?

Back 97

lag deposits

Front 98

Glaciers canmove by..

Back 98

basal sliding on water underneath them.

Front 99

A medialmoraine forms when

Back 99

two glaciers join and their lateral moraines merge.

Front 100

TheAntarctic ice sheet has been calving off..

Back 100

huge icebergs over the last few decades.

Front 101

The meltingof ice sheets at the end of the Pleistocene caused

Back 101

glacial rebound in northern Canada.

Front 102

Which of the following climate conditions would most likely allow glaciers to form?

Back 102

a heavy snowfall in winter coupled with relatively cool summers

Front 103

Glaciers can grow smaller by

Back 103

melting, sublimation, or calving.

Front 104

Which statement below explains why the ‘conveyor belt’ analogy of a glacier is misleading?

Back 104

The conveyor belt shown above receives material at only point, whereas the glacier receives additional material along its entire length.

Front 105

Contributing factors to the onset of major ice ages?

(not- a high concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.)

Back 105

many continents located at high latitudes.

most continents sitting well above sea level.

a disruption of warm-water ocean currents flowing northward.

mountain ranges that promote cold temperatures and heavy precipitation in large areas.

Front 106

Milankovitch

Back 106

predicted climate cycles that have since been confirmed and named in his honor.

stated that there are cyclical changes in Earth’s orbit and axial tilt.

stated that there are changes in the amount and distribution of insolation received on Earth.

offered ideas that explain the timing of ice age events but not the severity of temperature change associated with ice ages.

Front 107

The snowline is higher at the equator than

Back 107

it is at 45° N latitude.

Front 108

Louis Agassiz correctly interpreted the presence of

Back 108

erratics as evidence that great ice sheets once covered much of Europe.

Front 109

Yosemiteowes its spectacular scenery to..

Back 109

glacial carving of a granite batholith.

Front 110

GPS readings confirm that regions of North America north of the Great Lakes are..

Regions south of this line are..

Back 110

rising due to glacial rebound.

sinking to compensate for the rebound.

Front 111

FALSE

Back 111

Regions covered by glacial ice are termed periglacial environments.

Valley glaciers whose terminuses extend into the sea are called fjord glaciers.

Front 112

Which of the following changes is NOT a unidirectional change?

Back 112

Small continents merged to become a supercontinent.

Front 113

Which of the following elements is released into the atmosphere by all of these processes: volcanic outgassing, animal respiration and flatulence, burning of fossil fuels, and metamorphism of limestone?

Back 113

carbon

Front 114

Earth'satmosphere is becoming more acidic because of

Back 114

the sulfur-containing aerosols from fossil-fuel power plants.

Front 115

Sea-level changes

Back 115

are reflected by blankets of sediment called sedimentary sequences.

have been recorded on the sedimentary cycle chart.

are termed eustatic if they are worldwide changes.

have been as great as 300 m during the Phanerozoic eon.

Front 116

The hydrologic cycle is a..

Back 116

biogeochemical cycle- involving both physical and biological phenomena.

Front 117

stuff..

(not- Nitrogenisotopes within air bubbles in old ice can be studied to determine pasttemperatures.)

Back 117

The oxygen-isotope ratios of ancient glacial ice indicate the atmospheric temperature of the snowfall that created the ice.

The sunspot cycle is a cyclical rise and fall of the number of magnetic storms on the Sun and is associated with increased and decreased solar radiation received by Earth.

Ice-house periods are long periods of time when Earth’s atmosphere was significantly cooler than it is now.

Ice ages were times during ice-house periods when Earth was cold enough to allow ice sheets to cover much land surface.

Front 118

Mass extinction

(not- of dinosaurs occurred at the Permian-Triassic boundary.)

Back 118

events are times in Earth’s history when large numbers of species abruptly vanished.

events may reflect catastrophic changes in Earth’s climate.

may happen when a comet or asteroid impact starts a chain of events that block sunlight for weeks or even years.

happened 65 million years ago and was probably caused by an asteroid impact.

Front 119

Anthropogenic (human-induced) changes in the Earth system

(not- are decreasing as technology leads to more environmentally friendly practices.)

Back 119

include landscape modifications resulting from construction, mining, and farming.

include the pollution of air and water.

include global warming, which is greatly enhanced by society’s production of greenhouse gases.

have affected the ecosystems of regions by deforestation, overgrazing, agriculture, and urbanization.

Front 120

Human population

Back 120

has become a significant agent of global change.

reached one billion in 1850.

is currently a little over six billion.

is doubling every forty-four years.

Front 121

stuff..

(not - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has ruled that all future research use the one computer climate model they have concluded is the best.)

Back 121

The worst-case scenario predicts that if global warming continues at its present rate, by 2050 the average annual temperature will have increased by 1.5 to 2°C.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased in the last century.

Few climate scientists believe that current temperature rises are entirely due to natural cycles of short-term climate change.

Global warming issues are emotional topics that are pitting corporations against environmentalists.

Front 122

stuff..

(not - Shallow seas cannot ever again cover continental interiors because there has been enough sediment deposition to raise the average land surface high enough to prevent this)

Back 122

The near-term future of the world depends heavily on human activities.

Plate tectonics movements will alter the global map significantly over the coming millions of years.

Scientists believe that five billion years from now, the Sun will begin to collapse, then swell to encompass the Earth.

Asteroid and comet collisions have happened in Earth’s past; no doubt they’ll happen again and have devastating effects.

Front 123

stuff-

(not- The two major factors determining Earth’s temperature are the Earth-Sun distance and the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere.)

Back 123

The Goldilocks Effect compares the Earth’s temperature to Baby Bear’s porridge; it’s not too hot, it’s not too cold, it’s just right.

Liquid water serves as a reservoir to hold carbon dioxide that’s been removed from the atmosphere.

Natural processes on Earth cause carbon dioxide to cycle through limestone, coal, several chemical-weathering reactions, and the atmosphere.

Too much carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere could make us as hot as Venus; greater Earth-Sun distance might make us as cold and lifeless as Mars

Front 124

If significant global warming happens, the consequence would be

(not- a shift in climate belts, with temperate climates moving to lower latitudes.)

Back 124

stronger storms and increased flooding.

a rise in sea level due to melting ice.

an increase in the frequency of wildfires because vegetation would be so dry.

an interruption of ocean currents and the heat transfer they accomplish.

Front 125

Ozone depletionhappens in

Back 125

high-latitude regions, particularly the Antarctic

Front 126

Useful in determining paleoclimates..

Back 126

Studies of air bubbles and oxygen-isotope ratios in glacial ice

fossil pollen

tree rings

the stratigraphic record

Front 127

Another ice age would change sea level far more than..

Back 127

global warming would change it.

Front 128

Earth’s early atmosphere contained

Back 128

far more CO2 and far less nitrogen

compared to its modern composition.

Front 129

One effectof global warming may be a

Back 129

halt to the global thermohaline circulation of ocean currents.

Front 130

Currently,

Back 130

large ice shelves are breaking up,

the Greenland ice sheet is melting,

sea ice has decreased substantially,

valley glaciers worldwide are retreating,

and the area of permafrost has substantially decreased.

Front 131

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states unarguably in its 2007 report that

Back 131

Earth’s climate system is warming, and it states with very high confidence that human activities have contributed significantly to the warming.

Front 132

FALSE

Back 132

Methane, carbon dioxide, and several trace gases (including water) are all greenhouse gases that cause the atmosphere to cool by reflecting large amounts of solar energy back into space.
Volcanic eruptions typically contribute to global warming by increasing the aerosol content of the atmosphere.