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midterm study ch 1 - 7

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Question
Answer
Which group of minerals are the most abundant in the Earth's crust   silicates  
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The texture of an igneous rock ________.   records the rock's cooling history  
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Metamorphism is commonly associated with mountain building   True  
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In the silicon-oxygen tetrahedron there are more silicon atoms than oxygen atoms   False  
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Atoms of the same element, zinc for example, have the same number of   protons in the nucleus  
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Which one of the following is NOT true about mechanical weathering   does not affect metamorphic rocks  
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All silicate minerals contain which two elements   silicon, oxygen  
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Quartz is quite resistant to weathering and is an important component of sands in riverbeds and on beaches   True  
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Isotopes of the same element have the same mass number   False  
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The most abundant chemical sedimentary rock is   limestone  
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The strong tendency of certain minerals to break along smooth, parallel planes is known as   cleavage  
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________ is a strong, parallel alignment of different mineral bands in a metamorphic rock   Foliation  
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As the rate of cooling increases, the size of the crystals that form   decreases  
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Which pair of minerals is most common in detrital sedimentary rocks   clay and quartz  
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All atoms of the same element have the same atomic number   True  
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Most limestone has a biochemical origin   True  
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The primary agent of contact metamorphism is   heat  
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Evaporites have a biochemical origin   false  
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Most minerals have a higher specific gravity than water   True  
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Which of the following best defines a mineral and a rock   in a mineral the constituent atoms are bonded in a regular, repetitive, internal structure; a rock is a lithified or consolidated aggregate of different mineral grains  
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The most unreliable (variable) diagnostic property of minerals such as quartz is   color  
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Rocks are aggregates of one or more minerals   True  
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An atom's mass number is 13 and its atomic number is 6. How many neutrons are in its nucleus   7  
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Which of the following is NOT one of the eight most common elements in Earth's crust   carbon  
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Detrital sedimentary rocks are classified (named) primarily on the basis of   particle size  
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Olivine and quartz are commonly found together in the same rock   False  
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Which of the following minerals is a silicate   feldspar  
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Which the following denotes the positively charged particles in an atom's nucleus   protons  
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Which one of the following is not true for minerals   they can be a liquid, solid, or glass  
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A mineral can be composed entirely of one element   True  
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All atoms of the same element have the same atomic number   True  
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Atoms that have an electrical charge due to a gain or loss of electrons are called   ions  
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Which of the following best describes bedded gypsum and rock salt   evaporites; chemical, sedimentary rocks  
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Detrital sediments would predominate in all of the following environments except   salt flat  
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Which of the following is correct for isotopes of the same element   the atoms have different numbers of neutrons and the same number of protons  
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Metamorphism can affect only sedimentary rocks   False  
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Glassy igneous rocks form when magma cools so slowly that mineral crystals cannot grow   False  
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The resistance of a mineral to abrasion is known as   hardness  
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One magma can produce several different igneous rocks having different mineral compositions   True  
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All minerals exhibit cleavage   False  
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Select the coarse-grained rock which is composed mainly of quartz and potassium feldspar from the list below   granite  
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This igneous texture is characterized by two distinctively different crystal sizes   porphyritic  
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What element is the most abundant in the Earth's crust by weight   oxygen  
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Which one of the following is an igneous rock   rhyolite  
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Electrically neutral atoms have equal numbers of electrons and protons   True  
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The ion at the center of a silicon-oxygen tetrahedron is surrounded by   4 oxygen ions  
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Discharge is an important concept. What statement best describes stream discharge   It's a measure of how much water is moving past a certain location along the stream each second  
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Which part of a stream flows the fastest   Near the top  
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If an object at the top of a stream traveled 5.0 meters in 12 seconds, what would be its velocity   0.42 m/s  
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At what depth should a velocity sensor be placed to estimate a stream's average velocity if it is 12.5 meters deep   7.5 meters  
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Calcualte the discharge of a stream with a width of 8.8 meters, a depth of 0.75 meters and an average velocity of 0.13 m/s to two decimal places   0.86 cu m/s  
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How many cubic meters are there in one cubic foot   0.0283  
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The source of heat for most hot springs is hot igneous material beneath the surface   True  
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More water is evaporated from the ocean than is returned to the ocean by precipitation   True  
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Loess consists mainly of silt-sized particles   True  
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A(n) ________ is likely to host a waterfall or steep rapids today   hanging valley  
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A fiord is a   drowned glacial trough  
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________ is an irregular, usually thin till layer laid down by a retreating glacier   Ground moraine  
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Point bars are depositional features located along the outer banks of meander bends   False  
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Steppes are the driest of the true desert lands   False  
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Which of the following best describes how geysers erupt   with a slight reduction in pressure, water in a saturated, natural conduit suddenly boils, sending a plume of steam and hot water into the air above the vent  
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A ________ cross-valley profile is typical of canyons and valleys eroded and deepened by alpine or valley glaciers   U-shaped  
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Drumlins are   not found singly, but in clusters  
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At the head of a delta, the major channel splits into smaller channels that follow different paths to the sea. These smaller channels are known as   distributaries  
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A cirque represents an erosional feature formed in what was an important accumulation zone for snow and ice at the upstream head of a glacier   True  
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As its name implies, the water table is always very level (flat)   False  
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Loose, undisturbed particles assume a stable slope called the angle of repose   True  
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When water is pumped from a well, a depression is often produced in the water table. Such a depression is a(n)   cone of depression  
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At a bend in a river, the main erosion is   on the outside of the bend  
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A ________ forms when a block of ice is buried in drift and subsequently melts creating a pit   kettle  
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Which one of the following is NOT true of glaciers   exist only in the Northern Hemisphere  
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________ is one of the two, major flow mechanisms in a glacier   Basal slip  
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A(n) ________ represents a former meltwater channel or tunnel in glacial ice that was filled with sand and gravel   esker  
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The single most important erosional agent is   running water  
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A broad accumulation of stratified drift deposited adjacent to the downstream edge of an end moraine is a   outwash plain  
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Which one of the following concerning artesian wells is NOT true   when the well penetrates the aquifer, the water rises in the well to the bottom of the overlying aquitard  
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________ are characteristics of downcutting streams and a youthful stage of valley evolution   Rapids and lots of whitewater  
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Gravity plays an important role in all mass wasting events   True  
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The water table is   a boundary between saturated rock below and unsaturated rock above  
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Where is the world's largest ice sheet located today   Antarctica  
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The transfer of rock material down slope under the influence of gravity is termed   mass wasting  
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Desert pavement is the result of   deflation  
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Which one of the following applies to a valley glacier that lengthens (extends its terminus downslope) over a period of many years   accumulation exceeds wastage  
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Abrasion and plucking generally involve what part of a glacier   the basal, sliding zone  
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Running water is not an important erosional agent in deserts because rainfall is infrequent   False  
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Fiords are found exclusively along the coast of Norway   False  
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Blowouts are broad, shallow depressions excavated by deflation   True  
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If you were to examine the longitudinal profile of a typical river, you would probably find that the gradient is   steepest near the head  
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________ is not part of the water cycle   Calcium carbonate dissolving in soil water and groundwater  
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One environmental problem associated with groundwater is land subsidence caused by withdrawal   True  
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Which of the following features characterize wide streams and valleys   natural levees; broad floodplains  
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Moraines are the only glacial deposits composed of till   False  
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Alluvium refers to stream deposits, mainly sand and gravel   True  
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Rapid surge movements of the Earth's tectonic plates offer a convincing explanation for the advances and retreats of the Pleistocene ice sheets   False  
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Desert and steppe lands cover about what percentage of Earth's land area   30%  
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The formation of stalactites and stalagmites occurs in the zone of saturation   False  
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A ________ stream pattern is developed only on growing mountains like volcanoes or where the land surface is tectonically doming upward   radial  
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The term "drift"   means any sediments of glacial origin  
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The controlling force of mass wasting is   gravity  
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________ generally constitutes the highest percentage of the annual sediment load moved by a stream   Suspended load  
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Glacial melting and calving occur in the zone of wastage   True  
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Earth's radius and surface area are slowly increasing to accommodate the new oceanic crust being formed at mid-ocean ridges   False  
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Which of the following energy sources is thought to drive the lateral motions of Earth's lithospheric plates   export of heat from deep in the mantle to the top of the asthenosphere  
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Seafloor spreading rates can be estimated if the geologic ages of the magnetic field reversals are independently known   True  
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________ most effectively outline the edges of the lithospheric plates   Lines of earthquake epicenters  
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The oldest rocks of the oceanic crust are found in deep ocean trenches far away from active, mid-ocean ridges   True  
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The temperature below which magnetic material can retain a permanent magnetization is called the   Curie point  
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An extensive, late Paleozoic glaciation affected southern India, southern Africa and southeastern South America   True  
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________ was an ancient reptile that lived in South America and Africa during the late Paleozoic   Mesosaurus  
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Cooler, older, oceanic lithosphere sink into the mantle at   subduction zones along convergent plate boundaries  
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The modern-day Red Sea is explained by plate tectonics theory because it is   a rift zone that may eventually open into a major ocean if Arabia and Africa continue to separate  
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Which of the following statements apply to the asthenosphere, but not the lithosphere   zone in the upper mantle that deforms by plastic flowage  
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In general, rocks of the oceanic crust are less dense than rocks of the continental crust   False  
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________ was never proposed as evidence supporting the existence of Pangaea   Islands of Precambrian rocks along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge  
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The volcanoes of Hawaii are localized above a deep mantle hot spot; they are not part of the East Pacific oceanic ridge   True  
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The rate of seafloor spreading is, on the average, about one meter per year   False  
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The ________ is an example of an active, continent-continent collision   northward movement of India into Eurasia  
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Pull-apart, rift zones are generally associated with a ________ plate boundary   divergent  
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A transform plate boundary is characterized by ________   a deep, vertical fault along which two plates slide past one another in opposite directions  
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Which of the following paleoclimatic evidence supports the idea of the late Paleozoic super continent in the Southern Hemisphere?   tillites (rocks formed by glaciers) in South Africa and South America  
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A very long-lived magma source located deep in the mantle is called a   hot spot  
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In the early part of the 20th century, ________ argued forcefully for continental drift   Alfred Wegener  
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Hawaii is the oldest island of the Hawaiian Island chain   False  
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The continental drift hypothesis was rejected primarily because Alfred Wegener could not   identify a mechanism capable of moving continents  
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Where would you drill to recover samples of the oldest basalts of the oceanic crust, which are Jurassic in age   oceanic side of the Aleutian trench  
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During various times in the geologic past, the polarity of Earth's magnetic field has been reversed   True  
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The lithosphere is defined as   a rigid layer of crustal and mantle material  
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Which of the following combinations should favor folding rather than faulting   high temperature and high confining pressure  
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The ________ in California is the boundary between the North American and Pacific plates   San Andreas strike-slip fault  
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Most of our knowledge about Earth's interior comes from   seismic waves  
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In a reverse fault, the hanging wall block moves up relative to the footwall block   True  
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A horst is ________   an uplifted block bounded by two normal faults  
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Basin and range topography, like that in the western and southwestern United States, indicates that compressive folding is active today or was active very recently, geologically speaking   False  
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Which one of the following statements about the crust is NOT true   oceanic crust is enriched in potassium, sodium, and silicon  
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Oceanic crust is generally thicker than continental crust   False  
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Brittle deformation would be favored over plastic deformation in which of the following conditions   cooler temperatures  
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The Richter magnitude of an earthquake is based on the   amplitude of the largest seismic wave recorded  
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The record of an earthquake obtained from a seismic instrument is a(n)   seismogram  
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S waves can travel through solid and liquid media   False  
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On a seismogram, ________ will show the highest amplitudes   surface waves  
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In a ________ fault, the hanging wall block moves up with respect to the footwall block   reverse  
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The Mercalli Scale is a scale from   I to XII that rates the structural damage due to an earthquake  
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Large circular downwarped structures are called   basins  
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The mechanism by which rocks store and eventually release energy in the form of an earthquake is termed   elastic rebound  
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The ________ earthquake was accompanied by extensive fire damage   San Francisco, 1906  
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The Black Hills of South Dakota are a good example of a(n)   dome  
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Approximately how much more energy is released in a 6.5 Richter magnitude earthquake than in one with magnitude 5.5   30 times  
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Accretionary wedges develop along subduction zones where sediments and other rocks are scraped off a descending plate and piled against the leading edge of the overriding plate   True  
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The ________ is (are) characterized by terrane accretion that has been active throughout most of Mesozoic and Cenozoic time   western margin of North America  
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The asthenosphere is located ________   in the upper mantle  
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A ________ is a near surface, intrusive, igneous rock body that results from local inflation of a horizontal sill   laccolith  
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Most of the stratovolcanoes on Earth are located in a belt known as the   Ring of Fire  
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The largest igneous intrusive body is called a(n)   batholiths  
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Volcanism along divergent plate boundaries where seafloor spreading is occurring produces rocks which are   basaltic in composition  
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Which of the following is associated with deep mantle hot spots   the volcanoes of Hawaii and Quaternary activity in Yellowstone National Park  
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In general, cinder cones are much larger than shield volcanoes   False  
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Which type of basaltic lava flow has its surface covered with sharp-edged, angular blocks and rubble   aa  
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The most violent volcanic activity is associated with   composite cones  
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The active Hawaiian volcanoes are situated directly above a major boundary between two of the Earth's largest tectonic plates   False  
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________ is a major dissolved constituent in both magmas and volcanic gases   Water vapor  
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Kilauea is an example of a   shield volcano  
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The recent (geologically) volcanic activity in Yellowstone National Park is   related to intraplate, hot spot volcanism  
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What volcanic events formed Crater Lake, OR? When did they take place   caldera collapse followed major ash and pyroclastic-flow eruptions; 7000 years ago  
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Vents that emit only heated, volcanic gases are called fumaroles   True  
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A ________ volcano is a very large, gently sloping mound composed mainly of basaltic lava flows   shield  
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Ash and lapilli are different sized pyroclastic particles   True  
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Which of the following statements best describes the big Hawaiian volcanoes   are situated in the interior of a large, Pacific plate above a hot spot deep in the mantle  
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Which type of basaltic lava flow has a fairly smooth, unfragmented, ropy surface   pahoehoe  
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Kilauea and Mauna Loa are ________   basaltic shield volcanoes  
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Magma generation at depth almost always involves partial melting, not complete melting of the source rock   True  
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Small amounts of water can lower partial melting temperatures in silicate rocks   True  
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____ tend to increase the explosive potential of a magma body beneath a volcano   high viscosity and dissolved gas  
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Paricutin is an example of   a cinder cone  
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________ destroyed the city of St. Pierre, Martinique in 1902   A nueĆ© ardent  
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Repeated eruptions of relatively fluid lava from fissures can eventually cause an area to be covered by flood basalts   True  
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The ________ is the idea or concept that ancient life forms succeeded each other in a definite, evolutionary pattern and that the contained assemblage of fossils can determine geologic ages of strata   principle of fossil succession  
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Who is credited with formulating the doctrine of uniformitarianism   Hutton  
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Which of the following describes radioactive decay by beta particle emission   the atomic number of the daughter isotope is one more than the parent; the mass numbers are the same  
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After three half-lives, one-ninth of an original, radioactive, parent isotope remains and eight-ninths has decayed into the daughter isotope   False  
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Which of the following is not a very long-lived, radioactive isotope   C-14  
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When a radioactive isotope decays by electron capture, the electron ________   combines with a proton in the nucleus; the atomic number of the daughter is one less than the parent  
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What fundamental concept states that in a horizontal sequence of conformable sedimentary strata, each higher bed is younger than the bed below it   law of superposition  
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Sandstone strata and a mass of granite are observed to be in contact. Which of the following statements is correct geologically   the granite is older if the sandstone contains pebbles of the granite  
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The half-life of carbon-14 is about 6000 years. Assume that a sample of charcoal formed by burning of living wood 15,000 years ago. How much of the original carbon-14 would remain today   between one-fourth and one-eighth  
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Which of the following is an essential characteristic of an index fossil   the organism only lived for a short period of geologic time  
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About 88 percent of geologic time is represented by the time span called the   Precambrian  
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Correlation of rock units between continents or widely separated areas is accomplished by using physical features such as color, texture, and thickness of units   False  
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When a beta particle is emitted, the mass number of the isotope remains unchanged   True  
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A worm would stand a poor chance of being fossilized because   worms have no hard parts  
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What is the age of the Earth accepted by most scientists today   4.5 billion years  
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The percentage of radioactive isotope remaining in a rock sample is 40%. How many half-lives have elapsed since the material was 100% parent atoms?   between l and 2  
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________ is an erosional contact between tilted, older strata below and horizontal, younger strata above   An angular unconformity  
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Visualize five, horizontal, sedimentary strata exposed in a cliff or canyon wall identified by consecutive numbers, 1 being the lowest bed and 5 being the highest. Which of the following statements concerning the strata are true   beds l and 3 are older than bed 4  
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Which of the following geologic observations would not bear directly on working out the sequence of geologic events in an area   the feldspar and quartz contents of a granite  
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Radiometric dating means placing events in their proper sequence   False  
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The geologic time scale was devised before numerical dating using radioactivity was invented   True  
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Assume that you have just examined several flat-lying sedimentary layers. After much study you determine that there is a considerable span of time for which no sedimentary rock layer exists at this site. You have just discovered a(n)   disconformity  
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By applying the law of superposition ________ dates can be determined   relative.  
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What of the following refers to the investigative process by which geologists identify and match sedimentary strata and other rocks of the same ages in different areas   correlation.  
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An unconformity is a buried   surface of erosion separating younger strata above from older strata below.  
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