Midterm 2 - questions 1. During sediment transport in either water or wind medium, detrital grains tend to become: A.

massive, juxtaposed, layered B. agglutinated, dissolved, compacted C. sorted, smaller, rounded C. oxidized, reduced, dissolved 2. A non-conformity is: A. a rock unit that is different than units above or below it B. a gap in the geologic record bounded below by metamorphic rocks and bounded above by sedimentary rocks C. a rock that does not contain fossils D. a sequence of tocks that does not contain any gaps in the geological record 3. Numerical dating refers on a parent elements half life defined as: A. the time required for a daughter isotope to lose half of its radioactive nucleus B. the time required for all the parent to decay to a daughter isotope C. the time required for half of the radioactive nuclei in a sample to decay D. the time required to count half of the fossils in a rock 4. A fault plane north-south is dipping (angled steeply to the east). Geologists observations indicated that most of the fault movement was vertical and that young rocks occur east of the fault and old rocks occur west of the fault. What type of fault is this: A. transform fault B. normal fault C. reverse fault D. none of the above 5. Most coal mining occurs in basins within mountain belts. Which of the following statements about crustal-scale sedimentary basins is true: A. oldest rocks occur in the center and the beds tilt toward the center B. oldest rock occur in the center and the beds tilt away from the center C. youngest rocks occur in the center and the beds tilt toward the center D. youngest rocks occur in the center and the beds tilt away from the center 6. Why does the mid-ocean ridge (along plate spreading centers) have elevated topography relative to the sea floor: A. B. C. D. thicker oceanic sediments thicker oceanic lithosphere thermal buoyancy compressive forces causing uplift

Use the crustal cross-section below for next 7 questions:

7. A. B. C. D. 8. A. B. C. D.

Point A is called the earthquake: hypocenter epicenter seismometer wave front Point B, where the slip initiated during an earthquake, is called: hypocenter epicenter seismometer wave front

9. What type of faulting is illustrated in the diagram above? A. B. C. D. normal fault reverse fault transform fault thrust fault

10. What type of plate boundary commonly displays this fault style? A. divergence B. convergence C. transform D. all of the above 11. What type of tectonic stress is exhibited by this fault: A. B. C. D. extension rotation compression none, conservation of stress

12. List the correct order in which seismic waves will arrive at point A: A. B. C. D. S waves P waves surface waves Suface waves P waves S waves P waves surface waves S waves P waves S waves surface waves

13. How is stress different than strain? Stress is the pressure/area, where as strain measures elongation of a material m/m unitless Geological drawing: unit J is an igneous rock unit, the rest are all sedimentary layers:

14. Which of the following events happened most recently, and WHY A. folding of F, G, H B. tilting of C, D, E C. faulting of C, D, E D. cannot tell from the information given 15. Which of the following events happened most recently and WHY A. B. C. D. intrusion of J erosion along X-X faulting of C, D, E cannot tell from the information given

16. Which of the following units is the oldest and WHY A. B. C. D. unit A unit J unit H cannot tell from the information given

17. Which of the following units is the youngest and WHY A. B. C. D. unit A unit J unit H cannot tell from the information given

18. What type of fault is present and why? A. reverse B. normal C. transform D. cannot tell from the information given

19. Units F, G, H are deformed into which structure, and what type of force forms this structure: A. anticline B. syncline C. headcline D. cannot tell from the information given 20. The wavy, horizontal line labeled X X is a ____ and why nonconformity angular conformity disconformity conformable bed 21. If this section of rock were to be correlated to another section of rock located on another continent, which principle could be applied? A. B. C. D. uniformitarianism fossil succession superposition cross-cutting relationship

A. B. C. D.

22. Because of gravitational instability, old, dense, oceanic lithosphere is consumed at: A. B. C. D. convergent plate boundaries divergent plate boundaries transform plate boundaries all of the above 23. Which of the following statements about the asthenosphere is false: A. it lies beneath the lithosphere B. it is stronger than the lithosphere C. it rises close to the surface beneath mid-ocean ridges

D. it is partially molten

24. Which of the following statements is not an assumption of numerical dating: A. B. C. D. rock has remained a closed system when the rock formed it contained only parent isotope rate of radioactive decay has decreased through time daughter products are trapped in the rock after decay 25. Why do tectonic plates move: A. B. C. D. random drifting of continental crust on molten magma drag of the plates by push-pull forces electromagnetic pulses radiating from core solar winds

26. Directed pressure during high temperature metamorphism results in a rock containing: A. mineral cleavage B. minerals aligned as foliation C. randomly oriented minerals D. equant, interlocking minerals 26. A sample of basalt has deformed brittely during a laboratory experiment. If we wish our next sample of basalt to deform plastically rather than brittely, we should conduct our next experiment at: A. higher temperatures and lower confining pressures B. higher temperatures and higher confining pressures C. lower temperatures and lower confining pressures D. lower temperatures and higher confining pressures

2. The travel time difference between the arrival of the P and S waves can be used to determine: A. B. C. D. distance to the earthquake location of the earthquake magnitude of the earthquake type of faulting that occurred during the earthquake

3. What is the minimum number of seismographs needed to locate the epicenter of an earthquake:

A. B. C. D.

1 2 3 4

4. In C-14 geochronology, Carbon-14 is produced by: A. B. C. D. radioactive decay of Uranium 235 in the mineral cosmic ray bombardment of Nitrogen-14 in the atmosphere transpiration of lichen sunspots

5. In plate tectonics, slab-pull is defined as: A. movement of thermal convection cells producing drag on overlying plates B. movement of crust into mantle imparted by down-going slab during subduction C. movement of astenosphere due to convection in the mantle D. movement of crust resulting from elevated position of oceanic ridge system causing crust to gravitationally slide down flanks of ridge 6. The study of faunal succession allows: A. B. C. D. matching of similarly-aged rocks from different outcrops absolute dating of fossil-bearing strata correlation of fossils with mammals of today the study of habitats of extinct mammals

7. How do rock particles move during passage of a P wave through the rock? A. back and forth parallel to the direction of wave travel B. back and forth at right angles to the direction of wave travel C. in a rolling elliptical motion D. in a rolling circular motion 34. Metamorphism occurs: A. B. C. D. adjacent to igneous intrusions during burial at subductions zones all of the above 35. The 3 factors which control sand dune formation: A. wind direction, wind supply, dry climate B. wind strength, sand supply, vegetation C. wind direction, sand supply, soil depth

D. wind strength , sand supply, dry climate

36. Define the main characteristics of plate tectonics. Main characteristics of plate tectonics: - brittle litosphereic plates - ductile aestnosphere - collision of plates convergent event - moving apart divergence event - slip past each other transform boundary 37. What are arguably the 2 largest geodynamic forces that cause tectonic plates to move? E. Slap push and slab pull F. Mantle convection. Rising and sinking action of mantle generates currents which put plats in motion. They float on a ductile astenosphere 34. What are the 4 factors, which control the breakdown of rock? G. Parent rock, climate + precipitation, wheter rock is covered by soil, time 34. Why is there usually a calcite (limestone) build-up problem on water heaters? H. Calcite solubility decreases as water temperature increases. Solubility of CO2 is inversely proportionally with temperature but directly proportionally to calcite solubility. Thus when solubility of CO2 decreases, it causes the solubility of calcite to decrease as well and thus calcite precipitates out.