Dynamic Earth Sample Sample Questions
Appropriate sample questions will be posted closer to test time
[remind me if they aren't here about a week before the test!]. This
will just be a sampling of questions similar to those on the test; some may even
appear on the test! The tests will be comprised of
multiple-choice and true-false questions.
Dynamic Earth Study Guide
This may be modified as we
go along, so continue to check here. E-mail
me or call
me or stop by if you have questions
These questions are designed to help you study for the class
(oh, alright, for the tests) by letting you know what I think
you should know. If you
can answer the questions below in a reasonably complete manner,
then you would probably be able to answer test questions derived
from them. However, this list is not all-inclusive, meaning I might ask questions
on the test which are not derived from any of these questions.
This is especially true of questions based on videos, outside readings, exercises, items in the news, etc.
Questions marked in red are over material on the
upcoming test. Links (like Introduction
) link to the notes for that section.
- What is geology?
- What are some of the reasons for studying geology (besides
fulfilling a general education requirement at OU!)?
- Who pays for (employs) geologists?
- What observations did Hutton make that lead him to believe
that the Earth was older than biblical texts suggested and that
vast amounts of time were required to explain the Earth's history?
- What is an unconformity? angular unconformity? disconformity?
nonconformity?
- Why was the recognition of an angular unconformity so important
to Hutton?
- What is uniformitarianism? Who "invented" it? What
group supported this idea?
- What is catastrophism? What group supported this idea?
- How do the following enable history to be inferred from the
rocks? superposition; original horizontality; cross-cutting relationships
- What is meant by correlation and in what ways can rocks be
correlated from one place to another?
- Why can fossils be used as time markers and used in correlation?
- What is an index fossil, a fossil assemblage?
- What is meant by faunal succession?
- If (for example) Cambrian rocks were first recognized and
documented in Wales how can you identify Cambrian rocks in North
America or Russia?
- What is the difference between relative time and absolute
time?
- How are relative time and absolute dates combined?
- Be able to analyze the geologic history shown in block diagrams
like the one we did in class
- Know the names and order of all eons and eras, and all periods
and epochs of the Phanerozoic (see Geologic
Time Scale Mnemonics for help!)
- Know the ages of Earth; Hadean/Archaean boundary; Archaean/Proterozoic
boundary; Proterozoic/Phanerozoic boundary; Paleozoic/Mesozoic
boundary; Mesozoic/Cenozoic boundary
- Be able to answer questions like: Which of these is the K/T
(Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary)? How old are the oldest rocks?
What was the age of mammals? reptiles? amphibians? fishes? invertebrates?
When did the first organisms with shells appear?
- What does the shape of the Earth tell us about the rigidity
("solidness") of the Earth?
- Contrast continental crust with oceanic crust with regard
to elevation, rock color (light or dark), rock density (light
or dense), rock composition (Si, Al vs. Fe, Mg).
- What are the four major layers in the earth distinguishable
from P and S wave travel-time information?
- What is the Moho?
- What is the lithosphere/asthenosphere boundary? Is it a sharp,
compositional boundary? What makes lithospheric mantle different
from asthenospheric mantle (besides depth!)?
- What makes up a plate?
- Who was the "father" of continental drift?
- What were the main lines of evidence for continental drift?
- What was the name of the super-continent, existing 200 Ma
ago, comprised of all the present-day continents? What two semi-super-continents
did it originally break into?
- About how many large plates are there?
- What are the three types of plate boundaries and what is
the sense of relative motion for each?
- What is an element?
- What two elements make up most of the universe?
- What four elements make up most of Earth?
- What is an atom? What are its three main parts?
- What is an ion? a neutral atom?
- What is atomic number? atomic weight? mass number?
- Understand the terms radioactivity, stable, unstable, half-life,
parent isotope and daughter isotope and how it applies to how
radiometric dating works.
- Why is Carbon-14 limited to dating young rocks? How young?
- Why is Uranium-235 good for dating very old rocks but not
so useful for very young rocks?
- What are the three main types of atomic bonding and how do
they work? What kinds of elements do they bond?
- Which is the most common type of bonding among minerals?
- Know an example of a mineral that exhibits each of these
types of bonding?
- What is a mineral? What is not a mineral?
- About how many minerals are there?
- What are some important physical properties of minerals?
- What does polymorph mean? Give two examples.
- What two nonmetals make up most of the crust?
- What six metals are also important?
- What are the nine main mineral groups? Which is the largest
and most important? Why?
- What structures do silicate minerals make?
- What is ferromagnesian and nonferromagnesian?
- What is a rock?
- What are the three main rock types? How do they form?
- What is the rock cycle? Who "invented" it?
- What is an igneous rock?
- How are igneous rocks classified?
- What does texture say about origin?
- What is porphyritic? vesicular? pyroclastic?
- How can more than one type of rock form from one magma?
- What is fractional crystallization? partial melting?
- What is Bowen's reaction series?
- In what order do the minerals crystallize, and what rocks
do they form?
- What are the seven major rock types?
- Where (what settings) are each of the rock types found?
- What are the main intrusive rock structures?
- What two things primarily control the physical property of
magma?
- What are the physical properties of granitic, andesitic and
basaltic magmas?
- What are the three common forms of lava flows?
- Why is degassing during volcanic activity important?
- What are the three main types of volcanoes?
- Where (what settings) are each found? Know a specific example
of each.
- In what two ways does mantle melt and where does each occur?
- What are the differences between weathering, erosion, transport
and mass wasting?
- What is mechanical weathering?
- What are the most important mechanisms of mechanical weathering?
- What is chemical weathering?
- What are the most important mechanisms of chemical weathering?
- How does weathering relate to Bowen's Reaction Series, and
why?
- What are soil, regolith?
- What is soil made up of?
- What are residual and transported soils?
- What are the soil horizons and how are they formed?
- What are the main soil types?
- What climates and conditions produce them?
- What economical impact do these soils have?
- What is the definition of a sedimentary rock?
- Why are they important?
- What are the two main groups of sedimentary rocks?
- How are detrital (clastic) sedimentary rocks classified?
- Know the particles, size range and sediment that comprise
the main clastic sedimentary rock types.
- What minerals are most common in sedimentary rocks, and where
are they (ultimately) derived from?
- What is Stoke's settling law and how does it affect clastic
rock type?
- What are important facts about shale, sandstone, conglomerate?
- How do chemical sedimentary rocks form?
- What is thought to aid in the formation of most chemical
sedimentary rocks?
- What are the main elements (ions) involved?
- What are the most important chemical sedimentary rocks?
- What are important facts about limestone, dolomite, chert, evaporites?
- What is lithification and what are the main mechanisms for
various rock types?
- What are metamorphic rocks?
- What are some exceptions to the definition?
- What are the agents of metamorphism?
- How does metamorphism affect the texture of metamorphic rocks?
- What are the two main textures of metamorphic rocks?
- What are the primary foliated metamorphic rock types, in
order of metamorphic grade?
- What are the primary non-foliated metamorphic rocks?
- What is LeChatelier's principle?
- What are the more important metamorphic rock types, their
parent rock, and characteristics?
- What are some of the important metamorphic minerals?
- What are the three most important settings in which metamorphic
rocks form?
- What are metamorphic facies? index minerals?
- What is the definition of mass wasting?
- What factors contribute to mass wasting?
- What types of mass wasting occur by rapid movements?
- What types of mass wasting occur by medium speed movements?
- What types of mass wasting occur by slow movement?
- Rank oceans, glaciers, groundwater, lakes and seas, atmosphere
and rivers in order of volume on Earth (just the rank, not the
actual amounts)
- What is the significance of running water?
- How is water distributed on Earth?
- Be familiar with the hydrologic cycle.
- What is the definition of a streams?
- What are perennial, intermittent, ephemeral streams?
- What factors determine whether stream flow is turbulent or
laminar?
- How do these factors vary along a single stream; at a single
point in a stream over time?
- How do flood size and frequency relate to each other?
- What is recurrence interval and how can it be used?
- What does the longitudinal profile of a stream look like?
- How do streams develop?
- What are the stages in valley shape and stream distribution
for youthful, mature, old age rivers?
- Why is groundwater significant to society? To Norman residents?
- What are the zone of aeration, capillary fringe, zone of
saturation?
- What drives groundwater flow?
- What is and how to we calculate hydraulic gradient?
- What is porosity?
- What is permeability and how does it differ from porosity?
- What is Darcy's law?
- What does cone of depression mean?
- What are aquifer? aquiclude? perched water table?
- What causes an artesian system?
- What is karst topography?
- How does karsting occur?
- What are some karst features?
- How are thermal waters formed?
- Why are thermal waters significant?
- What regions make economic use of thermal waters?
- What are the primary problems with groundwater withdrawal?
- When is groundwater not a renewable resource?
- How does glacial ice form?
- How do glaciers move?
- How do glaciers erode, transport and deposit materials?
- What are some glacial landforms, e.g., roche moutonee, drumlin?
- What are the common types of glacial deposits?
- Which are unstratified or stratified?
- What are some continental (high latitudes) glacial features?
- What are some alpine (high altitudes) glacial features?
- What and about when were the major glaciations, including
Pleistocene (Wisconsinan, Illinoian, Kansan, Nebraskan) and pre-Pleistocene?
- What are striations, tillites and what can we (have we) learned
from them?
- What is glacial loading and rebound and what does that reveal
about the viscosity of the mantle?
- What are thought to be causes of glaciations?
- What are longitudinal (normal), shear, stress?
- What is confining pressure?
- What are longitudinal (normal), shear, strain?
- What is dilatation?
- How do rocks deform?
- What are the effects of temperature, confining pressure,
time, and amount of stress, strain on the behavior of rocks?
- What is elastic-brittle rheology?
- What is elastic-plastic rheology?
- What is ductile rheology?
- Why do folds develop?
- What is strike and dip?
- What are monocline, anticline, syncline, plunging anticline,
syncline, dome, basinal fold?
- What is a fault?
- What are dip-slip faults (normal, reverse)? When do they
occur?
- What is a strike-slip fault (right, left lateral)? When do
they occur?
- What are horsts, grabens, thrusts, joints?
- What are the four types of earthquakes?
- What is the elastic rebound hypothesis?
- What is recurrence interval?
- What are body waves?
- What is a P-wave? What are its properties?
- What is an S-wave? What are its properties?
- What are surface waves? What are the two types? What are
their properties?
- What are free oscillations? What had to happen before they
were first recorded?
- What is the principle of the vertical seismometer? the horizontal
seismometer?
- What are some specific types of seismographs?
- Why does a seismograph have to have amplification?
- What two main methods are used to measure earthquakes? What
are their advantages and disadvantages?
- What is the relationship between magnitude and ground motion?
magnitude and energy release?
- What is the relationship between earthquake magnitude and
frequency of occurrence?
- What is hypocenter (focus), epicenter?
- How do we locate earthquakes with P and S arrival times?
with just P arrival times?
- What is the status of earthquake prediction?
- What are precursors, and how do they relate to earthquake
prediction?
- What are the main types of meteorites? Where do they come
from?
- What do meteorites reveal about the structure of the Earth?
- How can the mass of the Earth tell us about its composition?
- What happens to body waves when they pass through materials
with different velocities?
- How do P and S waves vary with depth in the Earth?
- What is the Moho? Who discovered it, and how?
- What is the depth of the Moho beneath continents? beneath
oceans?
- Who discovered the core-mantle boundary and how? How deep
is it?
- Who discovered the inner core-outer core boundary and how?
How deep is it?
- What are the P and S shadow zones?
- What is the mantle comprised of? the outer core? the inner
core?
- What is the lithosphere? asthenosphere?
- Is the lithosphere/asthenosphere boundary sharp? Is it a
compositional boundary?
- How does the Earth's temperature gradient relate to the melting
temperature of the mantle?
- What is the source of the Earth's heat?
- In what ways is heat transferred?
- Why does convection occur in the Earth?
- What is the significance of the Rayleigh number? Does it
just apply to the Earth?
- How do we measure continental and oceanic heat flow?
- Who was the "father" of continental drift?
- Who is Harry Hess?
- What were the main lines of evidence for continental drift?
for sea-floor spreading?
- What was the name of the super-continent, existing 200 Ma
ago, comprised of all the present-day continents? What two semi-super-continents
did it originally break into?
- About how many large plates are there?
- What are the three types of plate boundaries and what is
the sense of relative motion for each?
- What is polar "wander"?
- What is the shape of Earth's magnetic field and how can it
be used to determine plate motions?
- What are paleomagnetic reversals and how does it reveal seafloor
spreading?
- How does plate tectonics relate to sea-floor age? sediment
thickness? bathymetry? heat flow? lithosphere thickness?
- What is lithosphere? asthenosphere?
- What are the 7 major plates?
- What happens at plate boundaries?
- What are the three types of plate boundaries? where is lithosphere
created? destroyed? conserved?
- What is the seismicity at mid-ocean ridges?
- What is pressure-release melting?
- What is the seismicity of transform fault boundaries?
- What are the types of subduction zones?
- What are trench? volcanic arc? back-arc basin?
- What are some (geographic) examples of ocean-ocean, ocean-continent,
continent-continent subduction zones.
- What is the seismicity at subduction zones?
- What is a Benioff zone?
- What are hot spots (mantle plumes)? Why does melting occur?
- How do hot spots relate to plate motion?
- How do hot spots relate to plate rifting?
- What is the K-T event?
- When (numerical age and geological
boundary) did it occur?
- What is thought to have caused the
extinction of the dinosaurs?
- Where is the crater? What is it called?
- When did this extinction occur?
- Where did the impact occur?
- What is some evidence for this event?
- Have there been any other impacts?
- Have there been any large impacts in
this century?
- What is the size/frequency distribution
of impacts?
- What are the odds of dying due to an
impact?
- Is there anything we can do about
impacts, and is anybody doing anything?
- What happened in Tunguska? about when? about where is that?
- Are you more likely to die as a result of a tornado or a
meteorite impact?
- How and when was the Solar System created?
- What are the nine major planets, in order of orbital radius?
- How does planetary density vary with distance from Sun
- Sun
- What is it made of?
- Why is it hot?
- How much solar system mass does it account for?
- Terrestrial planets
- What are the terrestrial planets?
- What do they have in common?
- What is their gross structure/composition?
- Why are they different from the Jovian planets
- How do we date (solid) planetary surfaces?
- What causes some terestrial planets to be tectonically active
and others not?
- Mercury
- How does its interior structure compare to Earth's?
- Why does it look so much the lunar highlands?
- Does it rotate? Why did it take so long to find out?
- Does it have an atmosphere? why or why not?
- Venus
- How does it compare in size with Earth?
- What is its rotation rate? Why is it retrograde?
- What is its atmosphere?
- How did it make us aware of global warming?
- How do we know what the surface looks like?
- Is it tectonically active? Plate tectonics?
- Earth
- Does it have intelligent life?
- What is its atmosphere? Why not like Venus's?
- Why does it support life?
- Is it tectonically active? Plate tectonics?
- Moon
- How might the Moon have formed?
- What are the highlands? How old are they?
- What are the maria? How did they form? How old are they?
- Mars
- Why is it red?
- How is its spin similar to Earth's
- What is its atmosphere?
- Is there evidence for past life?
- Is it tectonically active? Was it ever?
- What is the solar system's biggest volcano?
- Asteroids
- What and how big is the biggest?
- How do we know so much about their composition?
- What coincidence(?) aided in their discovery?
- Jovian planets
- Why that name?
- What are they also known as?
- What do they have in common?
- Jupiter
- How does its size compare to other planets?
- Is it all gas?
- Why does it have such a strong magnetic field?
- What is the Great Red Spot? Has it been there long?
- How many moons?
- What are the Galilean moons; why are they called that? how
does their desnity vary?
- Why is Io volcanically active?
- Saturn
- What probably made the rings?
- Uranus
- How was its ring(s) discovered?
- Neptune
- Pluto
- Is it the ninth planet? (ninth?) (planet?)
- Where did it come from?
Natural Resources
- coal
- benefits, abundance
- problems
- oil and natural gas- hydrocarbons
- definition
- origin - inorganic vs. organic origin
- source rocks
- maturation
- migration
- oil traps
- reservoir
- cap rock
- closure
Copyright 2004, 2005, Judson L. Ahern