1. Topography a. is the variation in elevation of the earth’s surface b. is affe
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Question
1. Topography
a. is the variation in elevation of the earth’s surface
b. is affected by active deformation processes in both oceanic and continental lithosphere
c. may reflect irregular density distributions in the earth’s interior
d. can be measured with great accuracy and precision today
e. was not always easy to explain prior to the development of the theory of plate tectonics
f. all of the above g. none of the above
2. The surface projection of where a fault forms in Earth’s interior is called the:
a. epicenter
b. strike
c. slip
d. focus
e. wave velocity
f. none of the above
3. Which of the following describes how stress can be built up and suddenly released during an earthquake?
a. The modified Mercalli scale
b. The elastic rebound theory
c. The principle of superposition
d. The seismic gap hypothesis
e. The principle of components
4. If a P wave arrival is detected at a seismograph five minutes after an an earthquake, about how much later is an S wave detected at the same station?
a. about 1 minute after the arrival of the P wave
b. about five minutes after the arrival of the P wave
c. about ten minutes after the arrival of the P wave
d. about 60 before the arrival of the P wave
e. about 1 second after the arrival of the P wave
5. The energy released during a magnitude 8 earthquake is about how many times greater than the energy released during a magnitude 6 earthquake?
a. 2
b. 10
c. 100
d. 1000
e. none of the above
7. Which of the following statements is true?
a. the core mantle boundary is called the Mohorovicic discontinuity
b. the ocean crust, like the Moon, has a lot of green cheese.
c. the crust is denser than the mantle
d. P and S waves travel faster in the mantle than in the crust
e. The depth to the core mantle boundary is aobut 6400 km
f. all of the above
11. In the Dallas area of north Texas
a. heat flow is relatively low
b. nearly flat-lying sedimentary rocks of Cretaceous age, the Austin Chalk, lie very close to the earth’s surface (e.g., they are well exposed in several road cuts, like the North-South Tollway)
c. the soil on top of the Austin Chalk is very rich in organic material (i.e. dark gray to black)
d. a very broad, regional disconformity is in the process of being developed, assuming the depositional environment of the region will change with time and the area will be covered by younger sediments.
e. the crust is between 30 and 45 km thick.
f. none of the above
g. all of the above
12. To quantify the flow of heat from the interior of Earth at any specific site, one needs to know
a. only the geothermal gradient at site A.
b. only the thermal conductivity of one rock below site A.
c. just the fact that the temperature of our home increases with depth.
d. Both the geothermal gradient below site A and the thermal conductivities of rocks typical below the area of Site A.
e. The color of the rocks below site A.
f. The age of the rocks below site A.
13. The terms strike and dip
a. are used to describe the orientation of lines in space.
b. are used to describe the orientation of planes in space; strike being the direction of a horizontal line in the plane, and dip being the angle the plane makes with the horizontal.
c. are used to describe the amount of offset along a fault.
d. are used to distinguish between anticlines and synclines
e. none of the above.
14. Strike-slip faults
a. are low-angle reverse faults
b. have mainly vertical displacement
c. have mainly horizontal movement
d. are faults on which no movement has yet occurred
e. never offset mid-ocean ridges.
15. The San Andreas fault system
a. consists of a series of strike slip faults along which the Pacific ocean lithosphere plate is moving northward relative to North America
b. is no longer active
c. consists of several reverse faults, dipping to the west, allowing the western margin of California to fall into the Pacific ocean
d. consists of a series of strike-slip faults along which the Pacific ocean lithosphere plate is moving southeastward relative to North America
e. has resulted in numerous earthquakes with focal depths greater than 500 km.
16. The elastic rebound theory of faulting and associated energy release (earthquakes)
a. requires that geologic materials rupture with the immediate application of stresses greater than those at the earth’s surface.
b. appears inappropriate for most geologic materials.
c. explains why earthquakes occur constantly along many faults
d. implies that for at least a period of time geologic materials actually store energy due to applied stresses and are strained, prior to rupture.
e. predicts that earthquakes will occur along specific faults every 100 years, no more, no less.
f. all of the above
17. Earthquake epicenters are located by
a. first arrivals of P waves from a single station, or seismograph
b. a process of “triangulation”, involving identifying the first arrivals from at least three stations, and making some assumption about the actual seismic velocity from each station to the focus or using the time difference between P and S waves to determine approximate distances to the epicenter
c. measuring the vertical ground motion at a minimum of three sites.
d. determining where the greatest slip along the surface expression of the fault responsible occurred.
e. none of the above
18. A residual soil above a thick sequeince of carbonate rocks in a very humid environment
a. will likely have thick A and O horizons
b. will likely have little in the way of a B horizon because carbonate rocks do not contatin much Al and Fe and quartz
c. will not have abundant calcium carbonate accumulation
d. may be associated with highly irregular terranes, referred to karst topography
e. is not very conducive to growing grapes
f. All of the above
19. Some 20 thousand years (ka) ago, the continental shelves
a. Were covered in deeper water than today.
b. Were subareal exposed (exposed to Earth’s atmosphere) because a far greater amount of water on Earth was in the form of ice, as continental glaciers.
c. Saw the deposition of thick sequences of carbonate rocks, including oolitic limestones.
d. Saw the deposition of thick sequences of evaporate deposits.
e. Would have been far more difficult to explore for crude oil and natural gas.
f. None of the above
20. Interiors of continents are typically associated with relatively low heat flow. Why?
a. they have relatively thin crust
b. the lithosphere/asthenosphere boundary is unusually shallow
c. the lithosphere/asthenosphere boundary is unusually deep, implying no upward mantle convection in these areas.
d. The interiors of continents are associated with unusually high topography, implying a very thick crustal root beneath them, preventing heat from the mantle from reaching the surface.
21. What is the difference between a transported and a residual soil?
a. A transported soil has no A horizon
b. A residual soil has no B horizon
c. A transported soil consists, in large part, of material that has been wind blown and deposited on bedrock/C horizon
d. Agriculturists only like residual soils
e. Residual soils have abundant calcium carbonate build up
f. None of the above.
22. Lithosphere plates move relative to one another at the rate of
a. kilometers/year
b. kilometers/second
c. meters/year
d. centimeters/year
e. millimeters/day
Explanation / Answer
1. Topography a. is the variation in elevation of the earth’s surface b. is affe
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