Deck 1: Earth Systems

Question 1

Which of the following is not a true statement about the Earth's four spheres?

A) Water in a river, lake, or glacier are considered to be part of the Earth's hydrosphere
B) The highest concentration of liquid water in the Earth's hydrosphere is found in freshwater sources such as rivers, lakes, and groundwater on continents
C) Lithospheric plates are considered to be part of the Earth's geosphere
D) Bacteria that live under glaciers are considered part of the biosphere
E) Wind is considered to be part of the Earth's atmosphere

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following is not a true statement?

A) Single-celled organisms formed before multicellular organisms on Earth
B) The first single-celled organism appeared as early as 3.8 billion years ago
C) An atmosphere rich in nitrogen, not oxygen, was the culprit for the development of multicellular life on Earth
D) Multicellular life because more complex and abundant on Earth about 542 million years ago which can be attributed to changes in the composition of the Earth's atmosphere
E) The direct ancestors to modern humans, Homo sapiens , appeared on Earth approximately 5-7 million years ago

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following is not a true statement?

A) James Hutton developed a principle known as Uniformitarianism which means that the "present is the key to the past"
B) William Whewell suggested that the geologic change can be occur a rapid speed such as a catastrophic event that altered the Earth's geologic history
C) An example of the Whewell's catastrophism theory would be the Yellowstone eruption that occurred about 640,000 years ago which changed climate conditions and devastated land for miles away from the volcanic blast site
D) An example of the Whewell's catastrophism theory would be a catastrophic tsunami event such as the 2004 Sumatra tsunami
E) Whewell said that catastrophic events occurred frequently in geologic history followed by short periods of stable conditions

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following is not a true statement?

A) James Hutton developed a principle known as Uniformitarianism which means that the "past is the key to the present"
B) The Principle of Uniformitarianism states that geologic processes occurring in modern time also operating in a similar way in geologic past
C) An example of the Principle of Uniformitarianism would be that rocks containing coral fossils formed in an environment in which corals would thrive today
D) The Principle of Gradualism states that geologic change occurs over a long stretch of time
E) Geologists can explain events such as pyroclastic and lahar deposits observed in real volcanic events such as the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption and apply that knowledge to similar deposits found in the rock record

Question 5

Which of the following is not a true statement about the Earth's geosphere? A) The geosphere consists of the core, mantle, and surface
B) The densest section of the geosphere is the Earth's mantle where convention occurs
C) The geosphere consists of the core, mantle, and surface known as crust
D) Below a depth of 100 kilometers, the mantle is hot allowing rocks to be more plastic-like
E) The core consists primarily of iron and nickel that sunk to the interior of the Earth because these elements are dense
F) Lighter elements rose to toward the Earth's surface creating less dense crust
G) The pressure deep inside the Earth allows the inner core to be solid even though the temperature is hotter than the outer core

Question 6

Which of the following would not be considered a catastrophic change in Earth's history?

A) The largest recorded earthquake in the United States which occurred in Alaska in 1964 causing loss of property, life, and changes to the Earth's surface throughout Alaska
B) The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami in Japan which caused loss of property, life, and changes to the Earth's surface throughout Japan
C) Giant meteorite collisions that left craters as evidence of the event and produced massive dust emissions to the atmosphere impacting life on Earth
D) Coral reef diseases caused by climate change
E) Massive flooding caused by the melting of the continental glaciers of the Last Ice Age

Question 7

Which of the following is not a true statement?

A) Radioactive materials in rocks are used by geologists as clocks to record the age of a rock
B) Meteorites found on Earth cannot be older than the age of the Earth
C) Geologists estimated the Earth's age to be about 4.6 billion years old based on evidence from the Moon and the meteorites that had fallen from our Solar System to the Earth's surface
D) The primordial Earth had no crust, oceans, and an atmosphere different from modern time
E) James Hutton recognized that the rocks he studied must have been older than modern human existence since it took so long for the rocks to weather and be redeposited elsewhere

Question 8

Which of the following would not be an example of a threshold effect?

A) A large rain event occurs in the mountains of Northern California allowing the soils to become saturated causing flooding in regions below the mountains
B) A second rain event occurs in the same region causing the soils to begin migrating or moving as a landslide
C) Recent fires in Northern California scarred the land and a large rain event saturates the soils causing landslides to occur
D) All of the above are examples of threshold effect

Question 9

Which of the following is not a true statement?

A) The human population of the Earth reached 7.7 by 2015
B) Farms, pasturelands, and cities currently cover at least 4% of the Earth's surface
C) The current species extinction rate is 1000 time more rapid than it was before the Industrial Revolution which is as rapid of extinction rate 65 million years when a giant meteorite struck the Earth's surface
D) One-eighth to one-half of the current human population is malnourished
E) World population is projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050
F) World population is projected to reach 11.2 billion in 2100
G) Extreme poverty is decreasing allowing more people to have money to consume more resources
H) The increase in population and consumption rates by humans has caused the pressure on Earth's resources to increase

Question 10

Which of the following is not true regarding the Earth's system and its energy and material cycles?

A) Energy in the atmosphere can change form such as changing from a vapor to a liquid when rain is formed
B) Energy is received from outer space via ultraviolet radiation which in turn emits heat on Earth
C) Runoff from rain events allows water to flow back to the oceans which is a form of conserving energy
D) Matter and energy are always depleted on Earth because of energy and material cycles
E) Various material cycles such as the rock cycle, water cycle, carbon cycle, and nitrogen cycle are interconnected and allow energy and transformations for energy from one cycle to another

Question 11

Which of the following is not an example of a system and how systems work together?

A) A volcanic eruption like the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption created massive amounts of ash that were ejected into the atmosphere causing atmospheric cooling
B) The energy to create the 1980 Mount St. Helens came from geologic activity occurring in the mantle that created magma that rose to the surface
C) The heat that came to the surface of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption caused glacier fields to melt, leading to the formation of massive mudflows which impacted the hydrologic system
D) All of the above are examples of how systems work together

Question 12

In which of the Earth's layers would you expect a magma plume to be born because this layer is where rocks become soft and plastic because of heat from inside the Earth?

A) Continental Crust
B) Oceanic Crust
C) Mantle
D) Outer Core
E) Inner Core

Question 13

Which of the following is not a true statement? A) The Mayan Civilization from the 3rd to the 9th centuries supported between 1800 and 2600 people per square mile but the population crashed when up to 95% of the people died
B) Anasazi civilizations in the American Southwest disappeared in the 13th century
C) Viking colonies starved to death in Greenland
D) Each of these population thresholds were unable to decline back to a sustainable level and catastrophically collapsed
E) An increase in global population could increase the chances for a new population threshold to be reached that could lead to global collapse of human populations because food and water resources would be limited
F) All of the above are true statements

Question 14

Which of the following is not on our environment "to-do" list?

A) Prevent toxic chemicals from harming the environment
B) Protect against the loss of ocean fisheries
C) Protect indigenous species, and keep invasive species from destroying ecosystems
D) Not be concerned about slowing the increase in human population because increases in mean global population does not put stress on the Earth's resources
E) Conserve fossil fuels and firewood resources

Question 15

Which of the following is not a true statement?

A) Water can occur in rocks like shale or clay because it chemically exists in minerals that make up the rock
B) Salt aerosols only get suspended into the atmosphere in regions around the equator which is why the air tastes salty in these regions
C) Salt is commonly found in chemical sedimentary rocks
D) Clouds are an example of how water from the hydrosphere
E) Salt is dissolved in large quantities in the ocean when rocks that contain salt weather down and release salt back into the hydrosphere

Question 16

Which of the following is a true statement about the Earth's crust?

A) The oceanic crust is much thicker as compared to the continental crust because it is similar to the mantle in composition
B) The thinnest crust exists where mountains have been uplifted on the surface
C) Only the continental crust comprises the lithosphere
D) The thickest continental crust exists where mountains have been uplifted on the surface
E) The crust contains one major rock type which is similar to the rocks made in the mantle

Question 17

Which of the following is not a true statement about James Hutton?

A) He studied sandstone that had sand grains cemented together
B) He recognized that the rocks in the Scottish Highlands slowly weathered into sand
C) He noted that the weathered sand grains were carried by streams to the Scottish Lowlands where the sediments were deposited on beaches and river deltas
D) He concluded the age of the sand grains were about the same age as human history since the sandstone weathered into sand grains during a human life span
E) He determined that the source of the sandstone came from ancient cliffs and mountains in Scotland that formed prior to modern human history

Question 18

Which of the following is not a true statement about how our solar system formed?

A) The solar system formed from a hot cloud of dust and gas rotating quickly in space
B) The dust and gas formed a disk caused by rotational forces
C) Fist-sized masses formed inside the disk which ultimately accreted together to form planetesimals
D) Planetesimals combined to form planets in our solar system
E) Planets were formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago

Question 19

Which of the following would not be an example of a threshold effect?

A) Reindeer population on St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea had no natural predators allowing for over-population of the species
B) The reindeer population on St. Matthew Island were able to survive because they could find more food in other parts of the island without overgrazing the food resources
C) A majority of the reindeer population on St. Matthew Island died off because the reindeer starved once they overgrazed the food resources on the
D) All of the above are examples of threshold effect

Question 20

Which of the following is not a true statement?

A) When the Earth's temperature increases, the rate of decomposition of organic soil increases adding more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
B) When more carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere, the Earth's overall mean temperature stabilizes
C) Carbon dioxide emissions from fires, factories, energy production plants, and transportation machines have caused the overall concentration to carbon dioxide to reach its highest level in over 420,000 years
D) The carbon dioxide emissions to Earth's climate have caused the Earth's mean annual temperature to increase by 0.8°C

Question 21

In which of the Earth's spheres would you classify mountains such as the Rocky Mountain range?

A) Atmosphere
B) Biosphere
C) Geosphere
D) Hydrosphere

Question 22

If pollution from human sources such as automobiles, power plants, and factories are emitted into the atmosphere, this could lead to the formation of acid rain can cause rocks to weather. What specific Earth sphere(s) would be involved with this scenario? A) Atmosphere
B) Biosphere
C) Geosphere
D) Hydrosphere
E) Atmosphere, Geosphere
F) Atmosphere, Hydrosphere
G) Atmosphere, Geosphere, and Hydrosphere

Question 23

Events that occur slowly over geologic time can significantly change the Earth's surface such as the deposition of the layers of the Grand Canyon and the erosion of these layers to form the Colorado River.

Question 24

Studies of Earth history have revealed that catastrophic events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and meteorite collisions rarely occur.

Question 25

The Earth's layers formed due to density differences in materials which means that less dense material sank toward the core and heavier elements floated toward the Earth's surface.

Question 26

Which specific Earth sphere would glaciers be included?

A) Atmosphere
B) Biosphere
C) Geosphere
D) Hydrosphere
E) Lithosphere

Question 27

In which of the Earth's layers would you expect volcanoes on the ocean floor known as Mid Oceanic Ridges to form?

A) Continental Crust
B) Oceanic Crust
C) Mantle
D) Outer Core
E) Inner Core

Question 28

During the early stage of the Earth's formation, a majority of the material on the planet was molten which means that no crust existed at that time.

Question 29

In which of the Earth's layers would you expect mountains to rise on dry land?

A) Continental Crust
B) Oceanic Crust
C) Mantle
D) Outer Core
E) Inner Core

Question 30

In which of the Earth's layers would you expect the densest elements to exist because metallic elements sank due to differentiation when the Earth was forming its layers?

A) Continental Crust
B) Oceanic Crust
C) Mantle
D) Outer Core
E) Inner Core

Question 31

Each of the Earth's spheres is considered a system with unique cycles yet each sphere interacts with other spheres on Earth.

Question 32

Human sources of greenhouse emissions such as carbon dioxide, enhances the greenhouse effect which can cause the mean global temperature of Earth to rise.

Question 33

As we move from the surface of Earth to the interior of the Earth, which is not a true statement?

A) Temperatures decrease with depth inside the Earth
B) Earth's layers become denser with depth inside the Earth
C) Earth's outer core is liquid
D) Earth's inner core is solid

Question 34

In which of the Earth's layers would you expect a volcanic eruption to occur on dry land like the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption?

A) Continental Crust
B) Oceanic Crust
C) Mantle
D) Outer Core
E) Inner Core

Question 35

Geologists can look at ancient glacier deposits and understand that glaciers created them by looking at how modern glaciers make deposits-this would be consistent with the Principle of Uniformitarianism.

Question 36

In which of the Earth's layers would you expect a volcanic eruption to occur such as the eruptions that occur on Hawaii?

A) Continental Crust
B) Oceanic Crust
C) Mantle
D) Outer Core
E) Inner Core

Question 37

Multicellular life has existed for over 3.8 billion years and appeared in the rock record prior to single-cellular life.

Question 38

The Earth's atmosphere is held to the planet by gravity and 99% of the atmosphere is concentrated starting at 50 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

Question 39

A feedback mechanism occurs when a small perturbation in one component affects a different component of Earth's systems which in turn amplifies the original effect more dramatically such as a large rain event saturating soil followed by another heavy rain event that causes landslides to form.

Question 40

Which specific Earth sphere would include the rigid, outer part of the Earth which includes oceanic crust, continental crust, and the uppermost portion of the mantle?

A) Atmosphere
B) Biosphere
C) Geosphere
D) Hydrosphere
E) Lithosphere

Question 41

An earthquake would represent the Principle of Uniformitarianism because the event occurs over a very long stretch of geologic time.

Question 42

Which of the Earth's spheres would contain greenhouse emissions from human sources such as automobiles, factories, and energy production plants? ______________________________

Question 43

If San Francisco and Los Angeles are moving toward each other at 3-5 centimeters per year, the two cities will become sister cities in about 10 million years because of ________ plate movements?

Question 44

Slow movement of plates may not have noticeable alteration of Earth systems over decades or centuries, however over hundreds of millions of years, the effects are what? ______________________________

Question 45

Which of the Earth's spheres contains three major layers including the core, the mantle, and the crust? ______________________________

Question 46

If the granite that now forms Mount Rushmore melted and crystallized 1.7 billion years ago, this region was experiencing "what" type of geologic phenomena at that time? ______________________________

Question 47

Bacteria that live under glacial ice and in rock and organisms that live on the ocean floor at deep sea vents represent what complex community of individual organisms interacting with one another? ______________________________

Question 48

Which geologic principle states did James Hutton conceptualize when he studied sandstones in Scotland and realized that it took an enormous amount of time to weather sand grains out of rock and redeposit them as new rock material? ______________________________

Question 49

Geologists measure the movement of tectonic plates with sensitive instruments such as GPS to help understand how the movement of tectonic plates impacts the shape of oceans basins, uplifts mountain ranges, and causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Question 50

Which specific part of the geosphere contains both oceanic and continental crust along with the uppermost layer of the mantle and is broken into various pieces that float on the mantle? ______________________________

Question 51

Which geologic principle states that the "present is the key to the past"? ______________________________

Question 52

Planetesimals, asteroids, and comets crashed into the early Earth's surface which provided the only source of internal heat for Earth.

Question 53

Humans are currently living through the largest documented extinction event on Earth since the age of the _____________________.

Question 54

The deepest drilling well on Earth has penetrated approximately 12 kilometers because the crust is predominantly made up of soft rocks.

Question 55

Fires in Northern California along with heavy rains can cause a threshold effect to be reached when ___________________ occur.

Question 56

The top and bottom layers of the mantle are strong and hard but the middle layer is weak and flows like cold honey.

Question 57

Humans survival is interconnected with the flow of energy and materials amount Earth's _____________________ humans impact the Earth and the Earth affects humans.

Question 58

Geologists have learned that clocks exist in rock that can record the passage of time. Each of these clocks has a special length of time it represents and the clocks are referred to as what? ____________________________

Question 59

Which of the Earth's spheres contain freshwater from glaciers, groundwater, lakes, and rivers? ______________________________

Question 60

The rock unit that the Golden Gate Bridge was formed on was created how many millions of years ago in a deep water environment off the West Coast of North America?   ______________________________

Question 61

Explain two different ways that the atmosphere supports life.

Question 62

Explain two catastrophic events described in the chapter and discuss how they impacted Earth's various spheres.

Question 63

Explain how a volcanic eruption with a lot of ash and pyroclastic material could cause a temperature reduction in the atmosphere and discuss at least two other environmental problems that could arise from the catastrophic event.

Question 64

Explain how the layers of the Grand Canyon are supported by the Principle of Uniformitarianism yet identify how catastrophic change is documented as "clues" in the rocks of the Grand Canyon.

Question 65

Explain how denser materials got into the Earth's core in its early stage of formation.

Question 66

Explain how parts of the Hudson Bay region is uplifting at a rate of up to 10 centimeters per year.

Question 67

Explain the process by which James Hutton conceptualized the Principle of Uniformitarianism and how that differs from William Whewell's theory of catastrophic change.

Question 68

Explain how animal and plant life utilize the geosphere.

Question 69

Explain how the reindeer introduced to St. Matthew Island in 1944 led to a threshold effect and apply to that to human overpopulation.

Question 70

Explain how the Earth's systems (atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere) are powered by the Sun.

Question 71

Explain potential reasons for the decline of the Mayan, Anasazi, and Viking populations with regards to over-utilization of the Earth's resources and apply to that to the current overpopulation of humans on Earth today.

Question 72

Explain how the crust, mantle, and inner/outer core are different in composition.

Question 73

Explain how planets were made in our Solar System approximately 4.6 billion years ago.

Question 74

Explain how our Solar System was formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago.

Question 75

Explain the three broad trends facing humanity today with regards to population and utilization of resources identified toward the end of the chapter.

Question 76

Explain how the middle of the mantle where plastic rocks contribute to the formation of volcanoes in the Earth's crust?

Question 77

Explain how the theory of plate tectonics evolved after World War II and how the advances in scientific technology has improved our understanding of the Earth's interior and its systems.

Question 78

Explain why the ocean cannot meet the freshwater needs of humans today even though it makes up 97.5% of all the water on Earth.

Question 79

Explain how increased population correlates with increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and discuss the impacts to the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere if a warming of global temperature continues to rise.

Question 80

Explain how denser materials got into the Earth's core in its early stage of formation.