Deck 3: Landforms

Question 1

Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky was formed by the chemical weathering of ________.

A) iron oxide
B) sulphur dioxide
C) calcium carbonate
D) carbonic acid
E) shale

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Shield volcanoes erupt flowing lava that cools to form a rock called:

A) granite
B) sandstone
C) basalt
D) andersite
E) obsidian

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The process of breaking rocks into pieces ranging in size from boulders to pebbles, sand grains, and silt, down to microscopic clay particles and dissolved solids is called:

A) erosion
B) weathering
C) decomposition
D) degradation
E) denudation

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The average thickness of the Earth's crust is about ________ miles.

A) 70
B) 55
C) 34
D) 28
E) 17

Question 5

Generally, composite cones are made up of a mixture of ________.

A) lava and water
B) lava and ash
C) ash and gases
D) gases and ash
E) lava and gas

Question 6

Despite their rigidity rocks bend and fold but when stressed far enough, they fracture along cracks called:

A) fractures
B) faults
C) plate boundaries
D) epicenter
E) center of stress

Question 7

Layers of ________ tell us about the rivers and seas in which the sediment accumulated.

A) igneous rocks
B) sedimentary rocks
C) metamorphic rocks
D) volcanic ask
E) none of these answer choices are correct.

Question 8

During an earthquake, the place where the Earth's crust actually moves is the ________ of the earthquake.

A) focus
B) epicenter
C) Richter point
D) composite point
E) faultline zone

Question 9

________ weathering occurs when there is a change in the minerals that compose rocks when they are exposed to air and water.

A) Chemical
B) Physical
C) Biological
D) Natural
E) Isostatic

Question 10

Which of the following is used to measure earthquake intensity on a 0-to-9 logarithmic scale?

A) The Richter scale
B) The Moment Magnitude Scale
C) The Shifting Momentum Scale
D) The Seismic Moment Scale
E) None of the answer choices are correct.

Question 11

The two plates primarily responsible for the creation of the Himalaya Mountains are:

A) The Eurasian plate and the Arabian plate
B) The Arabian Plate and the Indian Ocean Plate
C) The Indian Ocean plate and the Eurasian plate
D) The Pacific plate and the Eurasian plate
E) The Indo-Australian plate and the Eurasian plate

Question 12

When rocks are broken up by physical force, we term that ________ weathering.

A) chemical
B) physical
C) biological
D) natural
E) isostatic

Question 13

The San Andreas Fault is a typical example of this type of plate boundary.

A) transform
B) subduction
C) divergence
D) convergence
E) none of the answer choices are correct.

Question 14

The vertical movements caused by loading or unloading the crust are called ________.

A) grinding the strike zone
B) isostatic adjustments
C) updraft/downdraft adjustments
D) focal point displacement
E) lateral adjustments

Question 15

Which of the following countries has the most experience with earthquakes and tsunamis?

A) Mexico
B) Argentina
C) Russia
D) Japan
E) India

Question 16

A boundary where plates are spreading apart is a ________.

A) divergent plate boundary
B) convergent plate boundary
C) segregating plate boundary
D) subducting plate boundaries
E) gondwana plate boundaries

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT true of volcanoes?

A) Volcanoes are clustered along boundaries between tectonic plates
B) If magma reaches the surface and erupts, a volcano is formed
C) Volcanic eruptions are almost always followed immediately by earthquakes
D) Heat within Earth generates magma or molten rock
E) The chemistry of the magma/lava determines its texture and therefore the type of landform it builds.

Question 18

United States Geological Survey estimates that, worldwide, over ________ people have been killed by earthquakes and resulting tsunamis since the year 2000.

A) 700,000
B) 500,000
C) 200,000
D) 100,000
E) 50,000

Question 19

Two hundred million years ago Earth's continents were all joined in one supercontinent known as ________.

A) Pangaea
B) Gondwanaland
C) Laurasia
D) Tsunami
E) Mantle

Question 20

The Appalachian Mountains, and the Himalayas are examples of mountain ranges created by:

A) anticlines
B) volcanic eruptions
C) faulting and folding
D) fracturing and denting
E) folding and erupting

Question 21

It is believed that in fact, Long Island and Cape Cod are the tops of ________ from past glaciations.

A) outwash plains
B) tallons
C) terminal moraines
D) alluvium
E) esker

Question 22

When winds blow across the sea surface, they transfer their energy to the water by generating ________.

A) heat
B) currents
C) tides
D) waves
E) wind

Question 23

Like rivers, landforms along shorelines are shaped by the balance between:

A) the temperature of the water and the temperature of the surrounding area
B) sediment arriving in a portion of the shore and then being removed from it
C) The weight of the sediments in the water and the weight of the sediments arriving
D) the speed of the arriving sediments and the ability of the river to generate its own sediments
E) the temperature of the sediments arriving and its weight

Question 24

Glaciers flow very slowly, usually at rates of ________.

A) a few centimeters a year
B) a few centimeters to a few meters per year
C) a few meters to a few hundred meters per year.
D) a few hundred to a few thousand meters per year
E) a few hundred kilometers a year

Question 25

When water flows across the land, it carries small particles of rock with it. This movement of material in a stream is called ________.

A) sediment transport
B) debris movement
C) alluvial movement
D) riparian transport
E) stream deposit movement

Question 26

When water is frozen ________.

A) it shrinks by 15 percent
B) it expands by 15 percent
C) it shrinks by 9 percent
D) it expands by 9 percent
E) nothing happens to it

Question 27

Which of the following statements is not true of glaciers?

A) For the past 200 years, most of the glaciers of the world have been shrinking
B) The cause of glaciers shrinking is climatic warming
C) Scientists have monitored the largest ice masses in the world particularly intensely because of their potential effects on global sea level
D) Greenland and Antarctica have two of the world's largest ice masses
E) In Greenland, there has been thinning of ice in high-altitude regions but substantial thickening near the margins.

Question 28

Which of the following is the most common form of mass movement?

A) landslides
B) mudflows
C) soil creep
D) rockfalls
E) lahars

Question 29

Much of the north-central United States is actually overlain by ice-deposited material called ________.

A) till
B) shield
C) tallons
D) debris
E) sediments

Question 30

A stream gathers water from an area called its ________.

A) drainage basin
B) ecosystem
C) floodplain
D) riparian area
E) tributary

Question 31

Surface erosion increased by the removal of vegetative ground cover is termed ________.

A) hyper erosion
B) human-induced erosion
C) accelerated erosion
D) quantum erosion
E) super erosion

Question 32

Channel beds and banks are made up of materials transported by streams, temporarily deposited, and then eroded again as streams take ________ courses.

A) steep
B) gentle
C) meandering
D) intermittent
E) very fast

Question 33

Globally, the three largest earthquakes took place in Japan in 1960, San Francisco in 1964, and Chile in 2004.

Question 34

Throughout much of the last 3 million years, known as the ________, glaciers covered much of North America.

A) Pleistocene Epoc
B) Cenozoic Epoc
C) Mesozoic Era
D) Protozoic Era
E) Paleogene Era

Question 35

Flowing meltwater leaving a glacier deposits debris close to the glacier in a broad, gently sloping plain known as

A) terminal moraine
B) an outwash plain
C) alluvium
D) esker
E) tallons

Question 36

Over the past few hundred years, sea level as a whole has risen on Earth, at about ________ along coasts that are otherwise stable.

A) 2 millimeters per year
B) 5 millimeters per year
C) 10 millimeters per year
D) 15 millimeters per year
E) 25 millimeters per year

Question 37

________ follow intense rains, because material with a high water content is weaker and less able to resist the force of gravity.

A) Rockfalls
B) Soil creep
C) Rockflows
D) Landslides
E) Gresback flows

Question 38

These are rivers of ice that flow from places where snow accumulates yearly to warmer places where they melt.

A) snow banks
B) glaciers
C) ice crystals
D) ablation
E) snow accumulated peaks

Question 39

Which of the following is the most common cause of soil erosion?

A) wind
B) ice
C) rainfall
D) human movement
E) none of the answer choices are correct

Question 40

The most recent glacial advance reached its maximum around ________ ago.

A) 800,000 years ago
B) 400,000 years
C) 100,000 years
D) 50,000 years
E) 20,000 years

Question 41

In mass movement, rocks roll, slide, or freefall downhill under the steady pull of gravity.

Question 42

Most of the water flowing into streams is supplied not by rainfall directly, but by groundwater.

Question 43

A boundary where plates are spreading apart is a transform plate boundary.

Question 44

During mass movement, water, flows downhill because of gravity, carrying solid rock particles with it.

Question 45

It is generally believed that vast areas of the continental crust known as shields have not been significantly changed for millions of years.

Question 46

Basalt and granite are two very common igneous rocks.

Question 47

Landslides and mudflows are two examples of rare and sudden types of mass movements.

Question 48

In an earthquake, the point on the surface directly above the focus is the epicenter.

Question 49

200 million years ago Earth's continents were all joined in one supercontinent known as Gondwanaland.

Question 50

Soil Creep is the most common form of mass movement.

Question 51

Rocks may be broken down as a result of biological weathering, which is a change in the minerals that compose rocks when they are exposed to air and water.

Question 52

Earthquakes and volcanoes do not present major geologic hazards to populations in geologically active areas, particularly outside plate boundaries.

Question 53

A wave can travel thousands of kilometers across deep ocean water relatively unchanged, but near the shore, the shallow bottom restricts water motion and distorts the wave's shape.

Question 54

Japan has considerable experience with earthquakes and tsunamis.

Question 55

Erosion has increased as a result of the elimination of the vegetation cover for various reasons, but it is particularly severe where agriculture has replaced forests.

Question 56

Abandonment of less productive lands and adoption of soil conservation technologies since the 1930s have significantly reduced erosion on U.S. farms.

Question 57

By continually eroding and depositing material in channels and adjacent low-lying surfaces called floodplains, streams tend toward a stable condition, known as its catchment area.

Question 58

The volume of water that a stream carries per unit of time is its discharge.

Question 59

The Himalayan Mountains was formed by transform movement between two plates.

Question 60

Explosive volcanoes that cause death and destruction are more likely to be composite cone volcanoes.

Question 61

Some glaciers in New Zealand flow so fast that they reach into elevations with subtropical climate before
completely melting.

Question 62

What are the types of mass movement?

Question 63

Explain the general types of volcanoes that occur on Earth.

Question 64

Discuss some of the ways of managing coastal erosion.

Question 65

Over the last 20 years, the rate of sea level rise appears to have increased to about 3 mm per year.

Question 66

Much of the Northern Hemisphere was covered in ice 20,000 years ago.

Question 67

Explain the ways in which weathered materials are moved.

Question 68

With examples, discuss the types of plate movements.

Question 69

When waves break, their energy gives a push to the water in a direction parallel to the shore, and the repeated breaking of many waves generates a longshore current traveling parallel to the shore.

Question 70

Glaciers are rivers of ice that flow from places where snow accumulates yearly to warmer places where the ice melts.

Question 71

Glaciers can act erratically; for many years, a glacier may move only a few yards/year, then for a few years it may suddenly surge forward at several hundreds to thousands of feet/year, before slowing again.

Question 72

Much of the U.S. West Coast has been tectonically uplifted in the last few million years.

Question 73

Distinguish between chemical and mechanical weathering.

Question 74

What role do streams play in transporting weathered materials?

Question 75

Outwash plains usually contain a thick layer of rocks deposited close to the glacier in a layer of sand and gravel that can exceed a thickness of 330 feet.

Question 76

What is an Earthquake?

Question 77

Discuss some landforms created as a result of glacial movements.

Question 78

What is surface erosion and what role does it play in moving weathered materials?

Question 79

Areas where glaciers form typically leave behind deep bowl shaped depressions and U-shaped valleys.