The final Exam will include some questions from the first 4 quizzes, but will concentrate on material
covered since the first Exam, i.e., the historical and paleontological material
Quiz 5
1. Alfred Wegener envisioned the concept of a supercontinent of the past called
A) Pangaea.
B) Laurasia.
C) Gondwanaland.
D) Antarctica.
2. The key to Harry Hess’ understanding of the young age of the seafloor lay in the measurement of
A) rate of sediment deposition in the deep sea.
B) high rates of heat flow.
C) seismic waves from earthquakes.
D) average thickness of sediment on the seafloor.
3. In Hess’ concept of plate tectonic movement, continental rifts were explained as
A) the location of former seamounts and guyots.
B) the location of upwelling limbs of two adjacent convective cells in the mantle.
C) the location of newly formed crust.
D) a place on Earth much like a descending conveyor belt.
4. Strong support for Hess’ concept of widening seafloors came in the 1960s when it was recognized that the
pattern of Late Cenozoic magnetic reversals determined in terrestrial rocks was evident on the seafloor in the
form of
A) guyots and seamounts.
B) symmetrical patterns of magnetic striping about mid-ocean ridges.
C) normal magnetization of mid-ocean ridges.
D) constant rate of seafloor spreading.
5. Which of the following is not typically associated with a subduction zone?
A) Island arc
B) Mélange
C) Deep-focus earthquakes
D) Normal faults
6. The Hawaiian Islands owe their existence to the process of volcanism that is directly related to
A) plate tectonics.
B) a hot spot.
C) subduction.
D) transform faulting.
7. A guyot is a
A) convective cell in Earth’s mantle.
B) volcanic island that has been eroded by the action of waves.
C) furrow down the center of a mid-ocean ridge.
D) name for all kinds of volcanic seamounts.
8. Which of the following key fossils that played an important role in the history of continental drift theory
was a plant?
A) Glossopteris
B) Mesosaurus
C) Lystrosaurus
D) Pakicetus
9. Today, Earth’s magnetic pole has a declination of __________ from the geographic pole.
A) 7°
B) 17°
C) 70°
D) 77°
10. Select the characteristic below that is not consistent with continental rifting.
A) Multiple thrust faults and other compression features
B) Thick sedimentary sequences within fault block basins, including lake deposits
C) Mafic dikes and sills
D) Coarse terrestrial deposits and evaporites overlain by oceanic sediments
11. Synclines are characterized by
A) layers that are concave downward.
B) layers that are concave upward.
C) layers that include a high proportion of shales.
D) layers that include a high proportion of massive sandstones and limestones.
12. Ophiolites consist of
A) sand and sandstone.
B) evaporites overlain by marine sediments.
C) black shales and cherts.
D) ultramafic rocks overlain by pillow basalts.
13. Relative to the position of a typical metamorphic belt, a fold-and-thrust belt lies
A) on the oceanic side of the subduction zone.
B) toward the continental interior.
C) directly below, in the deeper crust.
D) directly above, in rocks thrust over the metamorphic belt.
14. A thick package of molasse is sometimes referred to as a (an)
A) clastic wedge.
B) structural basin.
C) elongate foreland basin.
D) ancient mountain belt.
15. The Black Hills of South Dakota are a
A) structural basin.
B) metamorphic belt.
C) fault zone.
D) structural dome.
16. Deep-seated crustal faults dating from Proterozoic may have caused powerful earthquakes with
epicenters in __________ during 1811-1812.
A) the District of Columbia
B) Mississippi
C) Missouri
D) all parts of North America
17. _________ is the name given to microcontinents that have attached themselves to larger landmasses,
especially the western part of North America.
A) Ophiolites
B) Exotic terranes
C) Structural domes
D) Iberias
Quiz 6 – Historical Geology
1.
A)
B)
C)
D)
The Hadean and Archean eons include about __________ percent of Earth’s history.
4 to 5
54
45
90
2.
A)
B)
C)
D)
Select from those listed below the incorrect reason that Archean rocks are rare on Earth’s surface.
Erosion has destroyed many Archean rocks.
Metamorphism has altered many Archean rocks so that they cannot be dated properly.
Archean rocks have plentiful, yet small, index fossils.
Archean rocks tend to be buried below sedimentary and volcanic rocks.
3.
A)
B)
C)
D)
Our planet’s early ocean was formed by
atmospheres of asteroids and comets that struck Earth as it formed.
volcanic emission of water vapor.
chemical reactions in the crust and in the early atmosphere.
melting of polar ice caps.
4.
A)
B)
C)
D)
The oldest known crustal materials, fragments from crustal rocks as much as 4.38 billion years old, are
volcanic rock fragments.
zircon crystals.
quartz crystals.
uranium-bearing rocks.
5.
A)
B)
C)
D)
Increasing area of shallow seafloor during Archean promoted growth of
biomarkers.
stromatolites.
bacteria.
eukaryotic cells.
6.
The nucleic acid likely to have been present in the earliest life forms, RNA, was the genetic basis for an
early ecosystem on Earth called
A) the amino acid planet.
B) DNA world.
C) RNA world.
D) the nucleic acid world.
7.
The survival of pyrite grains transported with other Archean sediments shows us that bacteria-produced
oxygen was
A) very rapidly building in the early atmosphere.
B) being taken out of the atmosphere by sinks in early Earth.
C) not yet forming and would require more time for evolution to change that fact.
D) no match for the vast quantities of oxygen produced in other ways.
8.
A)
B)
C)
D)
Cratons of modern proportions first began to form during
Neoproterozoic
Mesoproterozoic
Paleoproterozoic
late Archean
9.
A)
B)
C)
D)
The Wopmay orogeny, involving the Slave craton and an island arc, tells us that
the Proterozoic crust was still hot and plastic like the Archean crust.
there were no glaciers present on Earth at this time.
Proterozoic orogenies are much like Phanerozoic orogenies.
we should not look for Proterozoic flysch and molasse deposits.
10.
A)
B)
C)
D)
The intracellular body called a chloroplast was originally
a stromatolite.
some DNA and RNA.
a cyanobacterial cell.
a mitochondrion.
11. Believed to be the __________ of dinoflagellates, the __________ were the most common algal plankton
of the Paleozoic and Neoproterozoic.
A) biomarkers; stromatolites
B) chloroplasts; eukaryotes
C) resting cysts; acritarchs
D) cytoskeletons; bacteria
12. In Neoproterozoic rocks about 570 million years old, evidence of multicellular animal life appears in the
form of
A) biomarkers.
B) resting stages of dinoflagellates.
C) trace fossils, imprints of soft-bodied fossils, and skeletal fossils.
D) permineralized cytoskeletons.
13.
A)
B)
C)
D)
Advanced Ediacaran fossils include animals resembling all those following except
fishes.
arthropods.
mollusks.
cnidarians.
14.
the
A)
B)
C)
D)
The Paleoproterozoic shift at about 1.9 billion years ago from banded-iron formations to red beds signals
demise of the cyanobacteria and the rise of the eukaryotic algae.
end of “snowball Earth.”
buildup of significant oxygen in the atmosphere and oceans.
transition from flysch to molasse deposition in many large basins.
Historical Geology – Quiz 7
1.
a)
b)
c)
d)
2.
a)
b)
c)
d)
3.
a)
b)
c)
d)
4.
a)
b)
c)
d)
5.
a)
b)
c)
d)
What are early Paleozoic biotas essentially the story of?
The story of life
The story of trilobites
The story of plants
The story of life in the sea
What was the difference between the bodies of animals in the Neoproterozoic and the Cambrian?
Bodies were bigger in the Cambrian
Bodies had hard shells or skeletons in the Cambrian
Bodies were more streamlined in the Cambrian
Bodies were symmetric in the Cambrian
What is significant about the Tommotian fauna?
It was a rich fauna that was short-lived and produced no living phylum, i.e. no ancestors
They were the first metazoans
They formed stromatolites
It was the source of most Paleozoic phyla
Why are there relatively few stromatolites preserved after the Cambrian?
They became extinct
They were replaced by stromatoporoids
The composition of the ocean changed from calcitic to aragonitic
They were destroyed by grazing animals that evolved in the Cambrian
Who were the first ‘reef builders’?
Archaeocyathids
Rugose corals
Stromatoporoids
Bryozoans
6. What was the first vertebrate?
a) Anomalocaris
b) Trilobites
c) Arthropods
d) Pikaia
7. What type of animal is most abundant in both the Burgess Shale fauna and Chengjiang fossils?
a) Anomalocaris
b) Trilobites
c) Arthropods
d) Stromatolites
8. What ‘marked’ the life of the Ordovician Period?
a) A great evolutionary radiation of life in the seas
b) A great evolutionary radiation of life on land
c) The first organisms with skeletons and/or shells
d) A great evolutionary radiation of fishes
9. What happened to sea level during the Cambrian?
a) Sea level was constant
b) Sea level dropped precipitously because of continental glaciation
c) Sea levels progressively dropped
d) The continents were progressively flooded
10. What has happened to over 99 percent of all species that ever lived on the Earth?
a) They have become extinct
b) They still live today
c) They are being killed by global warming
d) They eventually evolved into humans
Historical Geology – Quiz 8
1. What was the name of the supercontinent that existed at the end of the Paleozoic, beginning of
the Mesozoic?
a) Rodinia
b) Gondwanaland
c) Pangaea
d) Laurasia
2.
a)
b)
c)
d)
What began to occur to this supercontinent during the Early Mesozoic?
It was subducted
It rifted
It sank
It was completely submerged beneath the Tethys
3.
a)
b)
c)
d)
What land animals joined fishes as marine predators during the Early Mesozoic?
Dinosaurs
Reptiles
Amphibians
Mammals
4. What does it imply that the some of the first coral mounds of the Triassic grew in deep water (no
light) instead of shallow water as they now do?
a) That they evolved from deep water organisms
b) That they were not originally symbiotic with photosynthetic organisms
c) That deep ocean waters were less acidic
d) That shallow waters were inhabited by too many other organisms
5.
a)
b)
c)
d)
What flora (plants) dominated land ecosystems during the Mesozoic?
Ferns
Gymnosperms
Angiosperms
Mosses
6.
a)
b)
c)
d)
What important group of animals evolved from Therapsids?
Dinosaurs
Reptiles
Amphibians
Mammals
7 What important group of animals evolved from Dinosaurs?
a) Birds
b) Reptiles
c) Amphibians
d) Mammals
8. What do Ornothischian and Saurischian mean?
a) Autotroph and Heterotroph
b) Bird-Hipped and Lizard-Hipped
c) Reptile and Amphibian
d) Flora and Fauna
9. What is the name of the formation that contains the most spectacular assemblage of Jurassic
dinosaurs and where is it found?
a) The Burgess Shale in British Columbia
b) The Ediacaran shale of Western Australia
c) The Dinosaur limestone of North Dakota
d) The Morrison Formation of Wyoming and Montana
10. What is archaeopteryx?
a) The first dinosaurmorph
b) The first flower
c) The first bird like creature
d) The first flying insect
11. What kind of sediments formed the Morrison Formation?
a) Marine sediments
b) Beach sediments
c) Stream sediments
d) Glacial sediments
12. Where was the Cretaceous Seaway located?
a) Where the modern Pacific now lies
b) Where the modern Atlantic now lies
c) It was an epicontinental sea stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean
d) It was an epicontinental sea stretching from the New Jersey to the Illinois
13. What were the dominant animals in the Cretaceous Seaway?
a) Sauropods such as Diplodocus and Apatosaurus, and the Ornithopod, Camptosaurus
b) Clams, cephalopods and plesiosaurs
c) Microvenator, Deinonychus, Tenontosaurus and Sauropelta
d) Largely marine dinosaurs and reptiles
14. What types of marine organisms are found in the Clagget Shale?
a) Gastropods, pelecypods, cephalopods and the occasional marine reptile
b) Sauropods such as Diplodocus and Apatosaurus, and the Ornithopod, Camptosaurus
c) Microvenator, Deinonychus, Tenontosaurus and Sauropelta
d) Largely marine dinosaurs and reptiles
15. What is the source of the volcanic ash beds (now bentonite clays) found in the Medicine and the
Judith River Formations?
a) The Yellowstone area
b) The Snake River Plains
c) Coastal mountains near the present Mt. St. Helens
d) Volcanoes near Helena in what is now the Elkhorn Mountain area
16. In what type of environment was the Judith River Sandstone deposited?
a) A lowland area and coastal plain
b) A barrier island beach complex
c) A river delta
d) An upland forest
Historical Geology – Quiz 9 – Spring, 2009
1.
a)
b)
c)
d)
What does the Latin word ‘creta’ from which Cretaceous derives its name mean?
carbon
chalk
limestone
Cretaceous
2.
a)
b)
c)
d)
Where are the most famous chalk deposits in the world and what are they called?
Half-Dome in Yosemite
The Chalk mines in Libby, Montana
The Monterrey Formation on the west coast of California
The White Cliffs of Dover on the coast of England
3.
a)
b)
c)
d)
What were the dominant carnivores in the ocean during the Late Mesozoic?
Swimming Dinosaurs
Swimming Reptiles
Swimming Amphibians
Swimming Mammals
4.
a)
b)
c)
d)
What changes occurred in the feeding habits of some of the new gastropods (snails)?
Some became herbivores
Some became carnivores
Some moved to fresh water environments
Some stopped eating stromatolites
5. What contrast do we see between Paleozoic and Mesozoic fossilized shells that indicates that
marine predation increased significantly in the Mesozoic?
a) Fossilized Mesozoic shells have holes in them from predators
b) Fossilized Mesozoic shells are generally open when you find them
c) Fossilized Mesozoic shells are broken into tiny pieces
d) Fossilized Mesozoic shells are hard to find
6. What evolutionary development let grasses invade the open country, i.e. dry savannas and plains?
a) The development of C3 photosynthesis
b) The development of C4 photosynthesis
c) The development of grazing animals
d) The development of angiosperms
7 With what Class of animal do angiosperms co-evolve?
a) Birds
b) Dinosaurs
c) Amphibians
d) Insects
8. With what modern animal community does Stanley compare Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of the
American West?
a) The zoo
b) The circus
c) The Great Barrier Reef
d) The African plains
9. What organisms were wiped out during the extinction at the end of the Cretaceous?
a) Ammonites, dinosaurs, boney fishes (Teleost), all phytoplankton
b) Ammonites, dinosaurs, marsupials, most phytoplankton
c) Ammonites, dinosaurs, monotremes, most calcareous phytoplankton
d) Ammonites, dinosaurs, rudists, marine reptiles, most calcareous phytoplankton
10. What was the first evidence that a meteorite strike may have caused the extinction?
a) All of the dinosaurs died of burns and turned into coal and peat deposits
b) Mammals survived because they can survive cold weather and darkness better than dinosaurs
c) Atmospheric CO2 increased
d) There was an iridium anomaly detected in the rocks at the K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) Boundary
11. How long did it take for the three surviving species of forams to evolve into 17 new species?
a) Less than ten thousand years
b) Less than a hundred thousand years
c) Less than a million years
d) Less than ten million years
12. What animal(s) took over from the extinct marine reptiles to become the dominant large ocean
predator(s)?
a) Sharks
b) Whales
c) Ammonites
d) Both A and B
13. With what type of animals do grasses have a coevolutionary relationship?
a) Rodents and Birds
b) Grazing animals
c) Snakes
d) All of the above, plus humans as well
14. What are ungulates?
a) Members of the Whale family
b) Very large land birds
c) Primitive marsupials that became extinct in the Early Paleogene
d) Cloven-hoofed animals
15. What happened to the size of mammals as the Cenozoic progressed?
a) They got bigger according to Cope’s Law
b) They got smaller according to Cope’s Law
c) Herbivores got bigger and carnivores got smaller
d) Carnivores got bigger and herbivores got smaller
16. What could have triggered the release of the methane hydrates on the continental slopes?
a) Shock waves from the meteorite impact
b) Gradual warming of the Earth, caused hydrates to become unstable, i.e. they melted and degassed
c) Rapid warming of the Earth caused some of the hydrates to ignite catastrophically
d) Dropping of sea level during the Ice Age caused hydrates buried in continental sediments to become
exposed
Quiz 10 - Historical Geology – Spring, 2009
1. What change in the world do we use to mark the beginning of the Holocene?
A. The beginning of the present Ice Age
B. The end of the present Ice Age
C. The most recent retreat of continental glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere
D. The rise of Hominidae
2. What radioactive isotope is used to date Holocene sediments and events?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Carbon-14
Potassium-Argon
Lead-Uranium series
Nitrogen-14
3. When was the Younger Dryas and what happened to the climate?
A. The Y.D. was a cooling trend that began about 12,900 years ago and ended ~ 11,600 years ago
B. The Y.D. was a warming trend that began about 12,900 years ago and ended ~ 11,600 years ago
C. The Y.D. was a cooling trend that began about 1500 AD and ended ~ 1850 AD
D. The Y.D. was a warming trend that began about 1500 AD and ended ~ 1850 AD
4. Approximately when did humans reach the North American continent?
A. About 1 million years ago
B. About 40,000 years ago
C. About 13,000 years ago
D. About 11,700 years ago
5. When did humans first start to produce flour, indicating the advent of agrarian societies?
A. Between 1 and 2 million years ago
B. About 40,000 years ago
C. Between about 10,000 and 9,000 years ago
D. About 4,000 years ago
6. How much (in PPM) have atmospheric concentrations of CO2 changed since 1700?
A. Increased a little more than 1 ppm (from 2.8 to 3.9 ppm)
B. Increased a little more than 10 ppm (from 28 to 39 ppm)
C. Increased a little more than 100 ppm (from 280 to 390 ppm)
D. Increased a little more than 1000 ppm (from 2800 to 3900 ppm)
7. When was the Little Ice Age?
A. Between 3.4 million years ago and the present
B. Between 11,600 years ago and the present
C. Between 3500 and 1000 BC
D. Between 1500 and 1850 AD
8. What are the 'most far-reaching biotic changes" in the Neogene?
A. The spread of grasses and weedy plants
B. The modernization of vertebrate life
C. The cooling of Antarctica and expansion of continental glaciers
D. Both A and B are true
9. What happened to large herbivores with the development of C4 grasses?
A. They died out
B. Those with extremely long front molar teeth died out
C. Those without extremely long front molar teeth died out
D. They were replaced by rodents and birds
10. In what type of environment do C4 grasses do particularly well?
A. Hot, dry conditions with low CO2 and warm nights
B. Warm, wet conditions with high CO2 and cold nights
11. In what type of environment do C3 grasses do particularly well?
A. Hot, dry conditions with low CO2 and cold nights
B. Warm, wet conditions with high CO2 and warm nights
12. When did the Apes diversify?
A. The Pleistocene
B. The Pliocene
C. The Miocene
D. The Paleogene
13. What marine mammal became a dominant ocean predator in the Neogene?
A. Sharks
B. Whales
C. Tuna
D. Both A and B are correct