Earth History and Global Change
GEOL-1122 Spring 2015
Practice for Lecture Test #1
Name_______________________________
Part I ‑ Multiple Choice (50 pts. ‑ 2 pts. each question).
**Circle the letter of the correct answer.
1) Which of the following is not commonly used in determining the geologic history of an area?
a) Studies of local rock types, textures and compositions
b) Studies of the spatial relationships and distribution of rock units
c) Studies of local geologic structures
d) Written records or accounts of observed past geologic events
2) Which of the following theories requires deep or geologic time?
a) Plate Tectonics Theory
b) Theory of Evolution
c) Big Bang Theory and the Nebular Hypothesis
d) All of the above
3) Which of the following was the first group that proposed and pushed for linear time?
a) Early Greeks
b) Early Christian leaders
c) Mayan Astronomers
d) All of the above
4) Which of the following proposed an age of 6,000 years for the earth?
a) James Hutton and other 16th Century Geologists
b) Ancient Mayan Astronomers
c) James Ussher and Fundamentalist Church Leaders
d) Ancient Greek Philosophers and Scientists
5) Lord Kelvin proposed a much older age (relative to the previously accepted 6,000 year age) for the earth based on:
a) Cooling rates for iron-rich sphere and estimated cooling time for Earth
b) Erosion rates and time required to wear down ancient mountain systems
c) Fossil content of the oldest rocks on Earth
d) Radiometric dating of moon-rocks and meteorites
6) Today, the most widely-accepted age of the Earth is:
a) 460,000 years
b) 4,600,000 years
c) 460,000,000 years
d) 4,600,000,000 years
e) 46,000,000,000 years
7) Which of the following is commonly used to determine the relative ages of rocks?
a) Unconformity surfaces
b) Rock inclusions
c) Layering of sedimentary rocks
d) All of the above
8) Which of the following is not a required characteristic for a marker or key bed?
a) It must be a volcanic ash bed or lava flow.
b) It must be laterally extensive.
c) It must be distinctive.
d) It must be limited in age.
9) The relative age of faults are most commonly determined by which of the following
principles?
a) Superpostion
b) Horizontality
c) Cross-cutting Relationships
d) Lateral Continuity
10) Which of the following is a type of unconformity where horizontal sedimentary rocks are overlain by horizontal sedimentary rocks of much younger age?
a) Disconformity
b) Angular unconformity
c) Nonconformity
d) Any of the above
11) Which of the following rock types is commonly dated using radiometric dating techniques?
a) Intrusive igneous rocks
b) High-grade metamorphic rocks
c) Extrusive volcanic rocks
d) All of the above
12) Radioactive Beta decay involves which of the following?
a) Conversion of a neutron into a proton.
b) Loss of a low-mass negatively-charged particle from the nucleus.
c) An increase of one in the atomic number of the atom.
d) All of the above
13) How much parent material would you expect to find for an isotope if four (4) half lives
had passed?
a) 3.125%
b) 6.25%
c) 12.5%
d) 25%
14) Which of the following reactions involves Alpha decay? (Atomic mass is shown as
superscripts.)
a) Rb87 to Sr87
b) K40 to Ar40
c) U238 to Th234
d) C14 to N14
15) The Carbon-14 method is commonly used to date:
a) Organic materials
b) Igneous and metamorphic rocks
c) Chemical precipitate sedimentary rocks (like rock gypsum)
d) All of the above
16) The Law of Fossil Succession predicts which of the following:
a) As new fossils appear, an equal number of older fossils must disappear.
b) There are distinctive and recognizable changes in the fossil record through time.
c) Fossils will change beneath the ground surface to form new and different fossils.
d) There are simple and easily recognized evolutionary links between all fossil life forms.
17) Which of the following is an optimal condition for fossilization?
a) Absence of hard parts
b) Oxygen-rich conditions
c) Rapid burial
d) All of the above
18) Which of the following is a theory by Lamarck that proposes new species descended from other species through gradual change over many generations?
a) Convergent Evolution
b) Transformism
c) Natural Selection
d) Punctuated Equilibrium
19) Which of the following is the mechanism the Lamarck proposed was responsible for the
observed changes in species over time?
a) Survival of only the Best Adapted
b) Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics
c) Mutational Adaptation
d) Selective Reproduction
20) Which of the following is commonly used in support of the theory of evolution?
a) A decrease in complexity or fossil life forms towards the recent
b) Vestigial structures in several modern organisms
c) A decrease in fossil diversity towards the recent
d) All of the above
21) Rapid global climatic change commonly results in:
a) Punctuated equilibrium
b) An initial increase in extinction rates
c) A subsequent increase in diversification rates
d) All of the above
22) Which of the following are considered vestigial structures?
a) Five digit bones of humans and whales
b) Bird wings and insect wings
c) Dew claw of dogs
d) All of the above
23) Which of the following are examples of homologous structures?
a) Five digit bones of humans and whales
b) Bird wings and insect wings
c) Dew claw of dogs and recessed toes of horses
d) All of the above
24) Which of the following will increase the amount of mutations in a population?
a) Exposure to radiation
b) Dietary changes
c) Decrease reproduction rates
d) All of the above
25) The idea or theory which proposes that all life forms appeared on the earth at the same
time is called:
a) Gradualism
b) Transformism
c) Spontaneous Generation
d) Synchronous Creationism
Part II ‑ Fill in the Blank (50 pts. ‑ 2 pts. each question)
26) Explain how the invention of reliable and affordable time-keeping change human and social behavior. __________________________________________________________
27) Explain why the most widely accepted age for the earth is based on moon rocks and meteorites. _____________________________________________________
28) ________________________ is the study of the distribution and correlation of rock units.
29) A type of unconformity that has regional metamorphic or intrusive igneous rocks overlain by flat-lying sedimentary rocks is called a/an ______________________.
30) A type of radioactive decay in which an electron is pulled into the nucleus and combined with a proton to form a neutron is called _______________________.
31) How much parent material of an isotope with a half life of 30 million years would be present in a rock that is 120 million years old? ______________________
32) What is the age of a lava with isotopic abundances of parent = 12.5% and daughter = 87.5% for an isotope with a half‑life of 13 million years? ____________ (list units)
33) Which principle or law of stratigraphy indicates that strongly tilted and folded sedimentary rocks must have been subjected to deformation and/or mountain building
after they were originally deposited. _________________________________________
34-35) Define a fossil assemblage and explain how these are used to obtain more accurate ages of sedimentary rocks.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
36) The substudy of stratigraphy that utilizes energy waves to study the relationships and distribution of subsurface rock units is called ________________________________.
37-38) Name two of the three major factors listed in class that cause the fossil record to display a much greater increase in diversity through time than actually occurred.
a) ____________________________________________________________________
b) _____________________________________________________________________
39-40) List the four important characteristics of an index fossil.
a) ______________________________________________________________________
b) ______________________________________________________________________
c) ______________________________________________________________________
d) ______________________________________________________________________
41) The study of the distribution of ancient (fossil) life forms is called ____________________.
42-43) Define and name an example of homologous structures. _______________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
44) Name an anoxic (oxygen-depleted) environment where fossilization commonly occurs. ___________________________
45) Name and describe an example of convergent evolution. __________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
46) _________________________________ is a darkening trend in moths resulting from the Industrial Revolution. It is commonly used as an example of natural selection.
47-48) What are the two most important sources of variability in the characteristics of a reproducing population? _________________________________________ and
______________________________________________.
49-50) List four major causes of extinctions.
a) __________________________________________________________________
b) __________________________________________________________________
c) __________________________________________________________________
d) __________________________________________________________________
Extra Credit (2 pts.): What is the name of the man that proposed the idea of Evolution at the same time that Darwin proposed it?
______________________________________________