Geology quiz

Fill in the blanks. (5 points each)

PART I

A. Asthenosphere D. Ocean ridge system

B. Lithosphere E. Alfred Wegener

C. Pangaea

1. A single supercontinent consisting of all Earth’s landmass that began to break up about 200 million years ago was called ________________________.

2. In 1915, a German meteorologist and geophysicist named _________________ wrote The Origin of Continents and Oceans and set forth a basic outline of the hypothesis called continental drift.

3. The uppermost mantle, along with the overlying crust, behaves as a strong, rigid layer known as the _________________________.

4. Through later technology a much better picture of large expanses of the seafloor slowly and painstakingly began to emerge. From this work came the discovery of a global ____________

_____________________that winds through all of the major oceans in a manner similar to the seams on a baseball.

5. The ____________________ is a subdivision of the mantle situated below the lithosphere. This zone of weak material exists below a depth of about 100 kilometers and in some regions extends as deep as 700 kilometers. The rock within this zone is easily deformed.

PART II

A. Convergent plate boundaries D. Paleomagnetism

B. Transform plate boundaries E. Hot spot volcanism

C. Divergent plate boundaries

6. Rocks that formed thousands or millions of years ago and contain a “record” of the direction of the magnetic poles at the time of their formation are said to possess fossil magnetism, or

________________________.

7. _______________________ occur where two plates move toward each other and the leading edge of one is bent downward, as it slides beneath the other. This is where crust is destroyed or recycled.

8. _________________________ occur where two plates move apart, resulting in upwelling of hot material from the mantle to create new seafloor.

9. A ______________________ is a concentration of heat in the mantle capable of producing magma, which in turn extrudes onto Earth’s surface. The intraplate volcanism that produced the Hawaiian Islands is one example.

10. ___________________ are where two plates grind past each other without the production or destruction of lithosphere.

PART III

A. Liquefaction D. Epicenter

B. Elastic rebound E. Magnitude

C. Focus

11. The origin of an earthquake occurs at depths between 5 and 700 kilometers, at the _______________.

12. The point at the surface directly above the focus is called the _____________________.

13. A quantitative measurement , called ________________, relies on data gleaned from seismic records to estimate the amount of energy released at an earthquake’s source.

14. ______________________ is the sudden release of stored strain in rocks that results in movement along a fault. This actual mechanism of earthquake generation was discovered by H.F. Reid following the great 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.

15. In areas where unconsolidated materials are saturated with water, earthquake vibrations can turn stable soil into a mobile fluid, a phenomenon known as ______________________.

PART IV

A. Brittle deformation D. Faults

B. Ductile deformation E. Folds

C. Orogenesis

16. The term for the processes that collectively produce a mountain belt is _________________.

17. Along convergent plate boundaries, flat-lying sedimentary and volcanic rocks are often bent into a series of wavelike undulations called ________________.

18. _______________ are fractures in the crust along which appreciable displacement had taken place.

19. _____________________ is a type of solid-state flow that produces a change in the size and shape of an object without fracturing.

20. Rocks near the surface, where temperatures and confining pressures are low, tend to behave like a brittle solid and fracture once their strength is exceeded. This type of deformation is called

_______________________.