Quiz 3 Review

The third quiz will cover chapters 8, 9, 10, and parts of 15. The format of the third quiz will be similar to the first and second. Below you will find a list of topics that we've covered. As with the last quiz, the list below was compiled by Dolly Freidel. Below the list of concepts and terms you will find some sample questions.

Concepts and Terms that may be on the exam

Lithosphere

Structure of the Earth's interior
Continental crust (felsic, less dense, lighter color) and oceanic crust (mafic, more dense, darker color)
Rock Cycle, see p. 274 fig 8.6

Rocks and Minerals

Mineral -- element or combination of elements with specific physical characteristics such as lustre, crystal structure, hardness, color, etc.
Rock -- made up of one or more minerals, bound together

Igneous rocks

Form from cooled molten rock material, magma,
classified by:
how/where formed: intrusive (e.g. granite), extrusive (e.g. basalt);
chemistry: oceanic (mafic, e.g. basalt), continental (felsic, e.g. granite)

Sedimentary rocks

Form from broken up rocks, sediment, or organic materials (e.g. shell)
classified by:
clastic: particles, size, sorting, e.g. sandstone (sand), shale (mud, clay), conglomerate (gravel, pebbles)
Chemically precipitated: e.g. limestone, evaporites (e.g. salt)
Organic: e.g. coal, (also oil, natural gas, not rocks but also hydrocarbons, from fossil plants, wetlands)

Metamorphic rocks

Formed during subduction, or contact with molten lava, transformed by heat, pressure; can be from any type of rock; usually makes rock harder, may be foliated (thin layers)
e.g. sandstone becomes quartzite; limestone becomes marble; shale becomes slate, granite becomes gneiss; basalt becomes schist

Lithospheric plates

Continental drift (plate tectonics)
Spreading zones, plate divergence
Subduction zones, mountain building, volcanoes, earthquakes
Plate boundaries -- oceanic-oceanic convergence, oceanic-continent convergence, continent-continent convergence
lateral plate contact (transform faulting)
Types of landforms associated with each type of plate boundary (e.g. volcanic island arcs with ocean-ocean convergence, mountains with continent-continent convergence, composite volcanoes & mountains with ocean-continent convergence)

Earthquakes, faults

where do these occur? Why? How are they important for humans?

Fault types

(be able to draw Cross-Section diagrams showing directions of movement and type of stress)
Normal (tensional),
Reverse (compressional),
Transform strike-slip, right-lateral (e.g. San Andreas), left-lateral (how can you tell?)
Horsts and grabens -- e.g. Death Valley, the Great Basin, graben valleys that have sunk down along faults (associated with normal faults, tensional forces)

Folds

from compressional forces -- anticlines (upfold) and synclines (downfold)

Volcanism

where does it occur? Why?
Ring of Fire -- where is it, why, what sorts of landforms, processes?
Volcanic rocks: pyroclastics -- pumice, tephra (ash), bombs
lava (aa, pahoehoe), obsidian, basalt (oceanic rock), rhyolite (continental)
Landforms: Flood basalts, composite and shield volcanoes
Hot spots (e.g. Hawaiian island chain, Yellowstone Nat. Park)

General Geomorphology

Forces that form landscapes -- Gravity, water, wind, ice, waves.
weathering, mass movements, erosion, deposition by water, ice, wind, waves
Concepts of dynamic equilibrium, base level
Weathering -- what is weathering? (It is NOT Erosion!)

Physical Weathering

does not change rock composition, creates angular, sharp-edged pieces of rock
Unloading (stress release), salt weathering (crystallization), hydrofracturing (ice wedging)
Dominant in dry and/or cold environments

Chemical Weathering

changes mineral composition of rock, softens, makes rounder: Oxidation, hydrolysis, carbonation
Dominant in warmer and/or more moist environments, responsible for formation of clay minerals

Mass movements

Driving forces: Gravity (weight), slope angle
Resisting forces: friction, cohesiveness
Causes of mass movements: slope loading by weight of water or building, undermining slope, cutting of slope toe, slope angle of bedrock, earthquake, thunder, etc.
Types: creep, flow, slide (translational), slump (rotational), fall, (Fast-Slow; Dry-Wet)

Acknowledgements

The list of review topics was compiled by Dolly Freidel.

Sample Questions

  1. What are the three major rock types and how are they formed? Draw a diagram illustrating the relationship between the three different rock types, sediment, and magma.
  2. Name three different types of plate tectonic boundaries and give an example of where each type occurs on Earth today.
  3. In what sense can earthquakes be predicted? How is that information useful to people?
  4. If there were a big earthquake on the Rodgers Creek fault, where would you want to be (i.e. where would the least shaking occur)?
    1. Sonoma Mountain, on top of the fault
    2. Cotati, 8 miles west of the fault, on soft sediment
    3. 8 miles east of the fault, in the mountains, on bedrock
  5. Why would you want to be in that location during the earthquake?
  6. What fault type is the Rogers Creek Fault?
    1. normal fault
    2. reverse fault
    3. left-lateral strike-slip fault
    4. right-lateral strike-slip fault
  7. In what direction would the two sides of the Rodgers Creek Fault move during an earthquake?
  8. In South America, seismologists observe that earthquakes along the west coast are shallow and they get deeper farther east under the Andes Mountains. Draw a cross-sectional diagram that explains why this should be the case. Show the Pacific Plate, the South American plate, the boundary between them, and the location of 10 random earthquakes. Your diagram should also show the relative thickness of the ocean crust versus the continental crust.
  9. What factors affect the height of the mountains in South America?
    1. composite volcanoes
    2. intrusions
    3. erosion by landslides and rivers
    4. folding and faulting
  10. Draw a hypsometric curve for the height of earth's crust relative to sea level. Label the approximate locations on the curve of Mt. Everest, the Great Plains of the USA, the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mariana Trench.
  11. Compare and contrast physical weathering and chemical weathering.
  12. Which of the following is not a physical weathering process?
    1. rusting
    2. unloading
    3. salt crystallization
    4. frost action
  13. Which of the following is not a chemical weathering process?
    1. oxidation
    2. dissolution
    3. solidification
    4. hydrolysis
  14. What affects whether a section of a hillslope will fail (have a landslide)?
    1. moisture content of the soil
    2. grain size
    3. slope
    4. rain falling on the landscape
    5. gophers
    6. vegetation
  15. Give two reasons why adding rain to a landscape tends to cause landslides.