Which of the following is an example of a renewable resource ?
Cotton
Renewable resources.
Have finite supplies that will one day be used up.
Which of the following is an example of a nonrenewable resources ?
uranium
Which of the following lists presents of coal in the correct order from the first stage of development to the last stage development.
peat,lignite,bituminous, anthracite.
The advantage of solar energy include the fact that it is
non- polluting
What is one of the draw backs to the extensive use of solar energy
Necessary equipment and installation are expensive.
The fuel for nuclear fission in nuclear reactors is
uranium
Which of the following is a problem associated with the increased use of nuclear energy ?
a. coast of building safe nuclear facilities
b. major hazards involved in nuclear waste disposal
c. concern over the possibility of a serious nuclear accident
d. all of above
How does nuclear fission produce energy ?
Controlled nuclear chain reaction produces heat, driving steam turbines to produce energy
Wind power generates
noise pollution
One problem with the wind energy as a major source of electricity is
the expense of large tracts of land in populated areas
What is the source of geothermal energy ?
natural underground reservoirs of stream and hot water.
What is one way tidal power is harnessed ?
by building a dam across a swiftly flowing river .
Fresh water is used for which of the following ?
a. drinking
b. cooking
c. growing food
d. all of above
What is the function of the atmosphere's ozone layer.
provides the oxygen needed by humane life
The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide helps to
maintain warmth near Earths surface.
Which of the following is Not a land resource ?
wind
One way that mining for mineral resources damages the land is by
increasing soil erosion
In which decade were the first important laws passed to decrease water pollution ?
1970's
The clean water act water
required industries to reduce or eliminate point reousrce pollution in surface waters.
The process of turning old terms into new products is called .
incineration
Allowing organic house and yard wastes to decompose and form soil for use in gardens is.
Composting
39. To create less waste in the first place is to .
reduce
The process of restoring an area ofland to its natural state is called.
reclamation
A substance believed to be responsible for the depletion ofthe ozone layer is.
carbon monoxide
Most of the Earth's water is
salt water
A forest that has never been cut is referred to as
virgin
Thermal pollution affects primarily what resource ?
Air
What pollutant can get in runoff and result in an explosive growth of algae ?
Herbicides
Runoff can come from
farms, construction sites, roads .
Which of the following is on the rise because of the damage to the ozone layer ?
Global Warming
How does recycling help the enviorment ?
save energy , saves resources , reduces waste,
What statement is NOT true about animal waste ?
Since it is natural it is not considrd a pollutant.
How does heavy irrigation damage farmland ?
can cause salinization
Cars with hybrid and electric motors
create less air pollution than conventional cars.
What is the most important law passed to deal with air pollution ?
Clean Air Act
Contour plowing is a soil conservation methond that involves
plowing arcoss hill slopes
The resources conservation and recovery act of 1976 has resulted
A decrease in the illegeal and unsafe dumping of hazardous wast.
Cutting down only some trees in a forset, leaving a mix tree sizes and species is called
selective cutting
The practice of raising fish in enclosuer for food is called
aquaculture
Pollution is called
man, animals, natural events .
Contour plowing is used to help prevent
erosion
A landhill desighn to hold solid waste safety is called
a sanitary landfill
Logging minning and ffarming can all distrubt soil and lead to
erosion
The water cycle is
unending circulation of Earth's water supply
Balance in the water cycle means that
the average annual precipiatation over earh equals the amount of water that was evaporated.
The ability of a stream to erode and transport material depends largely on its
Velocity
A stream's discharge
increases between its sources and mouth
The gaseous from the water is called
water vapor
Most of the Earth's fresh water is found in
huge masses of ice near the North and South Pole .
A depositional feature that forms where a stream enters a lake or an ocen is a
Delta
The most prominent features of a narrow V- shaped valley where the stem profile drops quickly are
rapids and water falls
A flood plain forms wher a steam
cuts manily side to side
One major cause of floods is
rapid spring snowmelt
Limiting development on floodplains is effective because it
allows floodplains to absorb floodwaters with little harm to structures.
A drainage basin is
the land that contributes water to a stream
Groundwater is found underground in the zone of
saturation
A break in Earth's where rocks have slipped past each othe r is called
fault
Continental crust consists manily of the rock
granite
What is the croccet order ( starting from the surface ) of Eathe's layers ?
Crust mantle ,outer core,inner core
Earth's innwer core
a dense ball of solid metal
Forces that shape Earth's by building up mountains and landmasses sre called
construcive forces
What is the average movement of lithospheric plates ?
5cm per year
What kind of plate boundary occurs where two plates grind past each other without destroying th lithosphere.
transform fault bondayr
Which of the following is a geographic example of a transorm fault bondary ?
the San Andras Fault
According to wegener's hypthesis of continental drift
the continents were once joined together in a single landmass
What is Pangaea
The name of a supercontinent that sxisted millions of years ago.
Which type of evidence was NOT used by Alfred Wegener to support hypothesis
evidence from humane remains
Most geologists rejected Alfred Wegener's idea of continental drift because
Wegener could not identify a force that couls move the continents
A convergent boundary occurs where
India and Asia meet
In the process of sea- floor spreading , where does molten material rise from the mantle and erupt
along the mid-ocean ridge
Earth's thin rokcey outer layer is its
crust
The earth's core is made of an alloy of
iron and nickel
What does Earth's crust and uppermost mantle form
lithosphere
Earth's inner core is solid because of
immense pressure
What is the Moho ?
The boundary between the crust and the mantle
The geological theory that states that pieces of Earth's lithosphere are in constant slow motion is the theory of
plate tectonics
A place where two plates slip past each other , moving in opposite direction known as a
transform boundary
A rift valley forms where two plates
diverge
Scientists who study the forces that make and shpae planet Earth are
geologists
Earth mantle is
a layer of molten rock
Subduction is
the procerss by which oceanic crust sinks beneath trenches
Earth's lithosphere is broken into spereate sections calles
plates
A collision between two pieces of continental lithosphere at a converging boundary produces a
mountain range
Any trace of an acient organism that has been preserved in rock is called a
fossil
Who first proposed the therory of continental drift ?
Alfred Wegener
The place where two plates come together is known as
Convergent Boundary
What erupts through the valley of the mid-ocean ridge ?
molten material
The hypothesis of continental drift is used to explain an event that happened
two hundred million years ago
What evidence supports wegener's hypothesis ?
Fossils of the same organism have been found on diffrent contients
Evidence about ancinet climates indicate that
A glacial ice once covered much of what is now India and Australia
The Hawaiian islands were formed when the Pacific plates moved over
Hot Spots
Most geologists think that the movement of Earth's plates is caused by
convection currents in the atmosphere
In the convection current of a pan of soup , the cooler , denses
sinks to the bottom
Heat transfer whithin a fluid take place by
Convection urrents
The factor that has the gratest effct on soil formation is
parent material
A soil's texture is determined by
mineral composition
The main source of organic matter in soil is
bacteria
A soil that is characteristic of the humid eastern United States is
Pedalfer
A soil associated with the hot and wet tropics is
laterite
Compared to the past, rates soil erosion are
faster
Which of the following human activites has caused an increase in soil erosion ?
clear cutting , plowing land for farming , clear land for construction
The rate of soil erosion depends on
climate, the type of vegetation , slope steepness
Since humans have appeared , the amount of sediments carried by rivers has
increased dramatically
What is the correct order for water eroding soil ?
gullies ,rills, sheet erosion
What is the force behind mass movments ?
Gravity
Which of the following is NOT true about mass movments ?
Mass movemets
always lead to landslides
What factor commonly triggers mass movments ?
The plant roots lubricate the loose sediment
During what season would you ecpect mass movments to be a grater threat ?
A wet spring before vegetation is growing
A mass movment that invloves the sudden movment of a block of material surface is called a
slide
When a block of material moves downslope along a curved surface the type of mass movement is
a rockslide
The most abundant element in Earth's continental crust ( by weight )
oxygen
What are the building blocks of minerals ?
elements
The central region of an atom is called the
nucleus
The smallest particle of an element that still retains all the the element's properties is an
atom
If the atomic number of an element is 6 and its mass number is 14 , how many neutrons are contained in the neucleus
Eight
An atom that loses or gains electrons is called
ion
Atoms containing the same numbers of protons and different neutrons are
isotopes
The mass number of an atom is obtained by totaling the number of
protons and neutrons
When two or more elements bond together in definite proportions , they form a(n)
compound
Which subatomic particles are most involved in chemical bonding ?
electrons
The main types of chemical bonds are
ionic, covalent , metallic
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of minerals ?
either liquid or solid
What is a naturally occurring ,inorganic solid with an orderly crystalline structure and a definite chemical composition ?
a mineral
Why is ice in a glacier considered to be a mineral , but water from a glaciers is not
Ice is a solid , but water is not
Mineral are classified by
compostions
The building block of the silicate minerals is called the
silicon - oxygen tetrahedron
All minerals in the sulfate and sulfide groups contain what element
sulfer
The color of a mineral , such as fluorite, changes to
small amounts of different elements
The appearance or quality of light reflected from the surface of the minerals is called
Luster
The resistance of a mineral to being scratched is called
Hardness
The color of the powdered form of a mineral is called
Streak
Mohs scale is used to determine what property of minerals
hardness
The tendency of minerals to break along smooth flat surfaces is called
Cleavages
What is the uneven breakage of a mineral called
fracture
Which of the following minerals will fizz in contact with hydrochloric acid ?
Calcite
What property can be used to distinguish talc ?
Talc has a soapy feel
Which of these is a mineral
a. oxygen
b. diamond
c. Sulfuric acid
d. wood
Chemical bonds are likely to form when
an atom's outer energy level docent have the maximum number of electrons
A mineral CANNOT be
formed from once-living material
Diamond is
the hardest mineral on the Moho scale
An element is a substance that
cannot be broken down into simpler substances
Which particles make up atoms ?
protons ,neutrons, electrons
Which of the following is an element ?
hydrogen
To what class of minerals do gold, silver,and copper belong ?
native elements
Which of the following is Not one of the main areas of Earth Science ?
Astrology
What is the study of the atmosphere and the process that produces weather and climate ?
meterology
The area of Earth science that examines the physical and biological changes that have occurred in Earth's past is called
historical geology
According to the what , our solar formed from a huge rotating cloud of dust and gases ?
Nebular Hypothesis
Which of Earth's spheres includes the ocean, groundwater, lakes and glaciers
the hydrosphere
The life forms of the biosphere are located in the
atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere
What is the outer-most layer of the Earth's geosphere
crust, mantle, core
What is the driving force for the movement of the crustal plates ?
unequal distribution of heat within the earth
The distance measured in degrees north and south of the equator is referred to as
latitiude
The prime meridian is at
0 degrees longitude
Difference in elevation are best shown using a
topographic map
Earth is considered a system because all its parts
interact
What are the two sources of energy for the Earth system
the sun and Earths interior
The suns energy drives which of the following process ?
Weather and Ocean Circulation
Which of the following is powered by energy from Earth's interior ?
A volcano
Which of the following is an environmental hazard created by humans ?
air pollution
Which of the following is NOT caused by human interactions with the Earth System ?
mountain building
How could the building of a dam affect the Earths System ?
cause flooding, destroy specie, block migration
Which of the following is an example of a renewable resource ?
energy from flowing water
Resources that can be replenished over a relatively short period of time
renewable resources
Which of the following is NOT an example of a renewable resources
solar energy
Which of the following is NOT an example of renewable resources
iron
A scientific hypothesis can become a theory if
the hypothesis is tested extensively and competing hypotheses are eliminated
A preliminary untested explanation that tries to explain how or why living happen in the manner observed is a scientific
hypothesis
A scientific idea that is well tested and widely accepted by the scientific community is called a scientific
theory
Masses of flowing water that carry sediment down the continental slope are called
turbidity currents
Which of the following is not a feature of the ocean floor
continental shelf
A flat -topped seamount is called a
guyot
The deepest spot known on the earth is founded in the
Mariana Trench
What precent of the Earth's surface covered by water is approximately
71 precent
Ocean temperatures are lowest in the
deep zone
Organisms that live on the ocean floor are called.
benthos
The zone between the low-and high tide is called the
neritic Zone
Estuaries often contain brackish water , which is
partly fresh and partly salty
Costal wetlands that feature short, trees with arching prop roots are called
Mangrove forests
Salinity is a measure of which of the following in water ?
dissolved salts
Which of the following areas in the ocean is likely to have the lowest salinity ?
the old Arctic Ocean
From which type of material does biogenies sediment form ?
Once-living organisms
Coral reef usually form in
warm and deep
Two gases founded in ocean water that are necessary for living things are
carbon dioxide and Hydrogen
Trenches form at sites where
one plate descends beneath another
what are the two major energy sources obtained from the ocean floor
oil and natural gas
Free swimming animals that can move throughout the water column are called
nekton
The majority of the ocean is owned by
united nations
A fault is
a fracture in the Earth where movement has occurred
An earthquakes's epicenter is
the place on the surface directly above the focus
When an earthquake occurs, energy radiates in all directions from its source , which is called the
focous
Earthquakes are usually associated with
faults
Which of the following causes earthquake
rapid release of energy from rocks under pressure
During an Earthquake the ground surface can move in
any direction
The adjustments of material that follow a major earthquake often generate smaller earthquakes are called
aftershocks
Which seismic waves travel most rapidly
P waves
Overall which waves are more destructive
Surface waves
What is the minimum number of seismic stations that is needed to determine the location of an Earthquake's epicenter
Three
A travel time graph can be used to find the
distance to the epicenter of an earthquake
The richer magnitude of an earthquake is determined form the
arrival times of P waves and S waves
Tsunamis are
often generated by movements of the ocean floor