GEOSCIENCE

GEOS 102 - GEOLOGY OF NATIONAL PARKS

Review Questions

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Review - lecture quiz 1 - Friday Sept. 28th

Format - 50 pts

50 multiple choice questions

Topics Covered On Exam

Review questions

What is geology?
What causes the plates (in Plate Tectonics) to move?
What are the two primary types of plate boundaries, and what happens to ocean crust at each type?
What type of information can we learn by looking at igneous rocks?
What are the processes involved in the creation of sedimentary rocks?
What is the major difference between how igneous and metamorphic rocks form?
What is superposition?
Why are fossils useful for telling geologic time?
What is an unconformity?
Why are the age equivalent rocks to the Cambrian Tonto group thicker in southern California than in the Grand Canyon?
What is the basic problem that is encountered when applying the congressional act of 1916 that established the National Parks system?
Why are the national parks so scenic?
What are the 4 parts of the Earth System and how do they interact?
Is the present configuration of the oceans and continents a mere coincidence? Why or why not?
What are the basic parts of the layered Earth?
What is the primary heat source for the internal heat engine?
What process caused the outer part of earth to break into plates, and is currently causing the plates to move?
Why does the lithosphere float on the asthenosphere?
What are the two types of crust, and why does one type ride lower on the surface of earth?
What is the source of energy or engine that drives surface processes?
What is the rock cycle?
What are the major differences between igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks
What does the overall texture of a rock reflect?
Where does the melting of earth materials to become magma (the stuff that becomes igneous rocks) take place?
What are the two major types of igneous rocks, and what does the size of the crystals tell us?
What is the significance of finding a coarse-crystalline igneous rock at the surface of earth?
Where do sedimentary rocks come from?
Where doe sediments accumulate and sedimentary rocks form?
What does the texture and components of sediments tell us?
What sort of environmental differences would there be between the conditions that would produce a conglomerate, a sandstone, and a shale?
What can fossils tell us about a sedimentary rock?
What types of sedimentary rocks tell us something about climate?
Why are sedimentary rocks layered or stratified?
What geologic processes allowed the Colorado River to carve the Grand Canyon?
How do metamorphic form, what geologic processes do they indicate, and what is the significance of finding them at the surface?
Why is the Colorado River the most important river in the west?
What explains the temperature differences between the North Rim, the South Rim, and within the canyon at the Grand Canyon?
What is the Geologic Time Scale, and what are the differences between the two frameworks of geologic time?
What is the principle of Cross Cutting Relationships?
How do we determine numerical time from rocks, and why can radiometric dating not be applied to sedimentary rocks?
What is stratigraphy?
What is correlation, and how do geologists correlate rocks?
What are the three different types of unconformities?
How do we fill in the gaps (because of unconformities) of the geologic history of a particular area?
What does the upward progression from sandstone to shale and to limestone in the Tonto Group tell us about the Cambrian history of the Grand Canyon region.
What do the Vishnu Schist and the Zoraster Granite tell us about the history of the Grand Canyon region?
At what type of plate boundary do large mountains form?

check back again as I will be adding questions until .........
e-mail me leonardk@mnstate.edu if you have any problems

Review - lecture quiz 2- Friday Nov. 2nd

Format - 50 pts

50 multiple choice questions

Topics Covered On Exam

Review questions

Why did the Appalachians “pop up” after they were leveled flat in the Mesozoic?
What was forming on Earth at the same time the Appalachians were forming?
What is a biologic or geologic reef?
What are the basic parts of a reef system, and what are some of the requirements for reef growth?
What is the 2 step process in the formation of a cave?
How was the formation of Carlsbad Cavern different from the formation of other limestone caves?
Why do many of the Mesozoic rock formations in Arches National Park contain large scale cross-bedding?
Why are the arches and fins parallel to Salt Valley, and how to arches form?
What are the basic requirements to preserve an organism as a fossil?
What is a dinosaur?
What had happened in the region where the Appalachian’s formed prior to the formation of those mountains?
What were the major steps in the formation of the Appalachians, and why are they no longer as spectacular as they once were?
How doe we know that the mountains in the Appalachians were volcanoes during the Taconic Orogeny?
What continents did North America collide with during the Alleghenian Orogeny?
What are Wilson Cycles?
How did life change in North America from the Taconic to the Alleghenian orogenies?
Which geologic period produced most of the coal in North America – why?
What type of sedimentary rock forms from a reef?
Why are the processes that generate sediments and sedimentary rock around a reef different from the processes that create sandstones and shales?
Why are the sediments in the back reef part of a reef more fine grained than the reef and fore reef?
Was sea level rising or falling during the formation of the Capitan Reef?
How do we know that the Permian Reef complex was actually a reef?
What happened in the Permian Basin region after the reefs stopped growing?
What do you need for an economic accumulation of petroleum?
What sort of characteristics must a region have in order for limestone caves to form?
What is Karst topography?
What is the evidence that the dissolution part of forming Carlsbad Caverns was different as compared to other caves?
How do speleothems form?
What was the climate like on Earth during the Permian?
What were some of the major differences in life during the Permian in North America as compared to the earlier parts of the Paleozoic?
What was the major event that occurred at the end of the Permian that had a drastic impact on life on Earth, and what were the possible causes of this event?
What are some of the general characteristics of the Dewey Bridge member of the Entrada Formation, and how do these characteristics contribute to the formation of arches?
How do we know what the prevailing wind directions were during the Mesozoic in the Arches National Park region?
What do large-scale cross bedded sandstones indicate about Mesozoic climate in the Arches region?
How is it possible to create a valley (like Salt Valley in Arches) with only minor amounts of stream erosion?
Why would layers of salt flow upward?
What is exfoliation?
What is a fossil, and why is it unlikely that any individual organism will become a fossil?
What is the difference between a fossil bone and one that is unfossilized?
Because they are now extinct….are dinosaurs considered an unsuccessful group of organisms?
What feature distinguishes the dinosaurs from the other reptiles?
What are the two major groups of dinosaurs?
How were the dinosaurs different from the rest of the reptiles?
Why do some people now believe that T. rex may have been a scavenger?
At what type of plate boundary do large mountains form?

check back again as I will be adding questions until ........
e-mail me leonardk@mnstate.edu if you have any problems

Review - lecture quiz 3- Friday Dec. 3rd

Format - 50 pts

50 multiple choice questions

Topics Covered On Exam

Review questions

How did the bones in the Douglass Quarry at Dinosaur National Monument accumulate, and what sort of deposit does it represent? What are some of the clues that we examine to make this interpretation?
Where does sediment accumulate within a stream channel and why?
Why are the Badlands called the Badlands?
How do badlands form?
Why did the horses and other mammals change during the Oligocene in the Badlands of South Dakota?
What is a soil?
How do we know that the climate changed from tropical to semi-arid during the deposition of the Oligocene White River Group in Badlands National Park?
What are the major components of a soil, and how do they form?
What are the parts of a soil profile, and what is the most important soil-forming factor?
What are the major differences between temperate, arid, and tropical soils?
What sort of features do we look for to distinguish paleosols from just another rock?
What are some of the major differences between the Fort Union Group rocks in Teddy Roosevelt and the White River Group in Badlands National Park?
How do we know that the Fort Union Group represents deposition in a tropical environment?
How does coal form?
How is lignite different from other forms of coal?
What is North Dakota lignite used for, and what are the problems associated with this?
The geologic history of the Pacific Northwest over the last 20 million years has been a volcanic one. Why?
Where on earth does volcanic activity occur?
Why do volcanoes erupt, or what are the forces that force volcanic material out of the ground?
What determines how explosive a volcanic eruption will be?
What types of materials come out of a volcano curing an eruption?
What are the major parts of a volcano?
What determines the type of volcano that occurs in a particular area?
The Cascades in the Pacific Northwest are a chain of active stratovolcanoes. Why are these volcanoes present in this region?
Why aren’t the volcanoes in the Cascades constantly erupting?
Why is Mount Rainier such a dangerous mountain?
What are some of the volcanic hazards that do not require a volcanic eruption?
What are some of the differences between a shield volcano and a stratovolcano?
What is the greatest volcanic hazard for most people who live in cities in the Pacific Northwest?
Why was the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens in 1980 not a typical eruption for a stratovolcano?
What were the warning signs that St. Helens was about to erupt in 1980?
What event triggered the 1980 eruption of St. Helens?
What areas where blanketed with ash from the 1980 eruption, and why?
What the greatest hazard for people living within a hundred miles of a stratovolcano?
What is a lahar, and what makes it so hazardous?
What have the numerous small eruptions since 1980 done to Mt. St. Helens?
Is a major eruption of Mt. St. Helens likely in the near future?
How do we predict or forecast volcanic eruptions?
How can volcanic eruptions influence human history?
What is an ecosystem, and why is Yellowstone now considered a complete ecosystem?
What are some of the problems associated with the management of the Yellowstone Ecosystem?
Why was it so difficult for geologists to determine the source of the volcanic materials in Yellowstone National Park?
What type of volcanic feature is present in Yellowstone, and how many eruptive cycles have occurred in this area?
Since it is not is close proximity to a plate boundary, what process is responsible for the volcanic activity in Yellowstone?
What is responsible for making the eruption of a caldera such a dramatic event?
What is the source of heat for the geothermal features in Yellowstone?

check back again as I will be adding questions until .........
e-mail me leonardk@mnstate.edu if you have any problems

Final Exam = Dec. 13th - Noon

Format - will include new material (since the last exam), plus comprehensive material

75 multiple choice questions

New Topics

Review Questions - (new material - use the questions above for the comprehensive part)

New questions:

What are the major differences between a geyser and a hot spring, and why are they different?
What are the major differences between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem?
Why do the mountains in Glacier National Park appear to pop up from the plains so abruptly?
What is the Lewis Thrust, how do we recognize it, and how did it contribute to the creation of mountains?
What sort of environments is preserved in the sedimentary rocks of Glacier National Park?
When and how were most of the landforms in Glacier National Park created?
How can you tell if a glacier has ever occupied the stream valley you are hiking in?
The glaciers in Glacier National Park have receded dramatically in the 90 years since this region was established as a national park. What are the possible reasons for this?
What is an alpine glacier, how do they form, and how do they move?
How are glaciated mountains different from mountains without glaciers?

Helpfull Hints: Questions will attempt to focus on key concepts whenever possible, although with multiple choice questions you will have to know a few details. Study your old exams and the questions above, and you shouldn't have any problems. The key to taking these exams is reading the questions carefully, plus knowing the material....

e-mail me leonardk@mnstate.edu if you have any problems