Name__________________________
2nd Semester Finals Problem Set
1. What is the rock cycle?
2. Who discovered the rock cycle?
3. What is uniformitarianism?
4. Contrast extrusive and intrusive igneous rocks.
5. What is porphyritic texture?
6. What is a sediment?
7. What is a clastic sedimentary rock?
8. What is a chemical sedimentary rock?
9. Why are fossils only found in sedimentary rocks?
10. How are clastic sedimentary rocks named?
11. What does foliated mean?
12. What is regional metamorphism?
13. What is contact metamorphism?
14. What is a parent rock?
15. Who is credited with developing the continental drift hypothesis?
16. What was probably the first evidence that led some to suspect the continents were once
connected?
17. List the evidence that Wegener and his supporters gathered to substantiate the continental
drift hypothesis.
18. What are the three major types of plate boundaries? Describe each.
19. What is seafloor spreading?
20. What is a subduction zone?
21. What is a fault, a focus, and an epicenter?
22. Describe the principle of a seismograph.
23. List the major difference between P and S waves.
24. Which type of wave causes the greatest destruction to buildings?
25. List four factors that affect the amount of destruction caused by seismic vibrations.
26. In addition to the destruction created directly by seismic vibrations, list three other types of
destruction associated with earthquakes.
27. Distinguish between the Mercalli scale and the Richter scale.
28. Why did the China earthquake in 1177 B.C.E. kill so many people?
29. Describe the New Madrid earthquakes.
30. Explain why the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 is famous.
31. When and where was the biggest earthquake on record?
32. Explain why lots of people died in the earthquake in number 31.
33. How long did the Alaskan earthquake last and why is this unusual?
34. Explain why caskets rose up to the surface during the Loma Prieta earthquake.
35. Why was there so much damage and devastation during the Haitian earthquake in 2010?
36. What is rock deformation?
37. How is brittle deformation different from ductile deformation?
38. List three factors that determine how rocks will behave when exposed to stress that exceed
their strength.
39. Distinguish between anticlines and synclines, domes and basins, anticlines and domes.
40. How is a monocline different from an anticline?
41. Contrast the movements that occur along normal and reverse faults.
42. How are joints different from faults?
43. Compare mountain building along an Andean-type and Aleutian-type.
44. What is the difference between magma and lava?
45. What three factors determine the nature of a volcanic eruption?
46. Describe Pahoehoe and Aa lava.
47. List the main gases released during a volcanic eruption.
48. Compare and contrast the three main types of volcanoes.
49. Describe each of the four intrusive igneous features.
50. What is the Ring of Fire?
51. List the three major subdivisions of a passive continental margin.
52. Describe a continental shelf.
53. Distinguish among the three basic types of seafloor sediment and give an example of each.
54. Explain how salinity can decrease.
55. What has to happen for salinity to increase?
56. Explain what a thermocline is.
57. Describe the 3 zones according to their distance from shore.
58. Describe the 3 zones according to their water depth.
59. Explain why the ocean at high-latitudes has a higher nutrient value.
60. What is a gyre?
61. How do surface currents influence the world’s climate?
62. What is upwelling?
63. Why are temperature and salinity factors that influence density?
64. Explain the four parts of the shore-land (sea-land) boundary.
65. Explain wave refraction.
66. How are beach drift and longshore current related?
67. Contrast the four deposition shoreline features.
68. Explain the different types of hard stabilization structures.
69. Tides are influenced by what things?
70. What is a mixed tidal pattern?
71. Explain semidiurnal tides.
72. What are diurnal tides?
73. Explain the Greenhouse effect.
74. How is overpopulation hurting the planet?
75. Describe the advantages and the disadvantages of the 7 forms of alternative energy.