Study Guide for Geology Test
The geology test will be covering three key topics:
Geologic Time/ Earth History
Plate tectonics
Layers of the Earth and its Systems
Geologic Time/ Earth History
You will need to be able to show evidence that you understand the how the Earth’s geologic time line is
evident by movement of the plates. Provide examples of how fossils from the ocean floor can be found
in the mountains around the planet and how we find common fossil types on different continents
separated by oceans. These concepts tie into the how we have come to hypothesize and how the plates
of the planet exist and continuously move since the birth of our planet 4.5 billion years ago.
Plate tectonics
Students will need to be able to show understanding of how plate tectonics work. They will need to be
able to label and describe the different types of plates and the boundaries they create; divergent,
convergent, and transform. The types of geological formations created by the different boundaries and
the cause of the formations ( rifts valleys , volcanic mountain chains, Himalayas, ect.) will also be
questioned in the test. Subduction zones and their importance to our geology here in the Pacific
Northwest will be a topic, students will need to be able to describe what occurs in order to create the
active volcanoes and systems that keep the mountain chain “alive”. The processes that create
earthquakes and the types of seismic waves, pwaves and s-waves, they produce will be questioned. Also
students will need to be able to explain how we use the p-waves to theorize the size of the Earth’s core
from multiple epicenters.
Layers of the Earth and its Systems
This test will ask students to be able to label the know layers of the Earth; lithosphere, athenosphere,
upper mantle, mantle, outer core, inner core. They will also need to be able provide a clear
understanding of the processes that occur in the planet that promote movement of the tectonic plates.
Convection currents have be described and witnessed in our convection current lab and we have talked
about the process in the class notes and readings. Also a students will need to be able to show a clear
understanding of how p-waves are able to travel through these layers differently depending on what
they are made of. This also ties into how we have come to describe our magnetic field around our
planet, created by the outercore.