Unit 1:
1) What is geology?
a) The study of geo-related things
b) The study of the earth
c) The study of green things
d) The study of rocks
Correct Answer: D
Feedback: Geology is the study of the earth. Geologists and friends—
geophysicists, geochemists, geobiologists—study the rocks that make up the
Earth, the history of the Earth as recorded in those rocks, and the processes that
change those rocks. This includes oil and ores, landslides and volcanoes,
dinosaurs and meteorites, and much more. (Unit 1: Textbook: Science, Geology,
and National Parks)
2) Why are National Parks established?
a. They are established so all the animals can be in one place
b. They are established so that the government can make money
from the people.
c. To protect regions that contains biological, geological or cultural
resources so that present generation and future generations can
enjoy them.
d. To help geologists keep track of all the national resources in a
region
Correct Answer: C
Feedback: National parks are founded to preserve geologic features. The geysers
in Yellowstone, the Crater Lake and the Grand Canyon, are all being preserved so
that present and future generations can still enjoy them.
3) How many naturally occurring elements are present?
a. 1,000
b. 50
c. 93
d. 1,000,000
Correct Answer: C
Feedback: There are 93 naturally occurring elements, plus others that human
have produced.
4) Which of the following is NOT correct.
a. Electrons have negative charge
b. Protons have positive charge
c. Neutrons are uncharged
d. Electrons, protons and neutrons all equal to zero
Correct Answer: D
Feedback: Protons have a positive charge, electrons have an equal-but-opposite
negative charge, and neutrons are uncharged or neutral.
5) True or False: Electrons circle a nucleus, the same way planets orbit the
sun.
a. True
b. False
Correct Answer: True
Feedback: Electrons circle the nucleus and the nucleus contains particles called
protons and neutrons.
Unit 4:
1) Which of the following is not a basic tectonic style?
a. Push-Together
b. Pull-Apart
c. Slide-Past
d. Slide-Together
Correct Answer: Slide- Together
Feedback: The three basic tectonic styles include: Push-Together: subduction or
obduction, Pull-Apart: rifting/spreading/sea-floor-production, Slide-Past:
faulting (San Andreas)
2) Tsunamis are undersea earthquakes that can move a lot of water. True or
False?
a. False
b. True
Correct Answer: B
Feedback: Tsunamis are undersea earthquakes, volcanoes, or landslides, or
meteorite impacts that can move a lot of water. They cannot be stopped and
need to be prepared for in advance.
3) Cade’s Cove located in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has older
mountains on top of the younger mountains. What faults are responsible
for this?
a. Thrust Faults
b. Slide-Past Faults
c. Top-Down Faults
d. Pull-Apart Faults
Correct Answer: A
Feedback: Thrust faults often show evidence of sliding—scratches and polish
indicating motion in one direction, crushing or breaking of rocks, etc. In some
cases elsewhere in the world where deformation is still active, thrust faulting has
been observed during earthquakes. In the Smokies, the older rocks have been
shoved as much as 70 miles (110 km) to reach their present position on top of
the younger rocks. (Textbook 4.1: Still More Plate Tectonics, The Great Smoky
Mountains)
4) Which rocks are older and which rocks are younger?
a)
b)
c)
d)
All the rocks are old rocks
All the rock are young rocks
The rocks on the right are younger than the rocks on the left
The rocks on the left are younger than the rocks on the right
Correct Answer: C
Feedback: Erosion removed the younger rocks on top, exposing old igneous and
metamorphic rocks in the center of the mountain range. Younger sedimentary
rocks were tipped up along the sides of the mountains, and can be seen by
tourists driving west toward the national park. (Textbook 4.2: Still More Plate
Tectonics, The Rocky Mountains)
5) True or False: In subduction, the denser side sinks under the less dense
side?
a. True
b. False
Correct Answer: A
Feedback: In subduction, denser side sinks under less-dense side (Main Topics,
Unit 4)
Unit 7:
1) The most recent ice age was how many years ago?
a. 1,000,000 years ago
b. 20,000 years ago
c. 10,000 years ago
d. 1 year ago
Correct Answer: B
Feedback: ….. about 20,000-year-old, features known to be made by glaciers and
no other processes are observed now across broad areas of the Earth where
glaciers do not occur, suggesting that we have had an ice age or ice ages in the
past. (Main Topics, Unit 7)
2) What is a glacier?
a. A pile of ice, sediments and minerals that flows
b. A pile of ice, snow and water that flows
c. A pile of ice and snow that flows
d. A pile of ice and snow that floats
Correct Answer: C
Feedback: A glacier is a pile of ice and snow that flows
3) Glacier Point is the place where John Muir persuaded President Theodore
Roosevelt that a National Park Service was needed to care for the National
Parks.
a. True
b. False
Correct Answer: A
Feedback: The view from Glacier Point, across the side of Half Dome, and the
thundering Vernal and Nevada Falls, is well worth the climb. It was here that
John Muir helped convince President Theodore Roosevelt of the need for a
National Park Service to care for the National Parks, which were protected by
law but not by rangers for some decades after the parks were established.
(Textbook 7.1: Yosemite)
4) Which of the following is NOT a Seven Mountains feature.
a. The headwaters streams have a braided pattern
b. The highest points on the ridges of the Seven Mountains are
composed of sandstone bedrock
c. Stripes of sandstone blocks extend from the ridges down across
other rock types to the streams
d. Bear Meadows is an old feature
Correct Answer: D
Feedback: Bear Meadows is a young feature, probably formed during the coldest
part of the most recent ice age, and probably dammed by a debris-flow or soilflow lobe extending down from the ridge above it. (Textbook 7.3: Trail Ridge
Road and the Seven Mountains)
5) What animal would you have seen if you had been in the Bear Meadows
with a camera 20,000 years ago?
a. Musk Oxen
b. Deer
c. Fox
d. Elephants
Correct Answer: A
Feedback: This picture shows musk oxen thundering across the tundra of east
Greenland. If you had been in central Pennsylvania's Bear Meadows with a
camera 20,000 years ago, you might have taken this picture… (Welcome to Unit
7—Glaciers, Ice, & Permafrost—Yosemite, Glacier, & Bear Meadows)
Unit 8
1) How many percent of US coasts are retreating?
a) 75%
b) 50%
c) 90%
d) 60%
Correct Answer: A
Feedback: Most U.S. coasts are retreating (about 75%) (Main Topics, Unit 8)
2) Which of the following does NOT depend on the coast type?
a. Supply of Sediment
b. Wave Energy
c. Tidal Range
d. Rock Sizes
Correct Answer: D
Feedback: The type of coast depends on the supply of sediment to it, the wave
energy, the tidal range, the type of rocks, and many other factors. Here, we will
concentrate on the Cape Cod sandy beaches. (Textbook 8.1: Cape Cod)
3) Waves move slower in shallower water? True or False?
a. True
b. False
Correct Answer: True
Feedback: Waves go slower in shallower water (Main Topics, Unit 8)
4) Which of the following is a type of coast?
a. Reefs
b. Whirlpools
c. Sand Flats
d. Rock Heaps
Correct Answer: A
Feedback: There are many "types" of coasts (beaches, reefs, mud flats, cliffs,
deltas, etc.; we’ll especially focus on beaches) (Main Topics, Unit 8)
5) In what year did the French explorer land on Acadia’s Island?
a. 1610
b. 1604
c. 1800
d. 1700
Correct Answer: B
Feedback: On September 5, 1604, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain
landed on Acadia’s island (Textbook 8.2: Acadia)
Unit 9:
1) Which of the following is NOT a geologic time?
a. Desozoic
b. Cenozoic
c. Paleozoic
d. Mesozoic
Correct Answer: A
Feedback: Geologic time scale: Cenozoic=New Life, Age of Mammals,
Mesozoic=Middle Life, Age of Dinosaurs, Paleozoic=Old Life, Age of Shellfish,
Precambrian=really old, Age of Algae (Main Topics, Unit 9)
2) What is weathering?
a. Weathering is the change of large rocks into small rocks and salts
b. Weathering is the change of the environment over time
c. Weathering is the change of sedimentary rock to grain
d. Weathering is the change of clay to cobbles
Correct Answer: A
Feedback: Weathering changes large rocks into small pieces and salts (Main
Topics, Unit 9)
3) What are rocks made out of precipitate called?
a. Metamorphic rocks
b. Sedimentary rocks
c. Sand rocks
d. Elementary rocks
Correct Answer: B
Feedback: Rocks made entirely of precipitate are also called sedimentary rocks.
(Textbook 9.1: Bryce Canyon)
4) True or False. Are clastics classified primarily on grain size?
a. True
b. False
Correct Answer: A
Feedback: Clastics are classified based primarily on grain size. The very smallest
particles of clay make claystone or shale. Slightly coarser pieces are silt and
make siltstone. Coarser still is sand, which makes sandstone. Going to stillbigger clasts, cobbles and boulders produce cobblestone and boulder-stone, but
we also call both of these conglomerate. (Main Topics, Unit 9)
5) What is the Principle of Superposition?
a. Young rocks and old rocks combining
b. Old rocks on top of young rocks
c. Young rocks are on top of old rocks
d. Young rocks and old rock are side by side
Correct Answer: C
Feedback: In ordinary sedimentary rocks, the youngest ones are on top and the
oldest on the bottom. We call this the Principle of Superposition. (Textbook 9.2:
Arches National Park)