Geoscience Final Exam Study Guide
Exam Format:
Part I – 200 multiple choice questions
(NOTE: BRING A CALCULATOR AND #2 PENCIL)
Part II - Open Ended Questions
Directions for Final Exam Note Card:
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You may use a 5’’ x 8’’ index card. Both sides of the note card can be used.
NOTHING may be glued or attached onto the card.
NOTHING can be printed from a computer, photocopied, or scanned onto this card, it must be hand written in
your handwriting.
You may write or draw on both sides of this note card.
The note card will be turned in with your final exam at the end of the exam period.
Science Skills Unit
Branches of science (biology, chemistry, physics,
geology, meteorology, oceanography, seismology)
Scientific method concepts
Observations, Hypothesis, Variables, Controls
Manipulated variable (independent) vs. Responding
variable (dependent)
Scientific theory vs. scientific law
Scientific models
Significant Figures
Precision vs. accuracy
SI base units for temp, time, length, and mass
SI prefixes (know the order, milli- to kilo-)
Density
Be able to:
 Interpret hypothetical experiments.
 Interpreting graphs and charts
 Put numbers to a from scientific notation
 Make measurements with the correct precision
 Count significant figures AND round answers to math problems.
 Convert from one SI unit to another (in class we used conversion factors)
 Understand the density concept.
Intro to Earth Science (Chap 1)
Branches of Earth Science
Crust, Mantle, Core (and all properties)
Lithosphere
Asthenosphere
Oceanic vs. continental crust
Theory of Plate Tectonics
Physical vs. Historical Geology
Geosphere
Biosphere
Hydrosphere
Atmosphere
Renewable vs/ nonrenewable resources
Important Ideas/Questions:
 Two parts of Geology (physical and historical)
 What other planets are of most interest to people who study the Earth? Why?
 Understand about the Formation of Solar System according to the Nebular Theory-see also Chap 23
o When did the solar system form? How? What evidence supports this theory?
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Where in Solar System did heavy elements end up? The lighter gases?
What force was critical to all the material coming together to form the Sun, Earth, etc?
What was early Earth like? Why did all the iron end up in the core at this time?
How do Pressure, Temperature, and Density change within Earth
Where did the gases come from that made Earth's atmosphere and water for the oceans originally come from?
Understand the important aspects of the collision that would form the Moon and how it changed Earth to make it
habitable for life as we know it.
Understand the 4 spheres and ways that they are interconnected
Why is Earth considered a Closed System?
The Sun is the source of energy for which spheres? Earth's internal heat drives which sphere?
Minerals (Chap 2)
Element, compound
Three states of matter
Crystallization (of minerals)
Precipitation (of minerals)
Properties of minerals (luster, streak, hardness, ,
fracture, etc)
Silicates
carbonates
Density (formula and solving simple problems)
Important Ideas/Questions:
 Understand what makes a mineral a mineral. (see 5 criteria)
 How are minerals classified? (i.e., into 6 groups)
 Be able to interpret mineral tests
 Where or how do most silicate minerals come from?
 Where or how do most carbonate minerals come from?
 What gas reacts with metals for form oxide minerals? Generally, if one finds an oxide mineral in a rock, it must have
formed after ___________________ evolved in plants.
 What are the most abundant elements? What kind of minerals do these two elements (mostly) make together?
 How could one test for carbonates in an unknown mineral? (Hint: bubbles form when you do this test)
 Be able to solve density problems.
 NOTE: Density is an important concept throughout the course. Be sure to understand how it relates to a wide range
of processes on Earth. Also understand how temperature affects density on the Earth's surface. (See other chapters!)
Rocks and the Rock Cycle (Chap 3)
rock
Igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic
Magma vs. lava
Sediment
Compaction and cementation
Intrusive Rock vs. Extrusive Rock (rate, crystal size, air
bubbles, where?)
rock texture
Agents of erosion
Deposition
Clastic, Chemical, and biochemical sed. rock
fossils
metamorphism
Contact vs regional metamorphism
Foliation or foliated metamorphic rock
The Rock Cycle
Important Ideas/Questions:
 Be able to describe the processes that change rock and how rock goes from one type to another.
 What do weathering & erosion form?
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Role of Extreme Heat and Pressure on existing rock forms…?
 What is the source of energy driving the formation of igneous rocks and metamorphic rocks?
 What is the source of energy driving the formation of sedimentary rocks? Why?
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Describe four textures (course-grain, fined-grained, glassy, and porphyritic)
What each looks like, Cooling rate, Where? (below ground or near surface?)
Describe Four types of Composition (granitic, andesitic, basaltic, ultramafic)
General information about composition (light minerals vs. dark)
Where on Earth each is found in large amount
Which are carried further by moving water, large sediment particles or small?
What kinds of things are often in limestone?
What do mud cracks and ripple marks in sedimentary rock each indicate?
Where does metamorphism usually take place? why?
Weathering and Erosion Unit (Chap 5, 6, 7)
(Sect 5-1, 5-3, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, 7-1)
Weathering vs. erosion
Mechanical weathering
Frost wedging and talus
Chemical weathering
Mass movement and the common triggers of mass
movement
Deltas and levees
flood plains
Drainage basins (aka, watershed)
Plucking (as in what a glacier does to rocks)
glacier
valley glaciers and ice sheets
glacial deposition landforms: till, moraine, terminal
moraine, erratics
Meanders and oxbow lakes
Abrasion (by rivers and glaciers)
Sorting (in river)
V-shaped valley vs. U-shaped
water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation,
infiltration, percolation, runoff, transpiration)
aquifer
porosity, permeable, impermeable
Important Ideas/Questions:
 Why does mechanical weathering increase rate of chemical weathering (know what happens to surface area)
 How could a tree cause mechanical weathering? Ways in which humans enhance weathering?
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Know that water is most important agent in weathering and erosion
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What do gases such as CO2, SO2, NO2 form when they dissolve in water? Why does this matter for rocks like
limestone and marble?
 Why are cracks in rock important to weathering?
 What climate conditions are most favorable to weathering? Wet,dry? Hot,cold?
 Why does water saturation cause mass movement?
 What is most likely trigger for many mass movements like mudflows?
 Know important places water stored on Earth
 Identify how/what type of erosion or deposition creates the following landforms: waterfalls, V-Valleys, meanders
and oxbow lakes, deltas, U-valleys
 What locations along a stream do erosion happen? (outside bend or inside bend) Where does deposition happen?
 How do impervious surfaces and development affect erosion, run-off and flooding (road surfaces and pavement
affect the water cycle and erosion).
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Earthquakes and Tectonic Features (Chap 8)
Focus vs. epicenter of EQ
seismic waves (S, P, surface)
aftershocks and foreshocks
elastic rebound hypothesis
Seismographs
Stations to determine epicenter
Richter scale vs. Mercalli scale
tsunami
stress, faults, folds.
Brittle vs. ductile rock
compression
Tension
Shearing
Anticline vs syncline
reverse (or thrust) fault
Normal fault
strike-slip fault
Important Ideas/Questions:
 P-waves and s-waves (aka, body waves): describe how they move, which arrives first? travel fastest? which cannot
go through liquid?
 How to recognize the p and s wave arrivals on seismograph
 Faults form when stress exceeds the _____________ of the rock.
 Under what conditions within the earth will rock be either brittle (fault) or ductile (fold)?
 Three kinds of forces (compression, tension, shearing) lead to different fault types above
 Be able to look at pictures or diagrams of rock layers and identify the fault type or fold.
 Identify types of forces and plate motions that produced faults or folds.
Plate Tectonics and Volcanoes (Chap 9 and 10)
Alfred Wegener and Continental drift (and early
evidence)
Pangaea
Mid-ocean ridges, trenches
sea-floor spreading
Linear sea
EQ focus as proof of plate subduction (deep vs shallow)
plumes
Know basic parts of volcano (crater, vent, pipe, layers,
sills, dikes)
shield, cinder cone, and composite cone volcanoes (how
and why they form)
Role of mantle convection (in asthenosphere)
Divergent: Seafloor Spreading (between oceanic plates)
Divergent: Rifting (continental plates)
Convergent: Subduction(oceanic-oceanic)
Convergent: Subduction (oceanic-continental)
Convergent: Mt. Building (continental-continental)
Transform
Calderas (and how they form)
Important Ideas/Questions:
 Why was Wegener's theory rejected?
 Is continental drift the same a plate tectonics?
 Underwater Features and what they mean for plate motion (creating and destroying)
 What kind of rock is oceanic crust made of? So they are rich in the element ____.
 Sea-floor Spreading (Who proposed it? What does it do to the size of ocean basins?
 What process counteracts sea-floor spreading?
 What features or landforms are found near subduction zones
 Understand the Evidence for sea-floor spreading and subduction
1. Magnetic Banding in Rock on Sea Floor.
2. Age of oceanic crust(where is youngest oceanic crust? oldest? Why are continents older (see
subduction)?
3. Earthquake Distribution (as evidence for subduction) - EQ focus depth (figure 13 is a good visual)
 Understand and be able to describe the subduction process and why it is so important
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Understand what happens at each of the different kinds of plate boundaries (above). Also be able to name the types
of landforms or events that occur at each boundary.
NOTE: plate subduction is a very important process. Be sure to understand it fully and know where it occurs and
doesn't occur.
Understand different kinds of volcanism (convergent, divergent, intraplate (aka, hot spots))
Be able to explain how the Hawaiian Island chain formed
Understand the factors affecting eruptions (viscosity, how temperature and silica content affect viscosity, gases
content)
Understand the relationship between igneous rock type and how volcanoes erupt and the types of volcanoes that
result (Table 1 in Chap 10 is a nice summary)
Volcanic materials (two types of lava, gases, pyroclastic materials)
Volcanic hazards and why they are dangerous (lava flows, gases, vog, pyroclastic flow, accompanying EQs, lahars)
Historical Geology Unit (Chap 12 and 13)
from Sect 12-1, 12-2, 12-3 and topics from Chap 13
uniformitarianism
Relative dating vs. absolute dating
Law of Superposition
Principle of Crosscutting Relationships
Principle of Original Horizontality
Index fossils
Correlation of rock layers
Radiometric dating and Radiocarbon Dating
radioactive isotope
Half-life
Parent isotope vs. daughter isotope
Eons, Eras, Periods, Epochs
Mass Extinction
Snowball Earth
Important Ideas/Questions:
 Be able to provide relative age of rock layers and geologic events based on diagrams (i.e., using 3 laws above)
 Know how to solve the half-life problems like the ones we done in class!
 Know the basic details about these major eras of Earth's history: Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic
o Time cut offs
o Major life forms and environmental conditions
 When did photosynthesis evolve? In what ways was this important for life on Earth?
 Understand major reasons for mass extinction events. Why do they lead to mass extinctions?
o Climate change: Warming due to volcanic activity (flood basalts) or methane release
o Climate change: Cooling/Ice age
o Meteor impact
o Human activity
 What is believed to have caused the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) Mass Extinction? What species were positively and
negatively affected in the long run?
Atmosphere Structure and Temperature (Chap 17) and Climate (Ch.21)
abundant gases in the atmosphere (While CO2 is
important, it is not abundant)
troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere
ozone layer
Rotation vs. revolution
Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn
Arctic and Antarctic Circle
equinoxes and solstices (for each hemisphere)
Temperature vs. heat
Conduction, convection, radiation (how they work)
Albedo and how to interpret
Greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases
Isotherms (on maps)
Important Ideas/Questions:
 Understand the variable components (water vapor, ozone, pollutants)
 How do pressure and density change with height in the atmosphere? What force makes this happen?
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Know four layers and their characteristics
How does each layer’s temperature change with height? Why is there warming with height in two layers?
Understand Earth-Sun relationships (sun’s apparent position on different seasons, etc.)
What causes variation in day-length and therefore seasons?
Three modes of heat transfer and how they relate to heating the atmosphere
Understand the basics of the electromagnetic spectrum (p. 484). * Important for chap 24/25 also.
High frequency/Small wavelength radiation also is [high; low] energy
What happens to light from the Sun? (reflection, absorption, (and scattering))
What is? What is Earth’s overall albedo (%)? What kinds of objects have low albedo?
Understand that absorbed light from Sun is reradiated by Earth’s surface as IR, and it is this IR light that warms our
atmosphere. VERY IMPORTANT..this also known as greenhouse effect.
Greenhouse Effect vs. Global warming.
What role does the ozone layer play in the greenhouse effect??? (careful! trick question)
Understand the effect that each of these has on annual temperatures and precipitation
o Latitude, Proximity to Water, Geographic Position (wind direction, mountain ranges), Altitude
Be able to interpret temperature/climate diagrams like the ones we went through in class
Role of ice sheets and clouds on global temperatures and the energy budget.
Weather Unit (Chap 18, 19, 20)
Chap 18, 19 and Sect 20-1 and 20-2
Phase changes for water (freezing, melting, etc)
humidity and relative humidity
Dew point
dew, frost, fog
hail, sleet, snow, and freezing rain (how they form)
cumulus, nimbus, stratus, alto, cirrus
Barometer, thermometer
isobar
Wind
Coriolis Effect
Global Winds (trades, westerlies, polar easterlies)
Low and high pressure centers (a.k.a., Weather Systems)
Cyclone vs. anticyclone
Sea vs. land breezes
Air masses (four types)
Fronts (cold, warm, stationary, occluded)
Thunderstorms v. Tornadoes v. Hurricanes
Three climate regions (polar, temperate, tropical)
El Niño
Carbon cycle
Ice Age
Global Warming & Greenhouse effect
Important Ideas/Questions:
 Humidity, relative humidity, and dew point AND how to interpret data
 Know under what conditions hail, sleet, snow, and freezing rain form.
 Four processes that lift air (orographic lifting, frontal lifting, convergence, local convective lifting)
 How differences in pressure cause wind (flow always high to low)
 Understand how the Coriolis effect makes winds curve and rotate in both hemispheres (remember Right Hand Rule
for NH can help)
 Know latitudes where air is generally rising and sinking
 Understand the properties of Low and High Pressure weather systems (all facets)
 Which air mass types influence US weather the most? Where to they come from?
 Fronts and their characteristic weather, cloud types, typical duration (relative)
 Symbols for fronts and how to interpret on a weather map
 Isobars and using them to interpret a map
 Be able to determine wind direction by using locations of H and L pressure on a map
Climate
Important Ideas/Questions:
 Two primary components of climate
 Understand the Role that each of these plays in determining the relative Temperature and/or Precipitation of an
area: Latitude (general effect on temp) , Latitudes where air generally rises[rain] and sinks [dry], Altitude,
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Topography (esp Rain Shadow Effect), Nearby bodies of water, Prevailing Wind direction , Location of warm and
cold currents
Be able to interpret the climates of locations on a map using the above.
Probable Causes and Effects of Global Warming and the role of carbon dioxide
Understand and be able to describe processes that add or remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Identify
whether certain processes would cause warming or cooling.
o Burning fossil fuels?
o Volcanic eruptions?
o Forest fires
o Mountain building and chemical weathering of rock
o Photosynthesis
o Incorporation of dissolved carbon dioxide into the shells of marine organisms
What is an ice age? What can trigger an ice age?
What can cause global warming periods?
Explain global warming and ice ages affect Earth’s energy budget (energy coming in or out of the Earth system).
o How can growing ice sheets affect the Energy Budget? How does this affect climate?
o How can increasing carbon dioxide affect the Energy Budget? How does this affect climate?
Astronomy / Solar System (Chap 22 and 23)
Sect 22-1 and 23-1, 23-2, 23-4 only
Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo
Terrestrial vs. Jovian (Gas Giants)
Dwarf planets
Asteroids
Comets (long vs. short period) and parts of comet
Nebular Theory
Planetesimal
Kuiper Belt
Oort Cloud
AU
Important Ideas/Questions:
 Know the 8 planets and characteristics of dwarf planets. Map out the organization and order of planets, asteroids,
comets, etc. in our solar system.
 In what ways are terrestrial and Jovian planet different? Why did they end up that way? Consider their composition
of rock, ices, and/or gases.
 Compare and contrast the 4 terrestrial planets. Why similarities and differences?
 Understand the importance of volcanism/internal heat on the characteristics of terrestrial planets.
 Why is studying asteroids and comets important? Especially their age?
 Comet tails: Which way do they face and why?
 Identify planets based on defining characteristics (extreme temp. changes, red spot, etc.)
 How do atmospheres (or lack of) influence temperatures?
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Stars and the Universe (Chap 24 and 25)
Sect 24-1, 25-1, 25-2, 25-3
Main sequence stars (red, yellow, blue)
Red giant, super giant, white dwarf, black dwarf,
neutron star, black hole
Galaxies
Light-year
H-R Diagram
Absorption lines (star spectrum)
Nebula
Nuclear fusion
Big Bang
Hubble's Law
Important Ideas/Questions:
 What is the sun’s (or any stable star's) source of energy?
 Describe what happens in nuclear fusion. Where does it take place? How does fusion change as the star / sun ages
(In terms of elements produced)?
 How do the forces of gravity and pressure keep the sun / star stable?
 Identify how long it takes light to travel from stars “X” light years away.
 How does a star’s color influence its temperature? Know trend for blue to red.
 Map out the stages of average and high mass stars (How does the star change in terms of size, density, fusion,
brightness, etc.)
 Compare low, average, & high mass stars (main sequence) in terms of temp., brightness, & length of life, color
 Interpret the H-R diagram
 Compare star systems, clusters, & galaxies in terms of star number.
 Compare types of galaxies (shape); Identify the main features of our Milky Way Galaxy (arms, disk, nucleus, etc)
 What does Hubble’s Law tell us about the motion of galaxies and the boundary of the universe?
 What can star spectrum tell us (Red shift vs Blue shift; age of star or galaxy)?
 What pieces of scientific evidence support the Big Bang Theory? What is approx Age of Universe according to the
Theory
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