Name: ____________________________ Date: _______________________________
Mrs. Yip-Chen
Earth science Unit 6: Earth’s History Regents Review Topics (Write your answers on loose leaf
paper)
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What is the amount of carbon-14 remaining after 28,500 years?
Which radioisotope takes the greatest amount of time to lose half of its original mass?
How old is a fossil that has radioactively decayed through 4 half-lives of carbon-14?
Carbon-14 is useful to date what kind of materials?
Explain why carbon-14 could not be used to determine the age of the Dicellographtus fossil.
Approximately how many million years older is a rock layer that contains the fossil Cystiphyllum
than one that contains a Coelophysis?
Trilobites existed from approximately 500 to 251 million years, but during which geological
period did the trilobite index fossil Elliptocephala exist in?
What evidences in rock layers support the conclusion that tectonic activity occurred?
What is the main factor that causes the bedrock to weather at different rates?
What environment of formation must have existed if both Eurypterid fossils and dolostone are
found in a region?
According to the fossil record, which group of organisms has existed for the greatest length of
time – gastropods, corals, mammals or vascular plants?
Using the ESRT, put the following fossils in order from oldest to youngest – B, J, P, A.
According to the fossil record, in which order did fish, amphibians, soft-bodied organisms and
mammals appear in (oldest to youngest)?
Describe the characteristics necessary for a fossil to be classified as an index fossil.
Name the (index) fossil(s) that lived during the early Devonian Period.
What is the division of Earth’s geological history into units of time called eons, eras, periods and
epochs based on?
Based on the fossil record, is it true that most early life-forms that left fossil remains are now
extinct?
In which rock type would fossils of placoderms most likely be found?
State the numerical age of fossils found from the Silurian period.
When did dinosaurs become extinct?
Name the 2 major eons.
Name the 3 major eras.
How did our early atmosphere begin?
What atmospheric event in Earth’s history was dependent on the development of a certain type
of life form?
What is the name of the life form that produced oceanic oxygen?
Approximately how many billion years ago did oceanic oxygen begin to enter the atmosphere?
Approximately how many billion years ago did the Earth and our solar system’s form?
Approximately how many billion years ago did the “Big Bang” occur?
Approximately how many million years ago did the earliest insects appear?
Approximately how many million years ago did humans appear?
Compare human existence on Earth with Earth’s entire history.
During which era were there abundant stromatolites?
Which organisms became extinct at the end of the Mesozoic Era, possibly due to an asteroid or
comet impact in the Gulf of Mexico?
Explain why the NY rock record has sediment layers from present back to the Cretaceous period
but only bedrock before that.
During which period of geological time did sediment layers that was deposited 520 million years
ago formed in?
How are unconformities formed?
What must be true about rock layers that contain index fossils of the same age?
38. Which metamorphic rocks may be found along the boundary between rock units and contact
metamorphism surfaces?
39. Describe how the age of rock layers change from the bottom to the top, assuming that they
have not been overturned.
40. Identify one geological event that occurred in NYS during the Triassic period.
41. When did the Alleghenian orogeny form?
42. When did the Grenville orogeny form?
43. In which NYS regions can you see exposed bedrock from the Grenville orogeny?
44. What structural evidence can be seen in bedrock that has been affected by converging tectonic
plates?
45. What is the difference between an intrusion and an extrusion?
46. How is volcanic ash useful in determining accurately the ages of rock layers?
47. What is inferred to be the cause of some past mass extinction of life forms?
48. Devonian-age fossils found in NYS bedrock, such as Manticoceras and Mucrospirifer,
provide evidence that parts of NYS were once in what kind of environment?
49. Which two types of organisms both survive the mass extinction that occurred at the end
of the Permian period?
50. How much percent of the original radioactive product Rubidium-87 is left after 1 half
life? 2 half lives? 3 half lives? Draw a sketch to help you.
51. How many half-lives has a sample of granite gone through if it contains 8 grams of
radioactive potassium-40 and 56 grams of its nonradioactive decay products?
52. List the following fossils in order of decreasing age:
53. What type of environment did a layer of limestone containing brachiopod fossils formed
in?
54. What characteristic of bedrock will determine if valleys or mountains will form in an
area?
Be able to:
1. Determine Radioactive Decay Data and the New York State fossil on ESRT p.1
2. Interpret all rock, rock cycle, and stream velocity versus transported particle size charts on ESRT
p.6-7
3. Interpret Geological History of New York State on ESRT pp.8-9