1. Which of the following lists is in the correct sequence from the younger to older:

    a. Holocene, Pleistocene, Pliocene, Miocene
    b. Holocene, Precambrian, Cenozoic
    c. Paleozoic, Cenozoic, Mesozoic
    d. Tertiary, Quaternary, Cretaceous
    e. Precambrian, Cretaceous, Tertiary

2. The Holocene epoch began about 10,000  years ago. Some scientists believe that human activities are changing Earth's environment to the degree that we should consider a change in the epoch to the "Anthropocene." What is the reason for this change?

    a. Sedimentation in nearshore oceans has increased significantly.
    b. The global sedimentary carbon cycle has been altered by humans.
    c. Globally, the biota (plants and animals) has changed significantly.
    d. All of these things are happening.
    e. None of these things is happening and the "Anthropocene" is a joke by crackpot scientists.

3. The Principle of Uniformitarianism states that "The same physical processes active in the environment today have been in operation throughout geological time." Which of the following is an example of a process that does not follow this principle.

    a. Radioactive isotopes decay at the same rate today as they always have.
    b. Hurricanes have been forming in tropical oceans for the entire history of the Earth.
    c. Tectonic plates have been colliding for nearly all of the history of the Earth.
    d. The hydrological cycle consists primarily of evapotranspiration and precipitation.
    e. None of these processes is an exception to the principle.

4. Which of the following is not an example of an age-relationship based on absolute dating?

    a. The oldest known rocks on Earth are 3.96 billion years old.
    b. The Vishnu schist at the bottom of the Grand Canyon is 2 billion years old.
    c. The dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago.
    d. The Tiwanaku civilization in Bolivia and Peru collapsed due to a 200-year long drought in A.D. 1150.
    e. The Coconino formation in the Grand Canyon is beneath, and therefore older than the Kaibab formation.

5. When geologists conclude that the Grand Canyon sequence of rocks was formed through hundreds of millions of year of deposition, mountain building, and erosion, they are basing this concludions on the Principle of ___________ that states that _________.

    a. Catastrophism; most rock formations were created as a result of supernatural processes.
    b. Catastrophism; a single, large flood was responsible for the creation of the rock sequence.
    c. Uniformitarianism; all geologic processes take immense amounts of time to occur and always occur at the same rate.
    d. Uniformitarianism; the geologic processes that operated in the past are the same as those that operate today, and they occurred in accordance with the same laws of nature that are operating today.
    e. Environmentalism; fundamental geologic processes are subject to change as climate changes.

6. Which of the following is endogenic in nature?

    a. weathering
    b. stream deposition
    c. volcanism
    d. glacial erosion
    e. sinkhole formation

7. Which of the following is exogenic in nature?

    a. earthquakes
    b. volcanism
    c. flows of heat and materials in the mantle
    d. glacial erosion
    e. sea-floor spreading

8. What is the source of energy (heat) for endogenic processes?
   
    a. The sun.
    b. Falling water (hydropower).
    c. Fossil fuels.
    d. Electricity
    e. Radioactive decay.

9. What is the source of energy for exogenic processes?

    a. The sun.
    b. Falling water (hydropower).
    c. Fossil fuels.
    d. Electricity
    e. Radioactive decay.

10. Which of the following gives the correct sequence of layers in the Earth, from the surface to the center?

    a. crust, core, lower mantle, aesthenosphere
    b. aesthenosphere, lower mantle, crust, core
    c. crust, lower mantle, aesthenosphere, core
    d. crust, aesthenosphere, lower mantle, core
    e. lower mantle, core, aesthenosphere, crust

11. Which of the following layers of the Earth is liquid and is responsible for producing the Earth's magnetic field?

    a. inner core
    b. outer core
    c. lower mantle
    d. aesthenosphere
    e. oceanic crust

12. The aesthenosphere can best be described as

    a. a rigid solid
    b. a liquid
    c. plastic-like  
    d. plasma-like
    e. gaseous

13. Tectonic forces

    a. erode the surface of the earth.
    b. warp, fold, and uplift rock.
    c. control soil formation processes.
    d. form sedimentary rock.
    e. subduct oceanic crust.

14. The fact that the Earth's interior is sorted into layers indicates that

    a. the process of formation from a nebula (by slamming together of material and planetesimals that stuck together on impact) produces nice, neat layers.
    b. the Earth was once in a molten state, during which materials became sorted based on density.
    c. the rotation of the early Earth acted like a centrifuge which separated materials based on weight.
    d. the Earth was once in a molten state, during which materials became sorted by electromagnetic fields.
    e. nothing can be inferred about such a perplexing level of organization.

15. According to the text, which of the following is not true regarding Earth's magnetic field?

    a. It causes magnetic particles in cooling magma to align with magnetic field lines.
    b. Transition periods, during which reversals occur, last an average of about 4000 to 8000 years.
    c. The Earth's magnetic field will probably reverse in the next few thousand years.
    d. a given field orientation can last billions of years.
    e. The alignment of the magnetic particles in crustal rock created by sea floor spreading was an important element of the evidence proving the theory of plate tectonics.

16. The Earth's crust is roughly made up of

    a. mantle and core material.
    b. at least 14 plates capable of movement.
    c. strong, unbroken material.
    d. a brittle material that does not move.
    e. mostly of solid iron with a density of 13.5 grams per cubic centimeter.

17. Continental crust is basically ______, whereas oceanic crust is basically ______.

    a. thin; thick
    b. basalt; granite
    c. granite; basalt
    d. sedimentary; igneous
    e. sima; sial

18. Three types of rock-forming processes comprise the
   
    a. tectonic cycle
    b. rock cycle
    c. hydrologic cycle
    d. mineral cycle
    e. election cycle

19. At which of the following locations does subduction occur?

    a. along collision zones between two continents.
    b. at sea floor spreading zones
    c. above mantle hot spots
    d. along collision zones between continental and oceanic plates
    e. along mid-oceanic island chains.