Which of the following is an example of climate? A. a sudden snow storm, B. in southern california the tempuratures at generally mild and the rainfall is low, C. recordbreaking low temperatures caused a sudden freeze one day in Des Moines. D. a week of ra
B
What percentage of water vapor is found in the air? A. 0 to 1 percent, B. 0 to 4 percent, C. 0 to 8 percent, D. 0 to 10 percent.
B
The average kinetic energy of the atoms or molecules in a particular substance is known as A. temperature, B. heat, C. conduction, D. convection
A
Which of the following is an example of radiation? A. A metal spoon becomes warm after being set in a pot boiling water, B. Warm water rises because it is less dense than cool water. C. Pancake batter cools quickly after being spooned onto a hot griddle.
D
Which is of the following is NOT true about radiation? A. Radiation cannot travel through a vacuum. B. The hottest radiating bodies produce the shortest wavelengths. C. All objects emit radiant energy. D. Objects that absorb radiation well emit radiation
A
The blue color of the sky is the result of. A. conduction. B. scattering. C. reflection. D. absorption.
B
Which of the following is NOT a factor that controls temperature? A. longitude. B. cloud cover. C. ocean currents. D. altitude
A
The state of the atmosphere at any given time and place is referred to as _______.
weather
When the particles in a substance move faster, the _____________ increases.
temperature
Which of the following is a source of dissolved substances in the ocean? A. chemical weathering of rocks. B. evaporation of water from the seas and ocean. C. excretions from marine organisms. D. melting icebergs and sea ice.
A
How do elements such as chlorine, bromine, sulfur, and boron get into the ocean? A. runoff from rivers and streams. B. excretions from marine organisms.
C. volcanic eruptions. D. chemical weathering of rocks
C
Differing amounts of solar radiation across earths latitude affect the ocean's A. salinity in the thermocline B. density at the surface. C. temperture at the surface. D. density in the thermocline
C
At least 80 percent of ocean water is included in A. transition zone. B. thermocline. C. surface mixed zone. D. deep zone.
D
Because the photic zone is the part of the ocean into which sunlight penetrates, it includes all of the following marine life zones except A. the benthic zone. B. parts of the pelagic zone. C. the abyssal zone. D. all of the neritic zone
C
The transfer of energy between algae and herbivores is about A. 1 percent. B. 2 percent. C. 5 percent. D. 10 percent.
B
The three main zones of the open ocean are the surface mixed zone, the __________ zone, and the deep zone.
transition
What percentage of the earths surface is covered by water? A. 45 percent. B. 51 percent. C. 71 percent. D. 85 percent.
C
Which of the worlds oceans is the largest and the deepest? A. arctic ocean. B. atlantic ocean. C. indian ocean. D. pacific ocean
D
What does sonar equipment measure? A. the density of the oceans water. B. the depth of the ocean floor. C. the sound produced by bottom dwelling ocean creatures. D. the shape of the ocean surface.
B
Which of the following areas is NOT one of the three main regions of the ocean floor? A. ocean floor basin. B. continental margins. C. continental rock. D. mid ocean ridge
C
The continental margins of the Pacfic Ocean are A. wider than those of the atlantic and have more earthquake activity. B. narrower than those of the atlantic and are not covered with thick layers of sediment. C. wider than those of the atlantic and have n
B
Which of the following forms at mid ocean ridges? A. island arcs. B. deep sea trenches. C. guyots. D. new ocean floor.
D
Terrigenous sediment consists primarily of mineral grains eroded from A. mid ocean ridges. B. marine animal shells. C. continental rocks. D. undersea minerals.
C
Most oceanic gas hydrates form when A. bacteria break down organic matter in seafloor sediments. B. plant matter breaks down to form peat. C. petroleum deposits seep into ocean floor sediment. D. chemicals in ocean water precipitate out of solution.
A
Gas hydrates are compact chemical structures made of natural gas and A. halite. B. water. C. manganese. D. petroleum.
B
The world can be divided into ____ main basins.
four
Scientists can use ____________ sonar to get a profile of a strip of ocean floor instead of simple sonar, which maps only a point on the ocean floor every few seconds.
multibeam
The _________________ is the gentle sloping submerged surface extending from the shoreline.
continental shelf
Rocks record geological events and A. life forms of the present. B. life forms of the past. C. astromonomical milestones of the past. D. Earth's circumference and diameter in the past.
B
What are fossils? A. the oldest layer of rock in a region. B. the remains or traces of an organism preserved from the geologic past. C. living creatures with habitats in or around rock. D. objects that people of long ago left behind as artifacts.
B
Which of the following environments would NOT contain fossils? A. sediment deposited in a riverbed. B. intrusive rock formed from cooled magma. C. a thick deposit of dried mud. D. layers of sand that accumulated over thousands of years.
B
Which of the following is important if an organism is to become a fossil? A. soft parts and slow burial. B. rapid burial and hard parts. C. rapid burial and soft parts. D. hard parts and slow burial.
B
Index fossils allow geologists to A. match rocks of the same age in different regions. B. determine the exact age of rocks. C. identify organisms that did not leave fossil evidence behind. D. determine why some organsismes became extinct.
A
The principle of fossil succession states that different types of fossil organisms A. generally leave behind hard parts. B. occur most often in sedimentary rock. C. succeed one another in a definite order. D. are older in the deepest layer of rock.
C
Radiocarbon dating is used to date A. geologic events up to 75,000 years ago. B. geologic events up to 10,000 years ago. C. Geologic events more than 1 million years ago. D. all geologic events of the past.
A
Geologist John Wesley Powell was impressed with the record of earths history in the exposed rock walls of the __________.
grand canyon
How long ago did the earth form? A. about 2.34 billion years ago. B. about 3.45 billion years ago. C. about 4.56 billion years ago. D. about 5.67 billion years ago.
C
What do scientists use to study precambrian time? A. fossils from tiny microscopic animals. B. Ore from eroded and deformed rocks. C. Fossils from algae and other simple plants. D. fossils from dinosaurs.
B
The breakup of Pangaea occurred during the A. cambrian period. B. Palezoic era. C. Mesozoic era. D. cenozoic era.
C
The time known as Precambrian began aproximately _______________ years ago.
4.56 billion
During the late Paleozoic, a supercontinent known as __________ joined all the major landmasses together.
Pangaea
The breakup of Pangaea began in the _________ period.
Triassic
Which gas is most important for understanding the processes that take place in the atmosphere? A. nitrogen. B. oxygen. C. carbon dioxide. D. water vapor
D
When a liquid absorbs energy and changes to a gas, what takes place? A. condensation. B. sublimation. C. infiltration. D. evaporation.
D
What does relative humidity indicate? A. how close air is to saturation. B. the amount of heating needed for evaporation. C. the amount of water vapor in the air. D. the ratio of water vapor to carbon dioxide in air.
A
Relative humidity of a sealed flask of air can be changed by changing the airs temperature or by A. shining light on the flask. B. adding or removing water vapor. C. bringing the flask to a different latitude. D. adding or removing particles of soil.
B
Which process produces rising air due to unequal heating of earths surface? A. frontal wedging. B. convergence. C. orographic lifting. D. localized convective lifting.
D
Which process produces rising air when mountains push the air upward? A. orographic lifting. B. localized convective lifting. C. frontal wedging. D. convergence.
A
When is air most likely to rise? A. when it is unstable. B. when it is cooling. C. when it is dry. D. when it is stable.
A
The classification of clouds is based on their A. color and form. B. density and color. C. form and height. D. height and density.
C
Which of the following clouds has the highest base? A. stratocumulus. B. cirrocumulus. C. altocumulus. D. nimbostratus.
B
Fog is a cloud that has A. a small vertical extent. B. no ability to produce rain. C. particles made of ice crystals. D. its base at or near the ground.
D
For precipitation to form, cloud droplets must grow in volume by roughly A. one thousand times. B. ten thousand times. C. one hundred thousand times. D. one million times.
D
When a layer of air with temperatures above freezing sits above a layer of subfreezing air near the ground, which type of precipitation is likely to form? A. rain. B. snow. C. sleet. D. hail
C
The precipitation that forms in a cumulonimbus cloud when small ice pellets fall through it and grow by collecting supercooled water is A. rain. B snow. C. sleet. D. hail.
D
A warm front forms when A. cold air moves up over warmer air. B. a warm air mass meets another air mass of the same temperature. C. warm air glides up over colder air. D. the temperature in a warm air mass increases.
C
Air masses are classified according to the A. surface over which the form. B. speed of their movement. C. surface over which they form. D. temperature of their air at a certain time.
C
What happens along a stationary front? A. cold air rises over warm air. B. the flow of air is neither toward the warm air mass nor toward the cold air mass. C. air moves so rapidly upward that hurricanes form. D. wind stops completely.
B
What forms when a cold front overtakes a warm front? A. a warm front. B. an occluded front. C. a cold front. D. a stationary front.
B
Hurricanes have winds of at least A. 50 km per hour. B. 119 km per hour. C. 200 miles per hour. D. 219 miles per hour.
B
A hurricanes energy comes from A. condensation of large amounts of water vapor. B. lighting striking as the storm forms. C. the movement of continental tropical air masses. D. the action of waves in warm ocean waters.
A
The fact that mercury has no atmosphere is evidence that it A. reflects almost all of the sunlight that strikes it. B. is composed almost entirely of gases. C. is much father from the sun than it appears. D. reflects a small percentage of the sunlight tha
D
The spinning of earth on its axis is called. A. revolution. B. precession. C. rotation. D. perihelion
C
What is earths motion in its path around the sun called? A. aphelion. B. rotation. C. precession. D. revolution
D
Moons cycle is A. 21 days long. B. 27 1/3 days long. C. 29 1/2 days long. D. 30 days long.
C
Soil like layer on the moons surface is called- A. maria. B. regolith. C. basalt. D. magma
B
Long valleys or trenches associated with maria are A. rays. B. craters. C. ejecta. D. rilles.
D
Which of the following lunar features is the oldest? A. surface regolith. B. highlands. C. craters with rays D. maria basins
B
The planetary system of Ptolemy had the planets moving in circular orbits around ______.
earth
The earth movement that causes day and night is called ________.
rotation
What does relative humidity indicate? A. how close air is to saturation. B. the amount of heating needed for evaporation. C. the amount of water vapor in the air. D. the ration of water vapor to carbon dioxide in air
A
The precipitation that forms in a cumulonimbus cloud when small ice pellets fall through it and grow by collecting supercooled water is A. rain. B. snow. C. sleet. D. hail
D
the range in volume of water vapor in the atmosphere is from nearly 0 percent to about ______ percent.
4
Which air masses influence much of the weather in North America, especially east of the rocky mountains? A. maritime tropical and continental polar. B. maritime polar and continental polar. C. continental polar and continental tropical. D. maritime polar
A
What causes most of the precipitation in the eastern two thirds of the united states? A. maritime polar air masses. B. continental polar air masses. C. continental tropical air masses. D. maritime tropical air masses.
D
Continental tropical air masses centered over northern Mexico have little influence on weather in the U.S. because they A. are too high in altitude. B. rarely move outside their source region. C. only move toward the equator. D. never influence weather.
B
What forms at the boundary between two different air masses of different properties? A. temperature inversion. B. a front. C. a hurricane eye wall. D. a storm surge.
B
A warm front forms when A. cold air moves up over warmer air. B. a warm air mass meets another air mass of the same temperature. C. warm air glides up over colder air. D. the temperature in a warm air mass increases.
C
Hurricanes produce sustained winds of at least A. 50 km per hour. B. 119 km per hour. C. 200 miles per hour. D. 219 miles per hour.
B
What is a hurricane? A. a tropical cyclone. B. a middle-latitude anticyclone. C. a middle-latitude cyclone. D. a tropical anticyclone
A
A hurricanes energy comes from A. condensation of large amounts of water vapor. B. lighting striking as the storms forms. C. the movement of continental tropical air masses. D. the action of waves in warm ocean waters.
A
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the eye of a hurricane? A. has the storms strongest winds. B. is at the storms center. C. has no precipitation. D. is warm because of descending air.
A
Which of the following is one difference between the way terrestrial planets and Jovian planets formed? A. the terrestrial planets formed only from bits of ice. B. the jovian planets forms only from bits of ice. C. the terrestrial planets formed only from
C
the period of rotation for any of the jovian planets is ________ than earths period of rotation.
shorter
In a mercury barometer, when air pressure increases, the mercury in the tube A. rises. B. falls. C. rises then falls. D. falls then rises.
A
Which of the folllowing is a difference between a mercury barometer and an aneroid barometer? A. the mercury barometer is smaller. B. The mercury barometer can provide a continuous record of pressure changes. C. the aneroid barometer does not use mercury
C