Geology for Engineers Exam Practice Tests
Course Introduction
Geology for Engineers introduces students to the fundamental principles of geology with a focus on their practical application in engineering fields. The course covers topics such as earth materials, rock and mineral identification, geological structures, soil mechanics, groundwater hydrology, and the assessment of natural hazards like earthquakes, landslides, and floods. Emphasis is placed on understanding how geological processes and conditions affect the design, construction, and maintenance of engineering projects, including foundations, tunnels, dams, and roads. Students will gain the ability to interpret geological maps and data, identify geotechnical challenges, and propose solutions that integrate geological considerations into effective engineering practice.
Recommended Textbook
Earth An Introduction to Physical Geology 4th Canadian Edition by Edward J. Tarbuck
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20 Chapters
3286 Verified Questions
3286 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Geology and Plate Tectonics
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198 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Ocean waves are directly created by ________.
A)the revolution of the planet
B)the pull of the Moon's gravity
C)the drag of air across open water and water's interaction with the shoreline and sea bed
D)evaporation
Answer: C
Q2) The Precambrian (Hadean, Archean and Proterozoic Eons)accounts for ________.
A)the first 88% of Earth history and the geologic time scale
B)the segment of geologic time prior to uniformitarianism taking effect
C)all of the periods after the Permian
D)the first 8% of Earth history
Answer: A
Q3) The ________ is thought to be the only molten, metallic portion in the Earth's interior.
A)inner core
B)lithosphere
C)mantle
D)outer core
Answer: D
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Chapter 2: Minerals: The Building Blocks of Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) These non-silicate minerals are found predominantly in sedimentary rocks.
A)amphibole, clays, and quartz
B)calcite, gypsum, and halite
C)feldspar, fluorite, and malachite
D)graphite, chromite, and ilmenite
Answer: B
Q2) What is the name of dark-coloured mica?
A)calcite
B)biotite
C)quartz
D)olivine
Answer: B
Q3) Ferromagnesian minerals generally exhibit which of the following properties?
A)one perfect cleavage, colourless
B)dark colour, specific gravity higher than quartz
C)a light colour, metallic lustre
D)nonmetallic lustre, light colour
Answer: B
Q4) What physical property denotes the colour of a powdered mineral?
Answer: streak
4
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Chapter 3: Igneous Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) Felsic rocks like granite ________.
A)are major constituents of the continental crust
B)are extremely rare on Earth but abundant on the Moon
C)form mainly in volcanic island chains
D)make up most of the ocean floor and volcanic island chains
Answer: A
Q2) Visible quartz and potassium feldspar grains are the main constituents in which igneous rock?
A)granite
B)gabbro
C)basalt
D)rhyolite
Answer: A
Q3) The aphanitic equivalent of peridotite is
A)komatiite
B)andesite
C)basalt
D)rhyolite
Answer: A
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Volcanoes and Volcanic Processes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which kind of volcano is closely associated with convergent plate boundaries and subduction zones?
Q2) Basaltic shield volcanoes comprise the mountains of the Cascade Range.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What are massive, gently sloping volcanoes built of successive, mafic lava flows?
A)shield
B)composite volcanoes
C)cinder cones
D)stratospheric
Q4) What type are the volcanoes of the Cascades and Alaska's Aleutian Islands?
A)composite volcanoes
B)shield
C)cinder cones
D)stratospheric
Q5) Correctly rank the these three magmas in order of increasing viscosity: andesitic, mafic, felsic.
Q6) Vents that emit only hot gases and vapors are called ________.
Q7) What kind of volcanic structure is Black Tusk in British Columbia?
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Weathering and Soil
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Sample Questions
Q1) Sheeting parallel to quarry floors, and rock bursts on fresh cuts and tunnels, are caused by unloading.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following is/are most susceptible to chemical weathering by dissolution?
A)quartz
B)clay minerals
C)iron oxides
D)calcite
Q3) ________ are regularly spaced planar fracture sets in rocks that result from: expansional unloading, tectonic forces, or thermal contraction upon cooling (especially igneous rocks).
A)Cracks
B)Faults
C)Fissures
D)Joints
Q4) What are two different common types of minerals that chemically weather by oxidation?
Q5) Which term denotes the true soil above the zone of partly weathered bedrock?
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Chapter 6: Sedimentary Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most chemical sediments derive from ________.
A)industrial waste from multi-national corporations
B)the soluble products of weathering, carried in solution to a warm, evaporating basin
C)detrital minerals that are a single, pure, inorganic compound
D)accumulations of organic matter
Q2) Which of the following is a microcrystalline form of silica?
A)chalk
B)chert
C)dolostone
D)oolitic breccia
Q3) Zircon and tourmaline are dense, highly insoluble, physically tough, chemically stable, minor minerals of igneous and metamorphic rocks.In which sedimentary rock might you expect to find these minerals concentrated?
A)sandstone lithified from quartz-rich beach sand
B)limestone representing lithified coral-reef carbonates
C)a thin, upper, mudstone portion of a thick wacke bed with graded bedding
D)evaporite deposits of gypsum and salt
Q4) How are playa lakes formed and what kind of deposits occur there?
Q5) How are sedimentary environments categorized or distinguished from each other?
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Chapter 7: Metamorphism and Metamorphic Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) What texture results from the alignment of abundant, coarse-grained, mica flakes in a medium grade regional metamorphic rock?
A)schistosity
B)gneissic banding
C)slaty cleavage
D)shatter cones
Q2) Why so some marbles appear banded?
Q3) Which type of metamorphism occurs specifically in the heated zone around a pluton or other body of magma?
Q4) ________ nonfoliated metamorphic rock consisting mostly of calcite
A)hornfels
B)marble
C)gneiss
D)phyllite
Q5) What is the facies name for the unique high pressure-low temperature hydrous metamorphism seen on top of subducting oceanic crust?
Q6) Muscovite is a hydrous sheet silicate typical of low metamorphic grades.
A)True
B)False
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Geologic Time
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Sample Questions
Q1) Numeric age dates based on radioactivity are very important for studying Proterozoic geologic history because fossils are rare or absent.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The half-life of carbon-14 is about 5730 years.Assume that a sample of charcoal formed by burning wood that lived 15,000 years ago.How much of the original carbon-14 would remain today?
A)1/4 to 1/8
B)>1/2
C)1/2 to 1/4
D)1/8 to 1/16
Q3) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)Foraminifera
B)Coccoliths
C)Trilobites
D)Dinoflagellates
Q4) In terms of age, a fault is ________ that a rock it cuts.
Q5) What is the important limitation of the K/Ar radiometric clock?
Q6) What is the noble-gas, daughter product of the radioactive isotope, K-40?
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Crustal Deformation
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Sample Questions
Q1) In a ________ fault, the hanging wall block moves up over the footwall block.
A)normal
B)detachment
C)reverse or thrust
D)strike slip
Q2) Occasionally folds occur singly, but most often they occur in a series of ________.
Q3) Dip-slip faults, with steep inclinations, and a footwall that rode up over its hanging wall are called reverse faults or thrust faults?
Q4) All changes in the shape or size of a rock body involving fracture or flow are collectively referred to as structural ________.
Q5) Are horsts and grabens bounded by normal or reverse faults?
Q6) Name two geologic processes or resources that joint positioning can control or affect?
Q7) Rock salt forms ductile diapir "intrusions" up through overlying shales because it it gets hot enough to melt at great depths below the sedimentary basin.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Earthquakes and Earth's Interior
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185 Verified Questions
185 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What do seismic gaps represent?
A)locked areas that are still accumulating strain
B)areas with no faults
C)places nobody bothered to check because they are so remote
D)really well lubricated places where the government spends enormous expense injecting fluids to keep the fault slipping gradually
Q2) What does a P wave do to the rock it passes through?
A)It lifts it up and down in a wavelike motion (perpendicular to the advancing wave front), distorting the rock's shape while holding its volume (and density)constant.
B)It alternately compresses and expands the rock (like the bellows of an accordion)along the direction of the advancing wave.
C)It causes the rock to wiggle from side to side as the wave advances.
D)It causes the rock to move in little vertical circles as the wave advances.
Q3) The ________ core is probably solid.
Q4) As P waves pass from the mantle into the outer core, velocities drop abruptly.
A)True
B)False
Q5) ________ are not transmitted through the outer core.
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Chapter 11: The Ocean Floor
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Sample Questions
Q1) Active continental margins are found ________.
A)around the Arctic Ocean
B)mainly around the Pacific Ocean
C)surrounding Africa
D)underneath passive continental margins
Q2) Seafloor hot springs occur mainly in oceanic, abyssal plains.
A)True
B)False
Q3) How do atolls differ from regular coral reefs and how was this determined?
Q4) The basis for life in the black smoker vent communities is chemosynthetic bacteria that derive energy from the sulphide-rich vent fluids.
A)True
B)False
Q5) On average, the slope across a continental shelf is about ________.
A)0.001°
B)0.1°
C)1.5°
D)5°
Q6) ________ are regions where most of the submarine canyons and deep-sea turbidite fans occur.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Plate Tectonics: The Framework for Modern Geology
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162 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the inclination of Earth's magnetic field as recorded in a recent lava flow near 59 degrees north in Yukon?
A)steeply inclined and pointing north
B)nearly vertical and pointing south
C)nearly horizontal and pointing north
D)nearly horizontal and pointing south
Q2) Which one of the following is an important fundamental assumption underlying the plate tectonic theory?
A)Earth's magnetic field originates in the outer core.
B)Earth's diameter has been essentially constant over time.
C)Radioactive decay slows down at the extreme pressures of the inner core.
D)Earth's ocean basins are very old and stable features.
Q3) ________ where lithosphere is sinking into the mantle
A)convergent
B)transform
C)divergen
Q4) ________ characterized by arcs of composite volcanoes and deep-ocean trenches
A)convergent
B)transform
C)divergen
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Chapter 13: Mountain Building and Continental Frameworks
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161 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Soft, easily-eroded strata high in a mountain range would suggest that the mountain building occurred long ago, geologically speaking, like that in the Appalachian region along the eastern margin of North America.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What kind of a mountain belt is the Canadian Rockies?
Q3) The ________ are a young, currently rising mountain range that resulted from continental collision.
Q4) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)Himalayas
B)Andes
C)Appalachians
D)European Alps
Q5) Accretionary wedges develop along subduction zones where sediments and other rocks are scraped off a descending oceanic plate and piled against the leading edge of the overriding continental plate.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Name a sedimentary basin formed in response to the erosion of the Appalachians.
Page 15
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Chapter 14: Mass Wasting: The Work of Gravity
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which one of the following operates primarily in areas of permafrost?
A)rockslide
B)solifluction
C)slump
D)debris flow
Q2) Felsenmeer is also known as a ________.
Q3) Sometimes mass wasting triggered by major earthquakes is more destructive to property than the primary earthquake shaking itself.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)earthquake
B)creep
C)liquefaction
D)rockslide
Q5) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)rockslide
B)debris flow
C)creep
D)slump
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Chapter 15: Running Water
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Sample Questions
Q1) The greatest erosion and sediment transport in rivers happens ________.
A)near the mouth where the discharge is the greatest
B)during floods because capacity and competence are at their maxima
C)at ordinary discharge but at particular locations where the gradient decreases
D)during winter freeze up because of velocity changes below the ice
Q2) Alluvium refers to all solid unconsolidated stream deposits, mainly sand and gravel.
A)True
B)False
Q3) ________ is not part of the hydrologic cycle.
A)Water evaporating from a lake
B)Water infiltrating into the soil and bedrock
C)Calcium carbonate dissolving in or precipitating from soil water and groundwater
D)Water moving into creeks and streams following a rainstorm
Q4) Which of the following is the correct definition of stream gradient?
A)the distance travelled by water in a channel times a drop in elevation
B)the drop in elevation of a stream divided by the distance the water travels
C)the water pressure at the bottom of the stream divided by the stream's width
D)the increase in discharge of a stream per unit drop in elevation
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Page 17
Chapter 16: Groundwater
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which reservoir of the hydrosphere would you describe as containing only a small fraction of Earth's freshwater that is well mixed and exchanged continually?
A)the atmosphere
B)lakes and reservoirs
C)groundwater
D)soil moisture
Q2) The term karst topography was first used in ________.
A)the Republic of Slovenia
B)eastern Canada in areas of fractured igneous and metamorphic rocks
C)India near the southern foothills of the Himalayan Mountains
D)Australia for the extremely dry interior area near Alice Springs
Q3) Ground water aquifers can be seen directly in natural caverns and mines.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Most caves and caverns originate by dissolution of limestone, enlarging fractures and bedding planes.
A)True
B)False
Q5) A stream flowing into a sinkhole is called a ________.
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Chapter 17: Glaciers and Glaciation
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Sample Questions
Q1) When did Earth's climate deteriorate enough to start this current cycle of glaciations in Antarctica?
A)10,000 years ago
B)17,000 years ago
C)about 2.4 million years ago
D)> 30 million years ago
Q2) A ________ cross-valley profile is typical of canyons and valleys eroded and deepened by alpine or valley glaciers.
A)U
B)Y
C)V
D)S
Q3) The great, Southern Hemisphere glaciation left Jurassic tills on parts of South America, India, and South Africa.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Unusually rapid, forward movements of glaciers are called ________.
Q5) What is the principal difference in the final result of alpine versus continental glaciation and why does this occur?
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Chapter 18: Deserts and Winds
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the angle of repose for coarse dry sand, as on the slip face of a dune, and is this steep enough that you could use a snowboard there for a swift descent?
Q2) What is the term for a streamlined, wind-sculpted rock ridge oriented parallel to prevailing wind direction?
Q3) Which one of the following is the best measure of the wetness or dryness of a region?
A)total annual precipitation
B)mean annual temperature
C)difference between annual precipitation and evaporation potential
D)percentage of precipitation that falls during the summer months
Q4) ________ dunes have their tips facing upwind because they are commonly anchored by vegetation.
Q5) Wind is viscous enough to lift sediment grains by suction alone.
A)True
B)False
Q6) The leeward slope of a sand dune is also known as the ________.
Q7) How far can dust blown from the Sahara desert be transported?
Q8) How far does the Nile River flow across the Sahara desert without any tributaries?
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Chapter 19: Shorelines
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Sample Questions
Q1) How does sand get deposited in the lower shoreface zone where wave approach is perpendicular to the shore?
Q2) Massive seawalls and groins, financed by the average taxpayer, are very cost-effective methods for protecting expensive, privately owned, beach front properties.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)wave height
B)wave period
C)wave refraction
D)fetch
Q4) Longshore currents and sediment transport result from which situation?
A)Incoming wave crests are parallel to the shoreline.
B)Incoming wave crests are slightly oblique to the shoreline.
C)Incoming wave crests are perpendicular to the shoreline.
D)Incoming wave crests are non-existent.
Q5) Over the past few millennia, sea level has been gradually falling.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 20: Mineral and Energy Resources
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is not an ingredient of cement?
A)olivine
B)calcite
C)clay
D)silica
Q2) The mineral apatite is mined as the source of ________.
Q3) Use an X to locate two deposits involving hydrothermal fluids and replacement of limestone by base metal sulphide ores.
Q4) ________ concentrates minor amounts of metals scattered throughout unweathered rock, into profitable reserves.
A)Primary consolidation
B)Secondary enrichment
C)Tertiary substitution
D)Quaternary concentration
Q5) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)SEDEX
B)placer
C)stratiform
D)MVT
Q6) How much of Canada's electricity needs are met with nuclear power?
Page 22
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