Geoscience Fundamentals
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Course Introduction
Geoscience Fundamentals introduces students to the core concepts and processes that shape the Earth. This course covers the structure and composition of the Earth, the dynamic processes of plate tectonics, rock and mineral identification, earth materials, and surface processes such as weathering, erosion, and sedimentation. Students will also explore earth history through the lens of geologic time and fossil records, as well as the methods and tools used in geoscientific investigation. Emphasis is placed on understanding the interactions between Earth's systems and the relevance of geoscience to environmental and societal issues.
Recommended Textbook
Earth An Introduction to Physical Geology 4th Canadian Edition by Edward J. Tarbuck
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Chapter 1: An Introduction to Geology and Plate Tectonics
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ________ refers to the sum total of all life on Earth.
A)hydrosphere
B)atmosphere
C)biosphere
D)asthenosphere
Answer: C
Q2) How old is our planet thought to be from a scientific viewpoint?
Answer: 4.6 billion years
Q3) ________ was never proposed as evidence supporting the existence of the Pangaea supercontinent.
A)Geometric fit between South America and Africa
B)Islands of Proterozoic rocks along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
C)Late Paleozoic glacial features
D)The Glossopteris flora
Answer: B
Q4) The ________ is the weak zone in the mantle below the lithosphere.
Answer: asthenosphere
Q5) Sea-floor spreading occurs at ________ boundaries.
Answer: divergent
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Chapter 2: Minerals: The Building Blocks of Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) What ferromagnesian silicate mineral is named for its green colour?
Answer: olivine
Q2) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)olivine
B)quartz
C)amphibole
D)pyroxene
Answer: B
Q3) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)feldspars
B)silicates
C)carbonates
D)evaporites
Answer: A
Q4) Hornblende and the other amphiboles have what type of silicate structure?
A)metallic
B)sheet
C)3-D framework
D)double chains
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Igneous Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the average temperature rise below Earth's surface due to the geothermal gradient?
Answer: 25 degrees Celsius per kilometre
Q2) As melts cool their viscosity increases (they lose their mobility and get stiffer)even before they start to crystallize because ________.
A)all of the sodium and potassium escape
B)their ions become more disordered
C)the silica tetrahedra in the melt start to link up and make larger and stronger units D)they increase in volume
Answer: C
Q3) What is the most common extrusive rock type for any volcanic environment on the Earth or even on the Moon?
A)andesite
B)basalt
C)obsidian
D)rhyolite
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Volcanoes and Volcanic Processes
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Sample Questions
Q1) What are the smaller secondary volcanic vents on a large composite volcano like Mt.Etna called?
Q2) What is the largest immediate volcanic threat to human life and property?
A)incandescent lava fountains and lava flows like at Kilauea since 1983
B)proximity on the ground to explosive eruptions like Mount Merapi, Pinatubo, and Nevado de Ruiz
C)stratospheric ash clouds that pose a hazard to international airline travel
D)being encased in plaster like the former victims of Pompeii
Q3) Volcanoes do not usually produce lava and ash during the same eruption.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What term denotes a basaltic lava flow covered with angular, clinkery, congealed lava rubble?
Q5) Most volcanic features are readily recognized on Earth's surface today.How might you identify ancient volcanic terrains in the rock record? Also, which features are more likely to be preserved and identifiable after tens or hundreds of millions of years?
Q6) Basaltic shield volcanoes comprise the mountains of the Cascade Range.
A)True
B)False
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Weathering and Soil
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Sample Questions
Q1) How do large, spheroidal boulders form from massive bedrock?
A)Exfoliation breaks a fresh, spherical block from the bedrock.
B)A fresh rock slab is broken out along sheeting fractures and then rounded by residual laterization.
C)An angular block, broken away from bedrock, gets rounded by rolling down a slope.
D)The corners and edges of fracture-bounded blocks are weathered faster than the planar areas of the fracture surfaces.
Q2) The soil material hardpan refers to a layer of highly compacted clay in the B soil horizon of some areas.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What two factors speed up rates of chemical reaction and weathering in rocks and soils?
A)low temperatures; very dry
B)low temperatures; very moist
C)high temperatures; very dry
D)warm temperatures; very moist
Q4) 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) What is the most common group of rocks exposed or cropping out on continents?
Q2) What significance is there in a coarse unsorted sediment with fragments of gravel?
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) Coal beds originate in what type of depositional environment?
A)shallow lakes in a dry, desert region
B)channels of fast-moving streams
C)deep, marine basins below wave action
D)freshwater coastal swamps and bogs
Q5) What kind of rock are most dripstones and stalactites in caves?
A)chert
B)gypsum
C)limestone
D)opal
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Chapter 7: Metamorphism and Metamorphic Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) What type of sedimentary rock is typically metamorphosed to form slates or phyllites?
Q2) Vast flat exposures of ancient metamorphic and igneous rocks are called
Q3) Muscovite, biotite, and chlorite are common minerals found in phyllites and schists.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Where and how does metamorphism occur?
A)mainly at low temperatures in the roots of volcanic mountain belts
B)beneath the thick accumulations of in sedimentary basins
C)wherever solid rocks are subjected to new conditions of temperature, pressure, stress, and a change in their constituent fluids
D)in response to sudden catastrophic geologic changes, mostly in the Precambrian.
Q5) Calcite is the main mineral constituent of the sedimentary rock limestone and of the metamorphic rock marble.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Geologic Time
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Sample Questions
Q1) If the ratio of radioactive parent to stable daughter isotope is 1:3, how many half-lives have elapsed?
Q2) Which type of microfossils have tests (hard parts)made of calcium carbonate and are useful as index fossils as well as for measuring past sea temperatures and climates since the Cretaceous?
A)acritarchs and dinoflagellates
B)coccoliths and formaminifera
C)conodonts
D)diatoms and radiolaria
Q3) Pieces of one rock contained within another are called ________ and give evidence that that smaller rock is ________ the main body.
A)coprolites, rejects from B)inclusions, older than C)surprises, more valuable than D)xenoliths, younger than
Q4) Carbon-14 can be used to date wood and other natural organic materials used by aboriginal peoples of North and South America.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Crustal Deformation
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which one of the following is true for anticlines but not for synclines?
A)The limbs dip or are inclined towards the fold axis.
B)Some may be asymmetric and some may have plunging axes.
C)The deeper strata are buckled upward along the fold axis.
D)After erosion, the younger strata are exposed along the axial region of the fold.
Q2) When an overturned fold lies on its side it is called ________.
A)lazy
B)reclining
C)recumbent
D)wasted
Q3) Briefly explain the difference between stress and strain.
Q4) Compressional stresses are responsible for most normal faulting.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Which statement is not true about joints?
A)can result from igneous cooling
B)can result from unloading of exposed batholiths
C)can result from ductile deformation
D)can result from tension near fold axes
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Chapter 10: Earthquakes and Earth's Interior
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Sample Questions
Q1) ________ formulated the elastic rebound theory after the ________ earthquake.
A)Gutenberg; Anchorage, 1964
B)Churchill; northern India, 1896
C)Richter; Loma Prieta, 1989
D)Reid; San Francisco, 1906
Q2) If the P, S, and surface waves arrive almost simultaneously, the seismic recording station is virtually at the epicentre of the earthquake.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The system of locating earthquakes depends on nearby reports of the shaking and high speed communication lines.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Name two belts of great earthquakes, or describe their location?
Q5) Briefly describe how an earthquake's intensity differs from its magnitude.
Q6) Locked fault segments experience slow creep movements, rendering them less likely to host a large magnitude earthquake.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: The Ocean Floor
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Sample Questions
Q1) Name three prominent, landforms found on the floor of the ocean basins.
Q2) What kinds of materials account for the phosphate rich sediments?
A)calcareous ooze
B)diatoms and radiolarians
C)mineral rich turbidites
D)hard residues of teeth, scales, bones, and fecal pellets of fish and other marine animals
Q3) Why are the deep sea clays mostly red or brown?
A)They are eroded mostly from desert areas and carried to the sea by winds or rainstorms.
B)They are mostly volcanic ash particles erupted onto the seafloor; this is their colour.
C)Slow settling of fine clay-sized mineral particles allows for complete oxidation of their iron by dissolved oxygen.
D)These are the residues of red algae blooms, dispersed by ocean currents to settle out everywhere.
Q4) ________ are where active volcanism and earthquakes are the rarest.
Q5) ________ correctly formulated a basic theory concerning the formation of atolls in the 1800s.
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Chapter 12: Plate Tectonics: The Framework for Modern Geology
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Sample Questions
Q1) The longest topographic feature on Earth, at > 70,000 kilometres, is the mid-ocean ridge system.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Approximately ________ major lithospheric plates exist today.
A)11
B)2
C)7
D)4
Q3) A transform plate boundary is characterized by ________.
A)composite volcanoes on the edge of a plate and shield volcanoes on the adjacent plate
B)two, converging, oceanic plates meeting head-on and piling up into a mid-ocean ridge
C)a divergent boundary where the continental plate changes to an oceanic plate
D)a deep, vertical strike-slip fault along which two plates slide past one another in opposite directions
Q4) What is the maximum age of the sediments found in the Atlantic Basin according to studies by the Deep Sea Drilling Project and the Ocean Drilling Program?
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Mountain Building and Continental Frameworks
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the crustal, gravitational balance idea, which of the following statements is true?
A)A mountain range undergoing erosion should uplift slowly.
B)As a continental ice sheet thickens, the land beneath should uplift slowly.
C)A basin being filled with sediments should uplift slowly.
D)The crust is thicker under a low lying plain than under a high standing plateau or mountain range.
Q2) What happens to a mountain belt following an orogeny?
Q3) If the earthquakes south of India foretell of an new subduction zone forming there, eventually the Himalayas will gain a volcanic arc on top of the Tibetan Plateau.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Since the early Mesozoic, the ________ has been passive tectonically.
A)western margin of North America
B)western margin of South America
C)southern margin of Eurasia
D)eastern margin of North America
Q5) Whether or not there are active tectonic forces in play, eroding mountain areas will always experience ________.
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Chapter 14: Mass Wasting: The Work of Gravity
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Sample Questions
Q1) Based on the examples and discussion in Chapter 14, what is the relationship of climate to mass wasting? Also, are certain climates more susceptible to mass wasting? Why?
Q2) The steepest, stable, slope angle possible in unconsolidated, granular materials like sand and gravel is called the angle of retention.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Earthflows and slumps generally involve movement of unconsolidated or weakly consolidated soil and regolith.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which of the following contains ice wedges?
A)patterned ground
B)felsenmeer
C)thermokarst
D)pingo
Q5) What are some preventive measures that can be done to reduce or lessen the impact of mass wasting? (Hint: Think about the controls and triggers of mass wasting.)
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Chapter 15: Running Water
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Sample Questions
Q1) A(n)________ stream pattern develops where the same bedrock or regolith layer forms the land surface so that erosion rates are relatively uniform throughout the area.
A)radial
B)trellis
C)elliptical
D)dendritic
Q2) Which deposits form during flood stage on a subaerial delta plain?
A)topset beds
B)bottomset beds
C)foreset beds
D)distributary channels
Q3) ________ describes the maximum particulate size that a stream can transport.
A)Capacity
B)Discharge
C)Competence
D)Hydro-load factor
Q4) The lowest base level for most streams is sea level.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 16: Groundwater
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Sample Questions
Q1) The French physicist, Pierre Perrault concluded that groundwater contributed to surface flows by finding rainfall alone was inadequate to account for spring and stream discharge in the Seine River basin.
A)True
B)False
Q2) ________ are specific features of karst topography.
A)Streams flowing into depressions and continuing underground
B)Perched water table springs on hillsides
C)Numerous artesian wells in a given area
D)Perennial streams fed by large springs
Q3) Yosemite National Park in California is world famous for its hot springs, geysers, and other geothermal phenomena.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which slender, conical speleothem grows from water dripping from the ceiling of a cavern?
Q5) Can ground water ever act as an erosional agent or as a solvent? Explain.
Q6) Highly impermeable layers such as compacted clay or shale are known as ________.
Q7) What feature originates where the water table intersects the land surface?
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Chapter 17: Glaciers and Glaciation
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Q1) What two different types of locations are capable of forming glaciers?
Q2) A cirque is made of ________.
A)rock
B)till
C)sand and gravel
D)mud
Q3) The steep, triangular shaped cliffs that flank hanging valleys are called ________.
A)arêtes
B)faceted nunataks
C)lateral moraines
D)truncated spurs
Q4) Because ice carries both large and small particles, and cannot sort sediments, we recognize that till is a poorly sorted sediment deposited directly from the melting glacial ice; stream action is minimal.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What geologic process causes the most rugged relief in high elevation mountainous areas?
Q6) Unusually rapid, forward movements of glaciers are called ________.
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Deserts and Winds
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Sample Questions
Q1) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)dissolved load
B)bed load
C)suspended load
D)saltation
Q2) Transverse dunes are oriented at right angles to a shoreline.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In dry lands, ________ is the covering of coarse particles left on the surface after the finer particles are carried away by wind and running water.
Q4) 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?
Q5) ________ dunes are linear sand ridges at right angles to the prevailing wind direction in coastal areas, with a steady supply of sand.
A)Transverse
B)Barchan
C)Longitudinal
D)Parabolic
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Chapter 19: Shorelines
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Sample Questions
Q1) What would change, compared to the present tidal variation, if the moon's orbit were to exactly match Earth's axial tilt?
Q2) Where is Canada's greatest tidal range?
A)Richards Island, NWT along the western Arctic shore
B)The Gulf of St.Lawrence along the eastern townships of Quebec
C)Minas Basin, Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia
D)Hudson Bay near Moose Factory Ontario
Q3) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)high tide level
B)low tide level
C)foreshore
D)fairweather wave base
Q4) What are rip currents?
Q5) Which one of the following is not directly related to wave refraction?
A)Erosional energy is focused on headland areas protruding from the beach.
B)Wave speeds decrease as waves enter shallow water.
C)Deposition is concentrated in bays and protected estuaries.
D)Ebb tidal currents carry large quantities of sand from estuaries to the seaward side of a barrier island system.
Page 21
Q6) Describe one way a barrier island can form.
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Chapter 20: Mineral and Energy Resources
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Sample Questions
Q1) The industrial term for crushed stone, sand and gravel deposits used in construction is ________.
A)aggregate
B)conglomerate
C)agate
D)unconsolidates
Q2) What is the principal compositional difference between wet gas and dry gas, and what is the difference in environmental conditions that controls their formation?
Q3) Which of the following groups of industrial minerals are commonly used as abrasives?
A)talc and graphite
B)kaolinite and gypsum
C)molybdenite and galena
D)corundum, diamond, and garnet
Q4) Put a square on the map surrounding any two deposits likely formed by contact metamorphism.
Q5) Why is liquid petroleum formed only over a limited depth range?
Q6) How much of Canada's electricity needs are met with hydroelectric power?
Q7) Name a Canadian province that has wind farms.
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