Planetary Geology
Exam Materials
Course Introduction
Planetary Geology explores the processes that shape the surfaces and interiors of planets, moons, and other bodies in our solar system and beyond. The course examines the geology of planetary bodies through comparative planetology, using data from spacecraft missions, telescopic observations, and meteorite analysis. Topics include impact cratering, volcanism, tectonics, surface and atmospheric interactions, and the role of water and other volatiles. Students gain insights into planetary materials, surface features, and the evolution of planetary environments, developing an understanding of how geological processes operate on worlds other than Earth.
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) List the two, broad, traditional subject areas of geologic study.
Answer: physical and historical geology
Q2) The Earth's core was formed from ________.
A)a massive nickle iron asteroid that was the nucleus upon which Earth condensed B)high density radioactive carbon C)the left over nickle and iron that would not fit into the earlier formed crust and mantle D)molten iron and nickle that separated from silicates and sank due to its higher density
Answer: D
Q3) List three possible ways that land animals could have travelled from one continent to another in the distant geologic past.
Answer: any three: 1)rafting, 2)land links like an isthmus, 3), island hopping, or 4)continental rifting and drifting since they were all together
Q4) How old is our planet thought to be from a scientific viewpoint?
Answer: 4.6 billion years
Q5) The statement "the present is the key to the past," describes what basic geologic concept or doctrine?
Answer: uniformitarianism
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Minerals: The Building Blocks of Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) The real mineral jadarite has the same chemical composition as fictional kryptonite except for what?
Answer: fluorine
Q2) As silicate tetrahedra link together in larger units, more oxygens are shared and the size of the negative charge per silicon decreases.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) What, basic, atomic particles occupy space in an atom outside of the nucleus?
A)morons
B)electrons
C)protons
D)neutrons
Answer: B
Q4) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)ionic
B)cation
C)anion
D)nucleus
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Igneous Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) Solidification of magma spans a temperature range of at least ________.
Answer: 200 degrees Celsius
Q2) The average geothermal gradient in the upper crust is about 25° C/km.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Pegmatites consist of what size mineral grains?
Answer: extremely coarse grains, centimetres to several metres in size
Q4) Igneous comes from the Greek word for fire.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q5) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)phenocrysts
B)crystals
C)groundmass
D)vesicles
Answer: D
Q6) How much silica do ultramafic igneous rocks contain?
Answer: 40%
Page 5
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Chapter 4: Volcanoes and Volcanic Processes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which one of the following statements concerning volcanic blocks and bombs is true?
A)Blocks are broken fragments of solid rocks; bombs have smaller sizes than lapilli.
B)Bombs are guided to Earth by laser beams; blocks fall anywhere.
C)Bombs are ejected as magma lumps; blocks are ejected as solid fragments.
D)Bombs and blocks are both smaller than lapilli and cinders.
Q2) Which natural phenomenon occurs for several years after major explosive volcanic eruptions such as Tambora and Krakatoa?
A)heavy falls of volcanic ash within 100 kilometres of the volcano
B)unusually warm weather in the tropics and subtropics
C)a worldwide rise in sea level of one to three centimetres
D)volcanic gases linger in the atmosphere
Q3) How hot are mafic lava flows that they can ignite car tires and melt street lamp posts?
Q4) Volcanic bombs are explosive and detonate on impact.
A)True
B)False
Q5) ________ is a good example of intraplate volcanism.
Q6) The circum-Pacific belt of volcanoes is commonly referred to as ________.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Weathering and Soil
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Sample Questions
Q1) Release of carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur oxides from burning fossil fuels causes precipitation that is far more acidic than natural rain.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Why do rocks undergo weathering?
Q3) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)oxidation
B)unloading
C)exfoliation
D)sheeting
Q4) Oxidation of iron in ferromagnesian minerals and dissolution of calcite are two examples of mechanical weathering.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Quartz weathers readily to aluminum-rich clay minerals.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Which form of chemical weathering specifically affects the iron contained in ferromagnesian, rock-forming, silicate minerals?
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Sedimentary Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) Detrital sedimentary rocks are classified according to clastic particle size; chemical sedimentary rocks are named according to their mineral composition.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What proportion of sedimentary rocks are "limestones"?
A)5%
B)10%
C)20%
D)50%
Q3) Shales are usually described as weak because they are ________.
A)so porous and permeable
B)devoid of quartz
C)only compacted but not well cemented
D)too thinly bedded to use for building stone
Q4) Where would the sequence: laminated muds overlain by salts overlain by well sorted sands likely form?
Q5) A sedimentary deposit of angular rock fragments larger than "pea sized" would be called ________.
Q6) What is the global carbon cycle?
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Chapter 7: Metamorphism and Metamorphic Rocks
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Sample Questions
Q1) ________ forms from the metamorphism of limestone or dolostone.
A)Migmatite
B)Amphibolite
C)Marble
D)Quartzite
Q2) Tektites originate in what metamorphic environment?
A)low pressure and high temperature associated with volcanism
B)high temperature melting associated with meteorite impacts
C)very high pressures and temperatures associated with deep subduction
D)high temperatures and shearing stresses in an oceanic transform fault
Q3) In the formation of migmatites, which minerals start to melt first?
A)amphibole, biotite, and garnet
B)quartz and feldspar
C)chlorite and calcite
D)zircon and magnetite
Q4) Vast flat exposures of ancient metamorphic and igneous rocks are called
Q5) What two index minerals characterize the eclogite facies?
Q6) What are the aluminosilicate minerals (Al<sub>2</sub>SiO<sub>5 </sub>)and how are they formed and distinguished?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Geologic Time
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Sample
Questions
Q1) Visualize (or draw)five, horizontal, sedimentary strata as exposed in a cliff or canyon wall identified by consecutive numbers, 1 being the lowest bed and 5 being the highest.Which of the following statements concerning the strata are true?
A)bed 5 is the oldest
B)beds 1 and 3 are older than bed 4
C)bed 4 is older than bed 2
D)bed 3 is older than beds 2 and 4
Q2) Correlation of rock units between continents or widely separated areas is accomplished by using physical features such as colour, texture, and thickness of units.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which have been around longer, the benthonic foraminifera or planktonic ones?
Q4) What kind of unconformity is produced when tilted, older strata are eroded, then buried by younger strata?
Q5) Which geologic event or feature has the crucial contact relations to help you determine that fault B is younger than fault A, even though they don't directly contact each other?
Q6) After the normal fault B moved, which was the next younger geologic feature?
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Chapter 9: Crustal Deformation
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Sample Questions
Q1) All changes in the shape or size of a rock body involving fracture or flow are collectively referred to as structural ________.
Q2) When an overturned fold lies on its side it is called ________.
A)lazy
B)reclining
C)recumbent
D)wasted
Q3) ________ are the products of horizontally directed, tensional stresses.
A)Normal faults
B)Crustal thickening
C)Reverse faults
D)Thrust faults
Q4) ________ are planar extensional structures which thin the crust in response to horizontally directed, tensional stresses.
A)Normal faults
B)Anticlines
C)Reverse faults
D)Thrust faults
Q5) A(n)________ has strata on both limbs dipping inward toward the axis.
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Chapter 10: Earthquakes and Earth's Interior
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ________ is used to record ground shaking and the earthquake-magnitude scale based on the largest seismic wave motion was invented by ________.
A)Chinese ball juggler, Lao Tzu
B)vibrator; Dr.Ruth
C)polygraph; Freud
D)seismograph; Richter
Q2) How is Moment Magnitude (MW )calculated?
A)from surface wave magnitude measured one minute after the first P-wave arrival
B)from the amount of building or other infrastructure damage in large earthquakes with more than one minute of of ground shaking
C)from average fault displacement, average fault rupture area, and rock shear strength in the fault zone or by measuring very long period waves on special long period seismometers, triggered to record only very large earthquakes
D)from S-wave magnitude measured one minute before the last P-wave arrival
Q3) List three kinds of damage that can occur when a significant earthquake strikes a populated, well developed area.
Q4) Name two other zones of seismicity in Canada, excluding the west coast.
Q5) Name two belts of great earthquakes, or describe their location?
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Chapter 11: The Ocean Floor
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Sample Questions
Q1) What sedimentary process is mainly responsible for the accumulation of up to 9 kilometres of sediment in deep ocean trenches?
A)pelagic, biogenous ooze slowly settling from the top of the water column
B)offshore dumping of unending bargeloads of garbage from major cities
C)turbidity currents and submarine landslides from the continental slope and trench walls
D)sunken or subsided coral reefs
Q2) ________ are where active volcanism and earthquakes are the rarest.
Q3) Briefly discuss the formation and structure of oceanic crust.What rock compositions are involved and how do these compositions change as a result of interaction with seawater?
Q4) What rock types characterize the lowermost ocean crust and the upper mantle respectively, such as the "fossil Moho" preserved in the ophiolite complex of Western Newfoundland?
Q5) What are the three reef forming stages in forming a coral atoll from a subsiding volcanic island?
Q6) Name two features more likely to be characteristic of active margins.
Q7) Explain why some eroded, subsiding or drowned volcanic islands become coral reefs while others do not.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Plate Tectonics: The Framework for Modern Geology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most transform faults are located ________.
A)along the crests of mountain ranges like the Alpine fault in New Zealand
B)at ridge-ridge-ridge triple junctions
C)in the ocean basins connecting offsets along the oceanic ridge system
D)within continents at old continental sutures or along continental margins
Q2) What is the tectonic environment for the volcanoes Kilimanjaro and Mt.Kenya?
A)continental margin volcanic arc
B)continental rift
C)within-plate hot spot type
D)mid-ocean ridge seamounts
Q3) ________ was never proposed as evidence supporting the existence of Pangaea.
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
Q4) When rocks record a magnetic vector that is opposite to today's magnetic field they are said to be ________.
Q5) Although Alfred Wegener presented compelling evidence for his continental drift hypothesis (despite lacking a mechanism), why was the true nature of plate boundaries not determined until the 1960s?
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Chapter 13: Mountain Building and Continental Frameworks
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Sample Questions
Q1) Mountains without active volcanic arcs are associated with a(n)________ margin.
A)continent-continent
B)continent-ocean
C)ocean-ocean
D)divergent
Q2) One piece of evidence for the substantial compression accompanying terrane accretion in B.C.and the Yukon is ________.
A)Pleistocene folds in the offshore crust of the Pacific plate
B)Jurassic and Cretaceous deformations in the fold and thrust belt of the Canadian Rockies in B.C.and Alberta
C)Paleozoic subsidence in the Williston Basin of Saskatchewan and Manitoba
D)Pleistocene uplift and erosion in the Canadian Shield of the Northwest Territories
Q3) As new layers of rocks are added to the crust, the elevation increases faster than the crustal thickness.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What are two different ways or forms for ocean crust to be added to a continental margin?
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Page 15
Chapter 14: Mass Wasting: The Work of Gravity
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Sample Questions
Q1) All of the following are possible indicators that creep is occurring except for
A)tilted fences or power line poles
B)a thick soil profile
C)curved tree trunks
D)cracks in roads or sidewalks
Q2) Felsenmeer is also known as a ________.
Q3) Unconsolidated, dry, angular, granular materials such as gravel and sand will support maximum slope angles of about 33 to 35 degrees on land.What is the name for this maximum slope angle?
Q4) Rockslides (dangerous, fast-moving masses of broken rock)are typically initiated by an earthquake.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Repeated freezing and thawing can be important in soil creep movements.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Frost action will make a slope less stable.
A)True
B)False
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Running Water
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why is a bird-foot delta like that of the present-day Mississippi below New Orleans likely to change naturally toward one with the shape of an equilateral triangle like the upper-case Greek letter delta (?)?
A)Present-day distributaries have higher gradients than potential new ones.
B)Potential, new, major distributary channels have steeper gradients than existing channels.
C)Potential, new, distributary channels have higher gradients, causing downcutting of the existing channels.
D)Increased sediment loads since the mid-19th century have caused the major distributaries to be filled with sand.
Q2) ________ is the product of the average flow velocity and the area of the channel cross section (velocity × area).
A)Runoff gradient
B)Stream discharge
C)Hydrocapacity
D)Stream load factor
Q3) How can a stream "lengthen" its course?
Q4) All major rivers in Canada drain into only 5-6 basins.Name three of these.
Q5) ________ is the amount of precipitation that soil can absorb.
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Chapter 16: Groundwater
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Sample Questions
Q1) Name three deleterious side effects of over-using ground water resources.
Q2) What is the belt of soil moisture?
A)a viable farming region across southern Alberta and Saskatchewan without rain
B)the layer in the ground with the largest roots, just beneath the zone of saturation
C)at shallow depth, a surface film of water retained on soil, sediment, or organic particles
D)where permafrost has melted leaving completely saturated soils
Q3) Of the choices listed below, which would make the best aquitard?
A)clay
B)basalt
C)granite
D)sand
Q4) How would you recognize areas of karst topography on a topographic map without knowing the local bedrock geology? Also, what features of karst topography on a topographic map might be misinterpreted as some other geologic feature?
Q5) How much groundwater is consumed by drinking it?
Q6) Provide three factors which contribute to an irregular surface for the water table.
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Chapter 17: Glaciers and Glaciation
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Sample Questions
Q1) How can "Plate Tectonics" influence climate or contribute to major glacial cycles?
Q2) Briefly describe the three processes that lead to the formation of a glacier.
Q3) Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.
A)truncated spur
B)glacial trough
C)hanging valley
D)roche moutonnée
Q4) What physical property of H<sub>2</sub>O allows glaciers to flow, particularly by basal slip?
A)dipole forces
B)pressure melting
C)spontaneous recrystallization to the cubic structure
D)high viscosity
Q5) What term describes open fissures in the brittle, surface ice of a glacier?
Q6) If you found a small remnant glacier high in a mountain valley, and it was only 30 metres thick, what is the most likely mechanism for it to move, if it moves at all?
Q7) Other than massive erosional and depositional work, name three indirect effects of the glacial cycles of the last Ice Age.
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Deserts and Winds
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Sample Questions
Q1) Steppes are the driest of the true desert lands.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is the angle of repose for dry sand?
A)6°
B)10°
C)34°
D)67°
Q3) The dissolved load in wind is more concentrated than in streams.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The loess in western China was derived from windblown, glacial silt and rock flour.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Desert pavements keep forming because deflation of the desert floor cannot be stopped.
A)True B)False
Q6) Why do most desert streams not travel far?
Page 20
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Chapter 19: Shorelines
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Sample Questions
Q1) What causes the pair of tidal bulges?
A)One is caused by the pull of the moon, the other by the sun.
B)The east and west shores of the Americas pushing the water out of the way like giant mixer blades.
C)The larger one closest to the Moon is gravitational; 180° away it is inertial.
D)The shape of the whole Earth gets deformed into a flattened ellipsoid by the Moon's gravity; the other bulge is due to centrifugal force bending the rocks back but delayed by a quarter revolution.
Q2) What is the fetch?
A)Ocean currents that move in a direction parallel to the beach
B)The area of quiet water where deposition is taking place
C)A large area of open water over which wind blows to generate waves
D)Erosion of coastal cliffs creating wave-cut benches
Q3) Groins are constructed perpendicular to the beach; they are designed to trap sand on the up-current side, that might otherwise keep moving along the beach.
A)True
B)False
Q4) How does the backshore of a barrier island differ from the backshore of the mainland.
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Chapter 20: Mineral and Energy Resources
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Sample Questions
Q1) Heavy oil sand deposits are actually broken up shale beds impregnated with viscous, crude oil.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Processing and refining gasoline from heavy oil sands and oil shales yields higher energy contents and is less expensive to produce than using conventional light crude oil from the North Sea or Saudi Arabia.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Copper-zinc sulphide deposits formed around an ancient, seafloor, "black-smoker" hot spring vent would be most likely to be found in ________.
A)a metamorphic aureole skarn deposit
B)an ophiolite complex
C)a foreland or intracratonic basin
D)a detrital placer deposit
Q4) In which tectonic setting did Pb and Zn deposits like the Sullivan mine, BC, form?
Q5) Name two metals that are commonly found in residual deposits of deeply weathered continental rocks.
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