Quiz 1

Answer the following questions:

1. In the illustration below, which of the three models depicts an isolated system?

A) Model A
B) Model B
C) Model C
2. In the two photographs below, A is of structures within a modern sand dune that are
identical to the structures in the sandstone shown in B. Geologists interpret the structures
in the ancient sandstone to be formed by the same processes as those that produced the
structures in the modern sand dune. Geologists' ability to interpret these structures by
comparing them to modern processes is an example of

A)
B)
C)
D)

paleontology.
the nebular hypothesis.
uniformitarianism.
a systems approach.

Short Essay
3. The illustration below is shows three different systems labeled A, B, and C. For each
of the modeled systems, provide its name and explain how it differs from the others.

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4. Describe the difference between physical geology and historical geology?
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5. What is a closed system?
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6. What are the subsystems of the Earth system?
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7. What are the reservoirs of the hydrologic cycle?
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2

8. What is the tectonic cycle?

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9. What is the rock cycle?
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10. In what ways do the biosphere and the lithosphere interact?
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11. Given scientists' current understanding of the formation of the Moon, how might the
composition of the Moon compare to that of the Earth?
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12. Why are meteorites of such interest to scientists?
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13. Impact craters cover the surface of large parts of other terrestrial bodies in the solar
system such as Mars and the Moon. Why don't we see many covering Earth's surface?
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14. Why is the study of geology important to human society?
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Fill in the blank

15. Scientists distinguish three kinds of systems: isolated, closed, and ______.
16. The four open subsystems of the Earth system are the lithosphere, hydrosphere,
atmosphere, and ______.
17. The ______ cycle circulates water through various reservoirs: the ocean, the
atmosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere.
18. The ______ cycle describes crustal processes through which rocks are uplifted into
mountains, then eroded weathered, and the debris modified, transformed or reformed into
rock underground.
19. The ______ cycle describes the movements and interactions in the lithosphere and
internal Earth processes that drive them.
20. The growth process in which bits of solid matter gradually gathered together to form
the planets is called ______.
21. Through the process of condensation and accretion, the formation of Earth and other
planetary bodies was essentially complete ____ years ago.
22. The innermost planets of the solar system are also referred to as the ______ planets,
because of their similarities to Earth.
23. Crustal processes that form new rock, modify it, transport it and break it down is
referred to as the _____ cycle.
24. The ______ forms the outer most compositional layer of the solid Earth.
25. The middle compositional layer of Earth, the______, lies between the core and the
crust.
26. The ______ is the innermost compositional layer of the solid Earth.
27. The concept of ______ holds that the processes governing the Earth system today
have operated in a similar manner throughout geologic time.
28. The model of ______ describes the movement and interactions of large garments of
Earth's lithosphere.