Semester Exam Review 2014. A fault is ____. a fracture in the Earth where movement has occurred.

Semester Exam Review

2014

A fault is ____.

a fracture in the Earth where movement has occurred

An earthquake’s epicenter is ____.

the place on the surface directly above the focus

The hypothesis that explains the release of energy during an earthquake is called the ____.

elastic rebound hypothesis

Which seismic waves travel most rapidly?

P waves

Which one of the following statements is true about P waves?

They travel faster than S waves.

A seismogram shows that P waves travel ____.

faster than S waves

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of S waves?

They temporarily change the volume of material by compression and expansion.

Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis stated that all the continents once joined together to

form ____.

one major supercontinent

The supercontinent in the continental drift hypothesis was called ____.

Pangaea

What hypothesis states that the continents were once joined to form a single

supercontinent?

continental drift

Which of the following statements correctly describes the asthenosphere?

It permits plate motion.

In the plate tectonics theory, the lithosphere is divided into ____.

7 major plates and many smaller plates

What kind of plate boundary occurs where two plates grind past each other without destroying

or producing lithosphere?

transform fault boundary

A divergent boundary at two oceanic plates can result in a ____.

rift valley

What type of boundary occurs where two plates move together, causing one plate to descend

into the mantle beneath the other plate?

convergent boundary

New ocean crust is formed at ____.

divergent boundaries

Which of the following results when divergence occurs between two oceanic plates?

seafloor spreading

An example of a divergent plate boundary on continental lithosphere would be ____.

the East African Rift Valley

The Hawaiian Islands were formed when the Pacific Plate moved over ____.

a hot spot

Highly explosive volcanoes tend to have what type of magma?

magma with high silica, high viscosity, and higher gas content

What type of volcano is built almost entirely from ejected lava fragments?

cinder cone

The broad, slightly dome-shaped volcanoes of Hawaii are ____.

shield volcanoes

A volcano that is fairly symmetrical and has both layers of lava and pyroclastic deposits is a

____.

composite cone volcano

Structures that form from the cooling and hardening of magma beneath Earth’s surface

are ____.

plutons

The largest intrusive igneous body is called a ____.

batholith

What is true about all plutons?

They form below Earth’s surface.

What is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere?

nitrogen

Which of the following terms best describes air?

mixture

What is the lowest layer of the atmosphere?

troposphere

When does the summer solstice occur in the Northern Hemisphere?

June 21

When does the autumnal equinox occur in the Southern Hemisphere?

March 21

When energy is transferred to air, what happens to the particles of air?

They move faster.

On average, how much of the sun’s energy that reaches Earth’s outer atmosphere is reflected

back into space?

30 percent

Which term describes the conversion of a solid directly to a gas, without passing through the

liquid state?

sublimation

The process by which water vapor changes directly to a solid is called ____.

deposition

Which of the following refers to the energy that is stored or released during a change of state of

water?

latent heat

What is the dry adiabatic rate?

10C/1000 meters

The wet adiabatic rate of cooling is less than the dry rate because ____.

of the release of latent heat

What is true about stable air?

It tends to resist rising.

Which cloud type is best described as sheets or layers that cover much or all of the sky?

stratus

Which cloud type consists of globular cloud masses with a cauliflower structure?

cumulus

Which term means “rainy cloud”?

nimbus

Which clouds are often associated with thunder and lightning?

cumulonimbus

The most abundant element in Earth’s continental crust (by weight) is ____.

oxygen

Atoms containing the same numbers of protons and different numbers of neutrons are

____.

isotopes