Review Questions for Test 2

1. Be able to sketch plate interactions for convergence, divergence, and transform boundaries. You should be able to do six sketches. Know example locations for each (e.g., Andes).

2. Who was Alfred Wegener? Who was Harry Hess? How do each relate to the establishment of plate tectonics? Be able to explain the patterns each saw. (See Birth of a Theory.)

3. Be familiar with the essay about Lake Nyos. What is the impact of dissolved gases upon eruptions?

4. What are three indicators that a volcano is soon to erupt? Think of other natural hazards for which there are indications prior to their occurrence (precursor events).

5. What are the the three tectonic locations at which most volcanoes occur? What is a pillow basalt?

6. Describe the main events of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens.

7. What is a pillow basalt? How does it form?

8. Be able to compare the hot spot at Yellowstone with the Hawaiian hot spot.

9. Be able to distinguish texture from composition in igneous rocks. What are the main six types we examined in lab? What are obsidian and pumice?

10. What is the impact of cooling rate upon texture?

11. Why hasn’t the Earth already cooled off?

12. Be able to explain a phase diagram of temperature and pressure.

13. What are Mt. Kenya and Ship Rock?

14. What is the origin of the Gulf of Mexico? How did the origin of the Gulf influence the location of the Mississippi River? the New Madrid Fault Zone?

15. What is the origin of the Louanne Salt? Why is it important to the oil industry?

16. What is the history of the Mississippi Delta? (changing of location, etc.)

17. Explain what happened at Old River. (Shreve’s cutoff, the Control Structure, the 1973 flood, etc.)

18. What are the main feature of the continental margin and the ocean bottom? How do we know?

19. What is a black smoker?

20. What is an atoll? How does it form?

21. How are active and passive margins different?

22. How do the east and west coasts of the U.S. differ from each other and from north to south?

23. What are four processes that form mountains?

24. Be able to identify the world’s major mountain ranges from a world map and discuss how each range formed.

25. Be able to connect the rocks (igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary) and processes of the rock cycle to the tectonics which helped form them.

26. What is the relationship between mountain building, plate tectonics, and the rock cycle?

27. Be able to look at a rock and predict the tectonic setting in which it formed.

1. What is the difference between a theory/model and evidence? What are five different types of data that serve as evidence for plate tectonics?

2. How does geology connect to your favorite vacation spot?

3. How does geology connect to the features of your favorite park?

4. How does geology connect to jazz?