Practice Quiz 1

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Updated on 05.05.2015

Ocean 115: Sample Quiz 1

This 3-unit physical science lecture course examines the physical, chemical and geological aspects of oceans and the oceanic environment. The companion laboratory course is: Ocean-116 (Laboratory Exercises in Physical Oceanography). Also try Biol-125 (Marine Biology) and Biol-126 (Marine Biology Lab.) in order to round up your Marine Sciences learning at the Glendale College. For students taking Ocean-115 and Ocean-116 to complete their Physical Science GE requirements, it may be a good idea to satisfy their GE requirement in Life Sciences by taking Biol-132 (Introduction to Marine Sciences).

Home | My Book | Physical Geology | Environmental Geology | Oceanography: Ocean-115, Ocean-116, Talking Points My Bus Admn-101 class

True/False Propositions

On this
page:

True	False	Each question-item below is either TRUE or FALSE
		Pacific Ocean covers about one-half of the total area covered by the oceans.
		Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth’s surface, formed by convergent tectonism involving the continental edge of one plate and oceanic edge of another.
		Crust is the Earth’s outermost shell, with an average density of 2.75 gm/cm³, that is 30-35 km thick beneath the continents where it mostly comprises granites.
		The latitude of 34°S for Sydney, Australia, means that this city is located south of the tropics.
		The day (or Sun-facing) side of Venus is very hot, because Venus is located closer to Sun than the Earth, but the night side of Venus is very cold.
		Earthquakes typically characterize the plate boundaries, except that a spreading submarine ridge like the East Pacific Rise has seismicity but is not a plate boundary.
		Earth's equatorial bulge and polar flattening make gravity at the poles less than gravity at the equator.

Multiple-Choice Questions
Each question-item below is a contextually relevant 'TRUE/FALSE' proposition.

True

False

Mt. Annapoorna, one of the Himalayan peaks, is made
up of limestones that contain ~200 Ma old ammonite fossils. Clearly, ...

an ocean covered the present site of Himalayas about 200 million years ago.

the Indian subcontinent was once located about 5000 km to the south, adjacent to Africa.

limestones can form on high mountain peaks as well as in deep ocean floor.

the relative geography of land and oceans has often changed over the geologic time.

Compared to the Earth-Sun distance, Venus is closer to the Sun and Mars is farther. The three planets have similar compositions, however, and their surfaces also receive similar amounts of solar heat, per unit area. Yet, neither Venus nor Mars have water, whereas >70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. This is because …

Earth has water, but Venus and Mars do not, because Earth is at the right distance from the Sun.

Mars lacks the atmosphere and plate tectonics to sustain the hydrological cycle.

The thick atmosphere and peculiar orbital dynamics (i.e., the planet takes almost as much time to com-

plete one spin on its axis as it does to complete one orbit about the Sun) make Venus too hot to have water.

This animation is a reconstruction of what the assembly of continents and oceans may have been like during the past ~750 Ma. Looking at this, can we argue that …

the central Atlantic is the oldest part of the Atlantic Ocean, and that its creation forced the separation of North America from Africa?

North America had separated from Africa by ~200 Ma ago, when South America was still joined to Africa?

South Atlantic Ocean has existed for more than 300 Ma?

Which of the following can explain the evidence that oceans had evolved within 500-1000 Ma of Earth’s evolution but no ocean floor rocks are older than ~200 Ma, compared to up to ~4.2 Ga old rocks on land, although there is no evidence that the Earth has expanded appreciably in the past ~4.5 Ga of its history?

Plate tectonics creates new ocean floors and mountain belts as hydrological cycle fills-in the ocean basins and flattens the mountain belts.

Pacific Ocean covers nearly one-third of the earth’s surface?

The creation of new ocean floor at spreading submarine ridges implies that an equal amount of existing surface is lost in deep sea trenches and folded mountain belts, so that Earth’s total surface area remains unchanged?

Short notes

If you can answer these questions, you have prepared well for the first class test. All that remains to be done is to be able to write 50-75 word answers, with sketches and concept maps, as and when appropriate.

How much of Earth is covered by water? How is it distributed?

What are latitudes and longitudes? Do seasons occur at all the latitudes? What will happen if the present 23½° tilt of Earth's spin axis disappeared altogether?

Earth had plenty of water, Venus and Mars do not. Why?

What is hydrological cycle? Why do we say that, had it not been for plate tectonics, the hydrological cycle on Earth would have disappeared in a matter of ~200 Ma?

Where did the ocean’s water come from? Mantle's degassing? Extraterrestrial? Evidences?

Can you draw a picture of Earth’s interior and label the major parts (crust, mantle, cores)? How do we know that the outer core is fluid?

Where are the youngest seafloor rocks found? The oldest? Why is it such a big deal?

What is seafloor spread? How do marine-magnetic anomalies help map it? Any corroboration from the ocean-bottom sediments?

Do you know the difference between a divergent plate boundary, a transform plate boundary, and a convergent plate boundary? How about the examples?

How does isostacy explain why continental crust is thicker than the oceanic crust? Is this the reason why continents are upraised and ocean basins are depressions? How does it justify the claim that the "mountains have their own roots"?

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This site was last updated on 05/05/15