1. How fast are North America and Europe moving today?
a. 3-5 inches/year
b. 1-3 inches/year
c. 1-3 feet/year
d. 1-3 inches/month
e. 3-5 inches/month
2. Pangaea
a. Was a continent that existed 250 million years ago
b. Was an ocean that existed 250 million years ago
c. Was a continent that existed 135 million years ago
d. Was one of several continents that existed 250 million years ago.
e. Was the only continent that existed in the ocean Panthalassa 135
million years ago
3. General continental drift occurred in what order?
a. 1) Pangaea, 2) Laurasia and Gondwanaland, 3) Africa and S. America;
Indonesia moves NE to Asia, 4) N. America and Europe separate;
Greenland is isolated
b. 1) Laurasia and Gondwanaland, 2) Pangaea, 3) Africa and S.
America; Indonesia moves NE to Asia, 4) N. America and Europe separate;
Greenland is isolated
c. 1) Pangaea, 2) Laurasia and Gondwanaland, 3) N. America and Europe
separate; Greenland is isolated, 4) Africa and S. America;
Indonesia moves NE to Asia
d. 1) Pangaea, 2) Laurasia and Gondwanaland, 3) Africa and S.
America; India moves NE to Asia, 4) N. America and Europe separate;
Greenland is isolated
e. 1) Laurasia and Gondwanaland, 2) Pangaea, 3) N. America and Europe
separate; Greenland is isolated, 4) Africa and S. America; India
moves NE to Asia
4. What provides evidence of continental drift?
a. location of lakes and streams
b. location of major mountain chains
c. grooves carved by glaciers
d. types of rock
e. position of volcanoes
5. A tectonic plate is:
a. a lava flow
b. a continent
c. a large, flexible slab of rock
d. a conglomerate of many different rock types
e. a large, rigid slab of rock
6. How many tectonic plates exist on the earth today?
a. 7
b. 3
c. 10
d. 12 or more
e. 25 or more
7. The first 2 large land masses were:
a. Gondwanaland and Laurasia
b. Pangaea and Laurasia
c. Swaziland and Laurasia
d. Pangaea and Gondwanaland
e. Pangaea and Panthalassa
8. Wegener developed the theory of continental drift because he was intrigued by:
a. the fit of the South American and African continents
b. matching fossils along the coastlines of South America and Africa
c. dramatic climate changes on some continents
d. glacial deposits in Africa
e. all of the above
9. The force driving the movement of tectonic plates is:
a. the forces of gravity
b. the motion of the hot, soft mantle
c. centripetal force caused by the spin of the earth
d. motion in the lithosphere
e. subduction
10. Mobile rock beneath the earth’s crust moves:
a. straight up and down from the earth’s core
b. in a circular motion called a convective flow
c. in a counter clockwise motion
d. does not move
e. very quickly
11. Heat within the earth comes from what source(s)?
a. isotopic clocks
b. radioactive decay
c. residual heat and gravitational energy
d. residual heat
e. radioactive decay and residual heat
12. Which planets in out solar system are is/are currently exhibiting tectonic plate activity?
a. Mars, Earth, Mercury
b. Mars, Earth Ganymede
c. Mars, Earth, Jupiter, Io
d. Earth
e. Earth, Moon
13. Critical factors in a planets tectonic activity are:
a. the size of the body
b. the rate of heat loss
c. composition
d. existence of oceans
e. a, b, and c
14. The youthfulness of the ocean is one of the major scientific developments that helped form the theory of plate tectonics. Which of the following is not?
a. volcanoes and earth quakes centered on ocean trenches
b. sea floor spreading
c. glacial movement
d. reversals of the Earth’s magnetic field
e. they are all developments that helped form the theory of plate tectonics
15. The San Andreas fault is a ___________ fault.
a. pacific
b. creep
c. thrust fault
d. blind thrust fault
e. strike-slip
16. A bathymetric survey is:
a study of bathtubs
b. deep-sea line soundings
c. rock core measurements
d. ice core measurements
e. middle ground measurements
17. The most prominent topographic feature on the surface of the planet is:
a. the great wall of china
b. the global mid-ocean ridge
c. the Himalayan mountains
d. the Rocky Mountains
e. the Great Lakes
18. Which rock contains a magnetic mineral?
a. basalt
b. magnetite
c. magnetometers
d. sedimentary
e. magma
19. Stripes of rock parallel to the mid-oceanic ridge have alternating magnetic polarity. This supports the theory of:
a. plate tectonics
b. sea floor spreading
c. deep sea volcanic activity
d. bathymetry
e. radioactive decay