DEEP TIME

Question 1        
Uniformitarianism:
Correct Answer:  is illustrated by scientists’ seeing pillow lava form only under water, then theorizing that pillow lava found high in the mountains today did nevertheless form under water.
       
Question 2              
Which of the following shows four time divisions listed from oldest to youngest?
Correct Answer: Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic
       
Question 3              
Choose the proper listing of names to fit the following three descriptions: Age of Mammals, Age of Dinosaurs, and longest geologic time period.
Correct Answer:  Cenozoic, Mesozoic, Precambrian
       
Question 4        
Which of the following is not a method to determine numerical age?
Correct Answer:  cross-cutting relations
       
Question 5        
Which of the following statements is false?
Correct Answer:  An unconformity is a break in the rock record that indicates the area was under water for millions of years.
       
Question 6              
Which of the following statements is false? The principle of:
Correct Answer:  inclusions says rock containing inclusions is older than the inclusions.
       
Question 7        
A rock is given a radiometric date of 300,000,000 years, with an uncertainty of measurement of 1%. This means the rock’s age:
Correct Answer:  is anything between 297,000,000 and 303,000,000 years old.
       
Question 8        
An area of slightly dipping sedimentary rock layers has large inclusions and is intruded by an igneous dike. Apply the basic principles for determining relative ages and identify the false statementary
Correct Answer:  The inclusions are younger than the sedimentary rock they are in.
       
Question 9        
Identify the false statement.
Correct Answer:  Charles Lyell correctly explained how fossils form and formulated some of the basic principles of relative dating.
       
Question 10              
Identify the false statement. Radiometric dating:
Correct Answer:  can be used only if there’s some uranium present in the rock.
       
Question 11              
A radioactive isotope of the element potassium decays to produce argon. If the ratio of argon to potassium is found to be 7:1, how many half-lives have occurred?
Correct Answer:  3 half-lives
       
Question 12              
Charcoal (burned wood) that was used to make prehistoric drawings on cave walls in France was scraped off and analyzed. The results were 4 mg carbon 14 (parent isotope) and 60 mg nitrogen (daughter isotope). The half-life of carbon 14 is 5,730 years. How old are the cave drawings?
Correct Answer:  22,920 years
       
Question 13              
On the diagram shown, several surfaces between rock layers are identified by letters. Choose the answer below that correctly identifies the unconformities.
Correct Answer: C and E

Question 14              
Identify the false statement. William Smith’s observations:
Correct Answer: noted that a fossil species could disappear, then reappear in much younger strata.
       
Question 15              
In 1815, William Smith correlated strata from many locations and plotted it on paper to show the spatial distribution of rock units on Earth’s surface. This document was the first modern:
Correct Answer:  geologic map.
       
Question 16              
A disconformity is a type of unconformity in which sedimentary rocks overlie either igneous or metamorphic rocks.
Correct Answer: False
       
Question 17              
If you equate all Earth history to one calendar year, all recorded human history occupies the week from Christmas to New Year’s Eve.
Correct Answer: False
       
Question 18              
It’s not possible to say just when an individual radioactive atom will decay, but it is possible to say when half of an existing quantity of radioactive material will be gone.
Correct Answer: True
       
Question 19              
Correlation matches up rock layers across distances on the basis of similar sequences of rock layers and similar fossils in the layers.
Correct Answer: True
       
Question 20              
The boundary surface between two stratigraphic formations is called a key bed.
Correct Answer: False
       
Question 21              
Numerical (or absolute) dating is just a comparison of age; relative dating assigns numbers.
Correct Answer: False
       
Question 22              
The first half-life period of carbon-14 is 5,730 years; the second half-life period of carbon-14 is half of this, and the number of years is cut in half for each succeeding half-life period.
Correct Answer: False
       
Question 23        
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scientists tried to determine Earth’s age by analyzing the thickness of sediments, the saltiness of oceans, and Earth’s temperature, but crucial flaws in these techniques gave incorrect ages.
Correct Answer: True
       
Question 24              
The largest subdivision of time on the geologic column are eras, which are broken down into smaller units called eons, then periods, then epochs.
Correct Answer: False
       
Question 25              
4.57 billion-year-old moon rock and meteorites are the oldest rocks found in our solar system, leading geologists to conclude this is the approximate age of the Earth.
Correct Answer: True