1. Semester Exam Review
2014

2. A fault is ____.

3. a fracture in the Earth where movement has occurred

4. An earthquake’s epicenter is ____.

5. the place on the surface directly above the focus

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

7. elastic rebound hypothesis

8. Which seismic waves travel most rapidly?

9. P waves

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

11. They travel faster than S waves.

12. A seismogram shows that P waves travel ____.

13. faster than S waves

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

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

16. Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis stated that all the continents once joined together to form ____.

17. one major supercontinent

18. The supercontinent in the continental drift hypothesis was called ____.

19. Pangaea

20. What hypothesis states that the continents were once joined to form a single supercontinent?

21. continental drift

22. Which of the following statements correctly describes the asthenosphere?

23. It permits plate motion.

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

25. 7 major plates and many smaller plates

26. What kind of plate boundary occurs where two plates grind past each other without destroying or producing lithosphere?

27. transform fault boundary

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

29. rift valley

30. What type of boundary occurs where two plates move together, causing one plate to descend into the mantle beneath the other plate?

31. convergent boundary

32. New ocean crust is formed at ____.

33. divergent boundaries

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

35. seafloor spreading

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

37. the East African Rift Valley

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

39. a hot spot

40. Highly explosive volcanoes tend to have what type of magma?

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

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

43. cinder cone

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

45. shield volcanoes

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

47. composite cone volcano

48. Structures that form from the cooling and hardening of magma beneath Earth’s surface are ____.

49. plutons

50. The largest intrusive igneous body is called a ____.

51. batholith

52. What is true about all plutons?

53. They form below Earth’s surface.

54. What is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere?

55. nitrogen

56. Which of the following terms best describes air?

57. mixture

58. What is the lowest layer of the atmosphere?

59. troposphere

60. When does the summer solstice occur in the Northern Hemisphere?

61. June 21

62. When does the autumnal equinox occur in the Southern Hemisphere?

63. March 21

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

65. They move faster.

66. On average, how much of the sun’s energy that reaches Earth’s outer atmosphere is reflected back into space?

67. 30 percent

68. Which term describes the conversion of a solid directly to a gas, without passing through the liquid state?

69. sublimation

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

71. deposition

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

73. latent heat

74. What is the dry adiabatic rate?

75. 10C/1000 meters

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

77. of the release of latent heat

78. What is true about stable air?

79. It tends to resist rising.

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

81. stratus

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

83. cumulus

84. Which term means “rainy cloud”?

85. nimbus

86. Which clouds are often associated with thunder and lightning?

87. cumulonimbus

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

89. oxygen

90. Atoms containing the same numbers of protons and different numbers of neutrons are ____.

91. isotopes