Multiple-Choice Questions
1) Which of the following layers of the earth is unique among the terrestrial planets?
A) hydrosphere
B) ionosphere
C) mantle
D) crust
E) core
Page Ref: 5.1
2) At what phase would you expect to find extremely high and low tides?
A) new Moon
B) first and third quarter
C) full Moon
D) both new and full Moons
E) Moon phases are not impacting the tides.
Page Ref: 5.2
3) What is true of spring tides?
A) The third quarter Moon would be high overhead at dawn.
B) The difference between low and high tides would be greatest.
C) There would be one high and one low tide each day.
D) The Moon's phase will be first quarter.
E) The difference between low and high tides would be smallest.
Page Ref: 5.2
4) At what phase would the tides be least noticeable?
A) new Moon
B) full Moon
C) third quarter
D) waxing crescent
E) waning gibbous
Page Ref: 5.2
5) The Moon's near side always faces Earth due to
A) the Sun's gravity
B) Earth's magnetic field
C) Earth's tidal force
D) conservation of angular momentum in the solar nebula
E) the solar wind
Page Ref: 5.2
6) The smallest high tides occur when the Moon phase is
A) first or third quarter.
B) full.
C) new.
D) waxing or waning crescent.
E) waxing or waning gibbous.
Page Ref: 5.2
7) What is true of the Moon's orbital and rotational periods?
A) The rotational period is longer.
B) The orbital period is longer.
C) The rotational period varies with the Moon's phase.
D) They are equal.
E) The orbital period is greatest at full moon.
Page Ref: 5.2
8) Almost all of the earth's atmospheric gases lie in the
A) mesosphere.
B) stratosphere.
C) troposphere.
D) hydrosphere.
E) ionosphere.
Page Ref: 5.3
9) Which portion of our atmosphere blocks ultraviolet radiation best?
A) the troposphere
B) the stratosphere
C) the ozone layer
D) the mesosphere
E) the ionosphere
Page Ref: 5.3
10) Life on Earth occurs in the
A) troposphere.
B) stratosphere.
C) mesosphere.
D) ionosphere.
E) exosphere.
Page Ref: 5.3
11) Which of these gases is least abundant in our atmosphere?
A) hydrogen
B) carbon dioxide
C) argon
D) nitrogen
E) oxygen
Page Ref: 5.3
12) Without the greenhouse effect gases in our atmosphere,
A) we would not have to worry about any ecological problems.
B) the earth's present oceans would be frozen.
C) the amount of nitrogen and oxygen would be much less.
D) the ice in our poles would have melted long ago.
E) the whole Earth would be completely submerged.
Page Ref: 5.3
13) Which of these gases are outgassed from our volcanic eruptions?
A) oxygen, methane, ammonia
B) carbon dioxide, water vapor, oxygen
C) ammonia, water vapor, oxygen.
D) water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide.
E) helium, carbon dioxide, methane.
Page Ref: 5.3
14) The major presence of water detected on the Moon is in
A) the mare.
B) the floors of deep craters in the polar regions, as ice deposits that never thaw.
C) the flows of mud seen on the walls of some craters.
D) the puffs of steam seen coming from some still active lunar volcanoes.
E) faint clouds of ice in the thin lunar atmosphere.
Page Ref: 5.3
15) The average rate of erosion on the Moon is far less than here because
A) the crust of the Moon is much denser than the earth's crust.
B) the Moon is much younger than the earth.
C) the Moon lacks wind, water and an atmosphere.
D) the Moon's magnetic field protects it from the solar wind better than ours does.
E) the Moon's mare long ago dried up, so there is no more wave erosion there.
Page Ref: 5.3
16) We determine the structure of the Earth's core using
A) deep mine shafts.
B) satellite imaging.
C) radar and sonar.
D) seismic wave data.
E) magnetic resonance imaging.
Page Ref: 5.4
17) The atmospheric gases primarily responsible for our greenhouse effect are
A) carbon monoxide and methane.
B) hydrogen and helium.
C) oxygen and carbon dioxide.
D) argon and water vapor.
E) water vapor and carbon dioxide.
Page Ref: 5.4
18) In noting that the earth is "differentiated," we mean that
A) the density increases as you descend downward toward the core.
B) the earth is very different than any other planet we study.
C) the earth's magnetic field varies at different locations on the globe.
D) the density of oceanic basalt is less than that of granite on the mountain tops.
E) the radioactive heating in the core is increasing with time.
Page Ref: 5.4
19) Seismic waves can most usefully map
A) the seafloor.
B) the topography of the continents.
C) the surface of the Moon.
D) the interior mantle and core of the earth and other worlds.
E) the ozone layer and the mesosphere.
Page Ref: 5.4
20) Which statement about seismic waves is true?
A) Only S waves can travel through liquid.
B) P waves travel faster, and thus arrive sooner than do the S waves.
C) In the shadow zones, neither type is observed.
D) S waves can travel though the outer core, but P waves cannot.
E) On the far side of the earth, only the S waves on the surface can be detected.
Page Ref: 5.4
21) Which of these is not a result of plate tectonics?
A) the Grand Canyon
B) the Andes
C) the Mid-Atlantic Rift
D) the San Andreas Fault
E) the Philippine Trench
Page Ref: 5.5
22) Today, an average lunar moonquake releases about as much energy as
A) an atomic bomb.
B) a firecracker.
C) the Mount St. Helens eruption.
D) a major U.S. city uses in 1 year.
E) the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
Page Ref: 5.5
23) The far side of the Moon was first mapped
A) by Galileo in 1610 with his first telescope.
B) by the Apollo astronauts on the first orbit of the Moon with Apollo 8.
C) by early Russian spacecraft.
D) by NASA with its Lunar Orbiters in the 1960s.
E) by William Herschel with his large reflectors in the early 1800s.
Page Ref: 5.6
24) The lunar mare are found
A) uniformly all over the Moon.
B) mainly on the near side.
C) mainly on the far side.
D) only in the dark areas of the lunar poles, where water is not boiled away.
E) only as layered rocks, since the original water was lost long ago.
Page Ref: 5.6
25) Which of these age ranges best describes the lunar maria?
A) 8.6 - 6.0 billion years
B) 3.9 - 3.2 billion years
C) 2.5 - 1.0 billion years
D) 100 - 65 million years
E) a few million years to present lava flows seen erupting
Page Ref: 5.6
26) The rate of cratering in the lunar highlands shows us that
A) they must be younger than the older, darker mare.
B) they range from 4.6 - 4.4 billion years old, on average.
C) the largest impacts are the youngest, such as Copernicus and Tycho.
D) the oldest rocks are at least as old as the mare, but some craters are much younger.
E) most of the asteroids must have hit the Moon, not the earth.
Page Ref: 5.6
27) What is true of the lunar highlands ?
A) They are found on the Moon's northern hemisphere.
B) They are less heavily cratered than the mare.
C) They are the darker regions of the Moon seen with the naked eye.
D) They are younger than the darker mare.
E) They are the oldest part of the lunar surface..
Page Ref: 5.6
28) The presence of a magnetic field is a good indication that
A) the dense Earth is made chiefly of iron and nickel.
B) the earth has a huge, nickel-iron meteorite buried under the Yucatan.
C) the earth has a large amount of swirling molten nickel and iron in its outer core.
D) the earth's core is completely molten.
E) the earth's core, like Mercury's, has had time to freeze out solid into a bar magnet.
Page Ref: 5.7
29) When strong solar winds are displaced poleward by our magnetic fields, we get
A) the Van Allen radiation belts.
B) intense auroral displays.
C) sunspots.
D) hurricanes in the tropics.
E) droughts and dust bowls in the American West.
Page Ref: 5.7
30) The region in which charged particles are trapped by our magnetic fields is the
A) ionosphere.
B) ozone layers.
C) exosphere.
D) Van Allen radiation belt.
E) Aurora.
Page Ref: 5.7
31) Earth's magnetic field
A) prevents charged particles in the solar wind from reaching the surface.
B) is a remnant of the solar nebula's magnetic field.
C) is weakening the Van Allen radiation belts
D) is the force behind plate tectonics.
E) lines intersect the atmosphere at the equator.
Page Ref: 5.7
32) Which statement about our core is FALSE?
A) It generated a stable and permanent magnetic field much as a regular bar magnet.
B) Its magnetic field generates the protective Van Allen Radiation Belts.
C) It must be rich in both iron and nickel.
D) The seismic data indicates the outer portion is liquid, the inner part solid.
E) It is almost as hot as the Sun's glow surface, the photosphere.
Page Ref: 5.7
33) Which of these theories seems to best explain the Moon's origin?
A) Impact Theory
B) Capture Theory
C) Coformation Theory
D) Fission Theory
E) Fusion Theory
Page Ref: 5.8