| Dr. Karen Bartels Office: Main Campus, Science Building Room 142 Phone: (773) 442-6052 E-mail: K-Bartels@neiu.edu Course web page: http://www.neiu.edu/~kbartels/ESCI123SuIA05.htm |
The guides that are here now
are those from a previous semester.
Updated
Study Guides will be available
one week before exams.
| Study
Guide for Mid-Session Exam |
Study
Guide for Final Exam |
| NOTE: The companion
website for your textbook has review and study questions for each
chapter. |
How to do well on essay questions in this class:
Your answers to the essay questions should be written in complete
sentences.
You should restate the question at the beginning.
Give detailed reasons to support your answer. Arrange your
sentences
into logical paragraphs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For example:
If the Sample Review Guide contains this information: What is a bicycle? What is a motorcycle?
And the Sample Test Question is: Describe the similarities and differences between bicycles and motorcycles;
This is an example of a good answer:
A bicycle and a motorcycle have much in common, but there are also significant differences. Both are machines with two wheels that are used for transportation. The wheels are lined up one in front of the other. In both cases, the person who operates the machine commonly sits in a seat that is located between the front wheel and the back wheel. When power is applied to turn some gears that turn the back wheel, the machine can move forward. The operator steers the machine in the direction they want to travel by turning handle bars attached to the front wheel. This is possible because the front wheel pivots on the frame of the machine. However, a motorcycle is larger, heavier, more complex, and more expensive than a bicycle. This is because a motorcycle is powered by a motor, much like a car, whereas a bicycle is powered by a human being.
Why is this a good answer?
It is written in complete sentences, and the sentences are logically organized into a paragraph.
The first sentence restates the question, and it also tells the reader what the rest of the paragraph is going to be about.
The writer gave very specific details about what the two objects have in common, both in terms of describing what they look like and in explaining how they work.
The writer also gave specific details about how the objects differ.
What else could the test-taker have done in answering this question?
Perhaps she or he could have drawn some sketches
of the bicycle and motorcycle to illustrate the written descriptions.
Suggestions for how to do well on
quizzes and exams:
Study.
Get a good night's sleep beforehand.
Read through the entire exam before answering any questions.
Begin with the most difficult questions.
Don't get stuck: If you are not getting anywhere on a question,
move on to another one.
Remember to breathe! If you find you are getting tense, put down
your pencil, close your eyes and take several deep breaths. Take
a moment to ease the tension, then resume.
Make sure you are answering the question! Read the question
carefully. Answer the question that is asked. If it is a
multi-part
question, make sure you have answered all the parts.
If you are unsure about a question, ask the instructor for
clarification.
She might not be able to provide it, but it never hurts to ask.
If you need to do some calculations, show all of your steps and explain
them. Even if you can do it in your head, don't.
Pay attention to units. (Example: If the question is "How
old is the earth?" and you write down "4.5," that is incorrect
because
it is just a number. Since the question is asking for an age, you
need appropriate units, in this case a unit of time. A correct
answer
would be "the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old.")
If you are not sure of an answer, write down what you do know, or
explain how
you would answer the question if you had more information or more time.
Study Guide for Exam 1:
These review questions are meant as a
guide to the type of
material
the exam will cover. These will not be the questions on the exam.
You should be familiar with the following ideas and concepts; in addition, you should be able to describe geologic features, explain geologic processes and demonstrate that you understand how processes are related to each other.
How
did the universe, solar system, and earth form?
How old do scientists estimate the universe to be?
How old do scientists estimate the earth to
be? Describe the internal structure of
the earth today.
Which
planets are most similar to earth? What
are the terrestrial planets? What are
the gaseous planets? Which have the
largest diameter? Which are most
dense? (Density is mass per unit volume).
What
is an atom? What is the structure of an
atom? What are protons, neutrons, and
electrons? What is an element? An ion?
What is ionic bonding? What is
covalent bonding? How strong is each
type of bond?
What
is the definition of a mineral? What is
a rock? What are some physical
properties of minerals?
What
are the most abundant elements in the earth’s crust?
(O, Si, Al, Fe, Mg, Ca, Na, K) What two
elements do we find in all silicate
minerals? What group of mineral is most
abundant in the crust and mantle?
(Silicate minerals)
Why
do graphite and diamond have such different physical properties when
they have
the same chemical composition?
What
are the three major rock types? (Igneous,
Sedimentary and Metamorphic) What are
the two main types of igneous rocks? (plutonic and volcanic) What are the two main types of sedimentary
rocks? (clastic and chemical)
What is the difference in appearance between
a foliated metamorphic rock and a non-foliated metamorphic rock? What is the rock cycle? Explain
how one rock type can turn into
another one.
What
is the crust and where is it located?
How about the mantle? The
core? What is the lithosphere? What is the asthenosphere? (the weak area of
the mantle right under the lithosphere that can deform plastically) How thick is the oceanic crust compared to
the continental crust? What do we mean
by plate when we say “one of the earth’s plates?”
Which type of plate is more dense? (oceanic
plates are more dense than continental plates)
What
kind of rock is most representative of the continental crust? What kind of rock is most representative of
the oceanic crust? Which of these rocks
has the most silica in it?
What
are the major lines of evidence that support the theory of plate
tectonics? What was Pangea?
How old is the oldest ocean floor? How
old are the oldest rocks on
continents?
What
are the major types of plate boundaries?
What types of geologic activities are common at various types of
plate
boundaries? How fast do plates move? How can we tell? What
are mid-ocean ridges? What are subduction
zones? Where do we find deep ocean
trenches?
Continental
plates don’t get subducted beneath oceanic plates.
Why not?
What
is a fault? What does earthquake
mean?
What
causes earthquakes? What is elastic
rebound?
What
is the difference between the focus of an earthquake and the epicenter?
In
which type(s) of plate tectonic environment(s) do most earthquakes
occur?
What
are earthquake waves (seismic waves)?
How many kinds are there? What is
the difference between an S-wave and a P-wave?
How do they travel? How fast do
they travel? How can we use earthquake
waves to locate the epicenter of the earthquake?
What
is the difference between magnitude and intensity of an earthquake? How do we figure out the magnitude of a
quake?
What
are some hazards associated with earthquakes?
How can earthquake hazards be reduced?
Can
we predict or control earthquakes?
What
is magma? Where and how does it
form? What is lava?
What
kinds of materials erupt from volcanoes?
(Lava and pyroclastic material.)
How
does the amount of gas in the magma affect whether the eruption will be
a
“quiet” one with mainly lava flows, or an explosive one with mainly
pyroclastic
material ejected? How does the composition
and the viscosity of the magma affect this?
Where
do most of the world’s active volcanoes occur? (In terms of plate
tectonics)
What
kind of volcanic eruption is most common at divergent plate boundaries,
especially where two oceanic plates are diverging?
What type of volcanoes are commonly found on
the over-riding plate at a subduction zone? (for example, in the
Pacific
Northwest of the United States). What
kinds of volcanoes are found over “hot spots?”
(
What
are the main types of volcanoes? (Shield volcanoes, cinder
cones, domes, and composite cones or stratovolcanoes) What are their
shapes? Of what kinds of volcanic
materials
are they made? How does what they are
made of affect their shape?
Can we
predict volcanic eruptions?
Are earthquakes related to volcanic eruptions?
How?
What can happen to the earth’s surface when magma is rising
close to the
surface?
What
are the hazards associated with volcanic eruptions?
Would
you rather live on Kilauea in
What is the
hydrologic cycle? What is the biggest reservoir of
water on earth? What are the two biggest reservoirs of fresh
water (including water in solid form as ice) on earth?
What is a drainage basin?
How does gradient of a stream change from the head of the stream to the
mouth of a stream?
What’s the difference between an alluvial fan and a delta?
What is the difference between an upstream flood and a downstream flood?
What does discharge of a stream mean?
What do we call a plot of discharge versus time?
How do meanders contribute to floodplain evolution?
Where do meandering streams tend to develop? Where do braided
streams tend to develop?
Floods happen when discharge is high and streams overflow their
banks. What are some things that can produce high
discharge? What kinds of factors will affect how much runoff will
occur? What does the topography of the land or the amount of
vegetation have to do with flooding?
What is a recurrence interval? Know the formula for recurrence
interval and how to use historical data to calculate it.
What does “one hundred year flood” really mean? Know that the
probability (P) is the inverse of recurrence interval (R). That
is, P = (1/R) x 100%.
What are some factors that affect how severe a flood will be?
What are some ways that human development can affect flood
severity? What are some things that can be done to reduce flood
hazards?
What is a wave? How do water particles move as a wave
passes by? What moves along with the wave?
How and why and where do waves break?
How do waves erode coastlines?
What is a tsunami?
What is the difference between an emergent coastline and a submergent
coastline? Which one would you expect to find at “active
margins?” Which at “passive margins?” How does this relate
to plate tectonics?
Know what longshore currents are, how they form, what direction they
flow, and how they can move sediment. (Note: the movement
of sediment by longshore current is called “littoral drift.”)
If one builds a jetty out from a beach, how will the beach be
affected? Where will deposition occur? up-current from the
jetty (up-current is the direction the longshore current is coming
from)) or down-current? Where will erosion occur?
What is “wave refraction?” (see p. 158 of textbook). How does
wave refraction contribute to faster erosion of sea cliffs that jut out
into the ocean?
What effect do breakwaters have on beaches?
If you are going to build near a coast, what factors should you
consider?
Problems
you should know how
to solve:
If
you know the velocity of something and the distance it travels, you
should be
able to calculate the amount of time it traveled.
If you know the distance it traveled and the
time it took to cover that distance, you should be able to calculate
the
velocity. If you know the velocity and
the time, you should be able to calculate the distance.
We did an example of this in class when we
calculated how long it would take tectonic plates to open up a space as
wide as
the lecture hall.
You
should know the general relationship between the lag time
(difference
between the arrival time of the two types of seismic waves at a
seismograph)
and the distance to the earthquake that produced those waves.
You
should be able to plot data points on a graph.
You
should be able to read a graph to obtain information from it (an
example is the
graph showing the relationship between distance from the epicenter of a
quake
and travel time for earthquake waves; p. 73 of textbook).
Review Guide
for Final Exam
These review questions are meant as a guide to the type of material
the quiz will cover. These will not be exact questions on the
exam.
The exam will consist of multiple choice, true/false, short answer and
short essay questions. There will be a few questions related to
geologic cross sections similar to the one we had for the homework
assignment on groundwater.
What is the main force that is acting to cause mass movement or
mass wasting? (see p. 172)
What is “angle of repose?” (see p. 173). What type of
sediment can have high angle of repose? How does this relate to
size and shape of the particles?
What effect does fluid have on stability of a slope? Which has
the highest stability and highest angle of repose, dry sediment,
slightly moist sediment, or completely saturated sediment?
What are some common triggers of landslides?
What effect does vegetation have on mass movement? How can it
help increase slope stability? How can it decrease slope
stability?
What is the difference between falls, slides, and flows?
Which types of mass movement move most slowly? Which move most
quickly?
What is the difference between soil creep and landslides?
What are some ways to recognize areas that are impacted by soil creep?
What are some ways to recognize landslide sites?
What kinds of human activities can increase landslide hazards?
What are some things we can do to minimize or reduce landslide hazards?
Ch. 11 Soil Resources
How does soil form?
What is the difference between soil and sediment?
What is the difference between sand, silt, and clay? How do we
describe “soil texture?”
What can the color of a soil tell us about the amount of organic
material and the amount of iron oxide?
What is weathering? What are the major kinds of weathering?
What happens to the minerals in granite when they weather? What
kinds of materials get produced?
Explain why something that is broken down into small pieces with
undergo chemical weathering much faster than something that is in one
large piece. (see pages 264-265)
What’s the difference between weathering and erosion? What are
some major agents of erosion?
What causes soil erosion? What are the major consequences of soil
erosion? (Loss of topsoil and hence reduced crop yields, sediment
pollution).
What are some specific things that can be done to reduce soil erosion?
(Think especially about farming practices.) What is the
difference between contour plowing, terracing, strip cropping and
planting windbreaks?
Be able to define and identify the water table.
What is an aquifer? What characteristics does a good aquifer have?
What kinds of rocks make good aquifers?
What is an aquitard? What kinds of rocks are aquitards?
Define permeability. What is the difference between porosity and permeability? Are all porous rocks also permeable?
What is the difference between a confined aquifer and an unconfined aquifer? What is the difference between an artesian well and a water-table well?
What is an ore? Are ores equally distributed on earth? Does every country have the same amounts of mineral resources?
What is fission? What is fusion? Which one is the process
that is used in current nuclear power plants? Why is the other process
not
used? (p. 338)
What is the fuel used in a nuclear power plant? Is it a renewable or non-renewable resource? (p. 338-341)
What are the sources of the largest volumes of solid waste
in the U.S? (p. 368)
How much waste does