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Geology Study Guide
1. What moves tectonic plates?
Convection currents of magma in the upper mantle, which push along the bottom
of the Earth’s crust and move plates.
2. Draw, label, and explain convection currents.
The materials in the mantle heat, become less dense and rise. Then they cool,
become more dense and sink. The cycle continues and moves the plates.
3. How was the Grand Canyon formed?
Flowing water eroded existing rock layers in a gradual, destructive process.
4. What causes rock to break apart?
Roots of plants, weathering, freezing and melting, animals, water, human activity.
5. What are the three types of plate boundaries, how do they move, and what do they
create?
Convergent- plates move together or collide. Forms mountains, volcanoes, deep
ocean trenches, minor earthquakes, subduction zones.
Divergent- plates move apart or divide. Forms rift valleys, sea floor spreading,
volcanoes.
Transform- plates slid past each other. Causes major earthquakes.
6. How do folding, faulting, and uplifting rearrange the layers of rock?
They cause younger rock layers to be found below older rock layers. They can
change the order of rock layers.
7. Draw and label a model of sea floor spreading, and explain how new land forms as a
result.
Magma rises from the mantle at the mid-ocean ridge as the plates push outward.
The old rock is found on the outside, farthest away from the mid-ocean ridge.
8. What causes earthquakes?
Earthquakes are caused by plates sliding past each other at transform
boundaries.
9. A hot spot is a place in the mantle that is hotter than the surrounding mantle.
Volcanoes form at hot spots. Explain why volcanos and rocks farther away from the hot
spot would be older.
The hot spot stays in one spot and the tectonic plates move over the hot spot.
This causes the new volcanoes to be over the hot spot and the older volcanoes to be
farther away from the hot spot.
10. What organisms were dominant during the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic
Eras?
Paleozoic- Trilobites, invertebrates, simple vertebrates, insects
Mesozoic- Reptiles, dinosaurs
Cenozoic- Mammals, humans
11. When did humans evolve?
Cenozoic Era
12. Who is responsible for the theory of natural selection, and explain what natural
selection is.
Charles Darwin. It states that organisms that are best suited to their environment
will survive and produce the most offspring, carrying on those “strong” traits.
13. What major event marks the ends of Eras?
The ends of eras are marked by mass extinctions of plant and/or animal life.
14. What makes a good index fossil?
An organism that had hard body parts, that lived all over the world for a relatively
short period of time.
15. What would fossils of sea creatures found on land indicate?
This would indicate that the land was under water at some point in time, and then
the land was pushed upward.
16. Put the following time periods in order from longest to shortest: Cenozoic,
Mesozoic, Paleozoic, Precambrian.
Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic
17. What is organic evolution?
Change of organisms over geologic time.
18. What is the law of superposition?
The principle that states that in an undisturbed stack of rock layers, the oldest
rock is on the bottom, and the layers get progressively younger as you move up the
stack.
19. How did cyanobacteria contribute to life on Earth?
They produced oxygen which is an important part of our atmosphere for animals
to breathe. The oxygen also helped form the ozone layer, which protects us from the
Sun’s ultraviolet radiation.
20. Use the diagram to answer the following questions:
What is the sequence of rock layers from oldest to youngest?
E, B, A, C
When did the fault most likely occur?
After layer A, but before layer C
Know: Eons are divided into Eras; Eras are divided into Periods; Periods are divided
into Epochs.
Know the progression of life forms on Earth: Cyanobacteria—> Worms and Jellyfish—>
Trilobites—> Fish—> Amphibians—> Reptiles—> Dinosaurs—> Birds—> Small
mammals—> Large mammals and humans