Earth History EOG Review

1. What types of elements are useful for dating materials?

• nonmetals such as chlorine and oxygen
• metals such as zinc and copper
• radioactive elements such as carbon-14 and uranium-235
• noble gases such as neon and xenon

2. Which of the following can help scientists estimate geologic time?

• comparing fossils
• observing rock sequences
• radiometric dating
• all of these

3. What does the process of absolute dating determine

• the age of a rock based on what fossils are in it
• the age of a rock based on what layer it is in
• the order in which rock layers formed
• a numerical value for the age of a rock

4. It has been theorized that all of today's continents were once part of a single continent. What scientific evidence is used to support this theory?

• Fossils of similar life forms have been found on different continents.
• The coastlines of some of today's continents have matching shapes.
• Some of the different continents that exist today have similar types of rocks.
• all of these

5. Scientists find a rock that contains a small fish-like creature. Radioactive dating finds that the age of the rock is between 550-450 million years ago. Use the following geologic time table to determine the most likely period in which the fossil lived.

• Devonian
• Ordovician
• Cambrian
• Silurian

6. What theory explains the formation and movement of the outer surface of the Earth?

• the theory of atmospheric layers
• the theory of glacier movement
• the theory of plate tectonics
• the theory of natural selection

7. What is Pangaea?

• A mid-ocean ridge than runs from north to south along the Atlantic Ocean's floor.
• A species whose fossilized remains in Africa led to the hypothesis of continental drift.
• A complex theory that explains the motions of continents and many of Earth's features.
• A single, large landmass in which all of Earth's continents were once joined.

8. Mildred collects a sample of fossilized plant material. She takes it back to her lab to run some tests on it. Mildred is able to measure the amount of carbon-14 in her sample and compare this to the amount of carbon-12 in it. She uses this information to calculate that the fossil is 4,500 years old. The process that Mildred used is known as _______.

• radiocarbon dating
• superposition
• indexing
• faulting

9. What is hypothesized to be the first life on Earth?

• Reptiles
• Bacteria
• Humans
• Dinosaurs

10. Why are fossils most likely found in sedimentary rock samples?

• More plants and animal species grow on sedimentary rocks.
• Sedimentary rocks preserve fossils with intense heat and pressure.
• Sedimentary rocks are formed in layers that trap the material for fossilization.
• Sedimentary rocks are much stronger than igneous or metamorphic rocks and protect the samples.