Relative Age Quiz

1. 1. What do scientists believe is the force behind the plate tectonics theory?

• a. convection currents

• b. the movement of the planets

• c. gravity slab pull

• d. the Sun's gravity

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

2. 2. What is the plate tectonic theory?

• a. the belief that Earth's crust and upper mantle is broken into sections

• b. the belief that continents have moved slowly apart to their current locations on Earth

• c. the belief that hot, less dense material is forced up through Earth's crust through mid-ocean ridges

• d. the belief that Earth is broken into sections that fit together into one sphere.

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-3

3. 3. Who first proposed the theory of continental drift?

• a. Galileo Galilee

• b. Albert Einstein

• c. Harry Hess

• d. Alfred Wegener

5. 4. After a river erodes a valley through several layers of rock, the layers will be the same on each side of the valley, according to what principle?

• a. superposition

• b. original horizontality

• c. lateral continuity

• d. cross-cutting relationships

6. 5. Which statement about relative age is true?

• a. segments of included rock are older than the surrounding rock in which they are included

• b. lower layers of rock are younger compared to upper layers

• c. layers of rocks are all younger than a fault line that cuts through them

• d. a magma dike is older than all of the rocks into which it has intruded

7. 6. Which is not a property of the organisms that have become useful index fossils?

• a. the organisms existed for a relatively short period of time

• b. the organisms existed over a large area

• c. the organisms were abundant when they existed

• d. the organisms still exist today

7. 7. What happens during radioactive decay?

• a. a stable isotope of one element changes into an unstable isotope of a different element

• b. a stable isotope of one element changes into an unstable isotope of the same element

• c. an unstable isotope of one element changes into a stable isotope of a different element

• d. an unstable isotope of one element changes into a stable isotope of the same element.

Tags

NGSS.HS-PS1-8

8. 8. How many of the original atoms of a decaying isotope remain unchanged after three half-lives?

• a. three-halves

• b. three-quarters

• c. one quarter

• d. one-eighth

Tags

NGSS.HS-PS1-8

9. 9. Which best describes radiometric dating?

• a. using instruments that detect radioactivity to figure out how old something is

• b. measuring the relative amounts of a radioactive isotope and a daughter product to figure out the age of a sample

• c. measuring how quickly the different radioactive isotopes in a sample decay to figure out the age of the sample

• d. using short-wavelength electromagnetic radiation to determine the age of a sample

Tags

NGSS.HS-PS1-8

NGSS.HS-ESS1-6

10. An igneous rock commonly used as building material is:

• a. sandstone

• b. marble

• c. slate

• d. granite