Human Impact on the Rock Cycle Quiz

The example of Easter Island, where extensive tree cutting led to resource depletion and soil erosion, demonstrates that ancient human activities can:

• Always be easily reversed without lasting effects.

• Have significant negative impacts on the local environment's stability.

• Only affect the environment in modern times.

• Create new, more stable ecosystems.

If the Lost City's inhabitants cleared large sections of trees from the cliffs above their settlement for building materials, how might this human action have impacted the area?

• It would have strengthened the cliff faces.

• It would have had no effect on the natural land.

• It would have increased the risk of soil erosion and landslides from the weakened slopes.

• It would have attracted more stable wildlife to the area.

Understanding how human activities like deforestation can increase the risk of landslides is important because it helps us:

• Blame ancient civilizations for all natural disasters.

• Design ways to minimize environmental damage and protect communities today.

• Stop all natural processes from occurring.

• Predict the exact time and place of every future disaster.

If geologists find a large area with jumbled, unsorted piles of mixed rock and soil at the base of a steep cliff, this could be evidence of a past:

• Gentle river flowing through.

• Long-term, slow deposition.

• Massive landslide.

• Ancient farming community.

To reduce the impact of potential landslides in hilly areas, communities might:

• Cut down all trees on the slopes.

• Build heavy structures on the very edge of steep cliffs.

• Design and build retaining walls or improve drainage systems on slopes.

• Ignore geological surveys of the land.

Over long periods, the continuous flow of a river can carve out deep valleys and canyons, demonstrating water's role in:

• Causing earthquakes directly.

• Rapidly changing the Earth's interior.

• Gradually shaping Earth's surface through erosion.

• Creating new types of minerals.

When a river slows down as it enters a lake or ocean, it drops the sediments it was carrying. This process is called:

• Erosion

• Weathering

• Deposition

• Crystallization

How could significant rainfall have contributed to the burial of the Lost City by a rock cliff?

• It created new types of rocks directly.

• It could have saturated the soil on slopes, triggering a landslide.

• It caused the ground to instantly rise.

• It made the rocks harder to break down.

A sudden drop in the ground surface due to the collapse of an underground cave or mine shaft is a type of natural hazard known as:

• Abrasion

• Deposition

• Subsidence

• Foliation

If a region has a long history of frequent, heavy rainstorms during a specific season, what natural hazard might local geologists be able to predict is more likely during that time?

• Volcanic eruptions

• Blizzards

• Floods and landslides

• Major droughts