1. The Principle of Original Horizontality proposed by The Blessed (!) Nicolas Steno is best expressed by which of these? (choose the one correct answer):
a. Evidence that all rocks originated by deposition in a worldwide ocean
b. Sediment settling out of a fluid will be deposited in a horizontal layer
c. Horizontally-deposited sedimentary rocks are the Earth's most ancient rocks
d. Rocks lying on a horizontal plane are sedimentary rocks
2. Fossils are useful in dating and correlating rocks of which of these intervals of geologic time?
(choose the one BEST answer)
a. Paleozoic Era
b. Proterozoic Eon
c. Cambrian Period
d. Phanerozoic Eon
3. You, the neighbor’s cat, and a family of wasps share are similar in that you are all:
a. Eukaryotes, diploblastic, bilateral, and protostomes
b. Eukaryotes, triploblastic, bilateral, and segmented
c. Prokaryotes
d. Prokaryotes, triploblastic, and bilateral deuterostomes
4. Choose the one answer that lists intervals of geologic time from largest to smallest. A comparison with cash money (deceased presidents/guys with musicals named after them) would be
hundreds, fifties, twenties, tens, and fives. An incorrect answer would be hundreds, tens, fifties,
twenties, fives.
a. Epochs, eons, periods, eras
b. Eras, eons, epochs, periods
c. Periods, epochs, eras, eons
d. Eons, eras, periods, epochs
5. During the collapse and explosion of a giant star, an event called a type II supernova, heavy
elements are made in large quantities. And when I say “large,” I mean the heaps of nickel and uranium
and bismuth and gold that could most easily be measured with a measuring cup ten thousand Earths
could fit into. Real Paul Bunyan-sized heaps of heavy elements, is what I’m trying to convey in words.
Sprayed into space by the universe-illuminating explosion, these heavy elements—along with a lot of
lighter elements as well—part of which one of these cosmic objects?
a. dark matter
b. a sonar
c. a galaxy
d. a nebula