Physical Geography

Final Exam Study Guide

Big Picture
1. What is the Anthropocene? When did it start and how is it significant?
2. What caused the large craters that dot Earths surface? Similarly, what happened 65 million years ago that was a significant
event in Earths history?
3. Which galaxy do we live in? How large is it in light years?
4. Where did the Universe come from? How old is it?
5. Explain the major steps of the formation of our solar system.
6. How old is our solar system and Earth?
Geology
7. Compare relative to absolute time and give examples of each.
8. Review the major layers of Earths interior, starting from the center and going outwards. Which is heaviest/densest and
why?
9. What generates Earths magnetic field?
10. What two kinds of crust are there and describe their relative densities.
11. How do scientists know what the Earths interior is made of?
12. What are seismometers? Seismic waves? How do these relate to the previous question?
13. What is a lithospheric plate? Where are they and how many are there?
14. Compare lava to magma.
15. Compare magnetic north to the geographic north. Which one wanders?
Plate Tectonics
16. Review the major stages of the break up of Pangaea, as covered in class.
17. Describe the theory of continental drift. Who proposed it? When? What evidence was used to support it?
18. Describe the plate tectonics. When did it develop? What evidence was used to support it.
19. In context to the previous question, review these terms: seamount, trench, earthquake patterns, mid-ocean ridges, sonar
mapping, sea floor age.
20. What lithospheric plate is Sac State on? SF? LA? Why will LA be adjacent (next to) SF in 17 million years? Explain this.
21. How do we know where plate boundaries are located?
22. Why do the plates move? How fast can they move in absolute speed?
23. What are the three directions of plate movement?
24. Why is plate tectonics called a unifying theory? What does it unify?
25. Review the major physical features associated with each plate boundary type, as we covered in class. Pay particular
attention to which boundary interactions make volcanic mountains and which do not.
26. Fully review how subduction zone volcanoes are made. Similarly, whats the ring of fire?
27. Fully review the special situations that occur off of plate boundaries: rifting and hotspots.
28. What is orogenesis? Review orogenesis on and off plate boundaries.
Minerals and Rocks
29. What is a mineral? Why is salt a mineral but sugar is not?
30. What is a rock? What is lithification?
31. How are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock types formed? Where is each formed?
32. Compare intrusive to extrusive igneous rocks in terms of where they are formed and whether they are crystalline (crystal
bearing) or not.
33. In what two ways do sedimentary rocks form? What do they form from?
34. What is a fossil and what type of rock do they form in?
35. What kind of rock is coal? How did it form?
36. How does salt form? Chalk? Marble?
37. What kind of rock contains foliation planes?