Final Exam Study Questions
What is Olber's paradox? How do we know that the Universe is expanding? Who is primarily credited with providing first tangible proof for that assumption?
Review the steps of element synthesis in stars. Could the sun ever produce elements like lead and uranium through nuclear fusion processes? What is the implication of finding such heavy elements on Earth?
Review the planets. How many are there? What are their names? How are they arranged in terms of increasing orbital radii? What are the basic characteristics of the various planets?
What is the composition of the Earth's atmosphere?
What is the composition of the Earth's crust? Major components?
Rock forming minerals. How come there is such a variety of them with such a limited range of building blocks? What is the building block they all have in common? What is it made of?
Sedimentary rocks have many features that we can observe and describe. Which feature is ubiquitous to sedimentary rocks and is considered their most distinguishing feature?
What is metamorphism? How does it work? What processes are involved to make a metamorphic rock?
Be sure you understand what uniformitarianism really means (physical and chemical laws governing geological processes do not change with time, therefore from a study of present processes those of the past may be inferred).
We learned a variety of things about systems and self-regulating systems. Know the meaning and implications of such terms as dynamic vs stable equilibrium, homeostasis, self-organization, negative and positive feedback.
The carbon cycle. Know the reservoirs (sinks) and their relative sizes. What is the largest, second largest, etc. ………. reservoir of carbon in the global carbon cycle?
In the context of the carbon cycle, what do we mean by the "biological pump"?
How far back does evidence for life on Earth go? What kind of evidence is it? How old are the oldest fossils?
What are stromatolites?
Check out the link on hotspring based life on the
modern ocean floor. Could this have been a potential way in which life might
have survived intense meteorite bombardment early in earth history? The link in chapter 10 is dead for some
reason, so go to chapter 13 and look for the submarine
What is the significance of the synthesis of Urea by Friedrich Wöhler in 1828?
What does the Murchison Meteorite have in common with the Miller-Urey experiment?
What is the Miller-Urey experiment? What was its purpose? What did we learn from it?
Important factors for the origin of life? What are considered to be the crucial steps? Review RNA world and the basic assumptions and possibilities (first life based on RNA, from chemical reactions in primordial soup, polymerization on mineral matrices, self replication).
What was the Archean Earth like? What were the likely conditions on the surface and in the oceans?
How do we know that there was liquid water on early earth? What kinds of geologic features would you be looking for if you had to establish this fact on another planet?
Why was early (Archean) earth not frozen over?
What was the impact of photosynthesis in the Archean?
Why do we still have water on Earth? What prevented hydrogen to bleed away into space?
What is the critical information about early earth history that we can learn from Banded Iron Formations?
Carbonate minerals, such as calcite and aragonite can precipitate from seawater that is supersaturated with these minerals. However, most carbonate rocks reflect precipitation that was mediated through the activity of living organisms. Today, such organisms are for example clams, snails, etc., but how did biological carbonate production occur in the Precambrian? What particular sedimentary feature is important in that context?
What is the difference between prokaryotic organisms and eukaryotic organisms? When did the latter evolve? Why is that important?
What was the consequence of rising oxygen levels and increased continental weathering in the Proterozoic?
Why is it necessary that Proterozoic oxygen levels staid at about 0.1% of the present day level (0.02%)?
What is the meaning of the “Cambrian Explosion”? How is it manifested in the rock record?
What is the meaning of the term “Rodinia”? What time period is it associated with?
Did oxygen levels climb steadily from the Proterozoic to present day levels, or were there likely up’s and down’s of atmospheric oxygen content during the last 500 million years of earth history?
What is the ediacaran fauna? When did it occur?
Where does dimethyl sulfide come from? What does it do? How can it influence climate?
What observation in particular, made James Lovelock think that the Earth's climate may be in part controlled by the biosphere?
What is Daisyworld? What are the underlying assumptions/premises?
What are the properties of Daisyworld? What are its responses to change? How is temperature regulation achieved?
Explain the significance of the Daisyworld model. What do we learn from these model calculations?