Lithosphere — Part 2 MCQs with Explanations

Synclines and anticlines are the terms associated with folding. The most basic types of folds are anticlines and synclines. Imagine a rug, the sides of which have been pushed toward each other forming ridges and valleys – the ridges are “up” folds and the valleys are “down” folds.

Tsunami are the seismic sea waves which reach to coast at a very high force. A tsunami is a series of large waves generated by an abrupt movement on the ocean floor that can result from an earthquake, an underwater landslide, a volcanic eruption or - very rarely - a large meteorite strike.

Java - Merapi. Mount Merapi, Indonesian Gunung Merapi, volcanic mountain peak located near the centre of the island of Java, Indonesia.

The features produced by glacial deposition are outwash plains, drumlins and eskers. Eskers- A long, skinny ridge of gravel deposited by a stream in or under a decaying glacial ice sheet. Outwash plain- A plain formed by glacial sediments that were deposited at the end of a glacier. They are found in glaciated areas.

Aswan Dam in the Africa has been used to create one of world's biggest artificial lake known as Nasser lake. It is located on the mouth of the Nile river.

The following that are true with respect to sedimentary rocks are that the rocks are deposited in layers, the particles of rocks are at times wholly of organic nature and the rocks are not crystalline.

Shield volcanoes are formed by lava flows of low viscosity - lava that flows easily. Consequently, a volcanic mountain having a broad profile is built up over time by flow after flow of relatively fluid basaltic lava issuing from vents or fissures on the surface of the volcano.

Focus is the actual point below the surface of the earth where an earthquake originates and epicenter is a point directly above it, and it lies on the surface of the earth.

Mount Gamkonora is stratovolcano which erupted in 2007. It is located on Halmahera island in Indonesia. It has shifting eruption centres which has lead to an elongated series of craters along N-S trending rift.

Underground water predominantly acts as the agent of chemical erosion of soil. Chemical weathering changes the molecular structure of rocks and soil. The important characteristics of surface conditions that lead to chemical weathering are the presence of water (in the air and on the ground surface), the abundance of oxygen, and the presence of carbon dioxide, which produces weak carbonic acid when combined with water.

Sedimentary rocks make up most of the rocks on the earth and are formed when bits of rock, soil or organic matter settles and accumulates. Plant and animal fossils can be found in sedimentary rock. When there is an abundance of plants and animals, fossil fuels develop, like oil, natural gas and coal.

Pangea’s existence was first proposed in 1912 by German meteorologist Alfred Wegener as a part of his theory of continental drift. Its name is derived from the Greek pangaia, meaning “all the Earth.”

P-wave, S-wave, L-wave is the proper order of seismic waves as they are received at seismograph station. The first kind of body wave is the P wave or primary wave. This is the fastest kind of seismic wave, and, consequently, the first to 'arrive' at a seismic station. The P wave can move through solid rock and fluids, like water or the liquid layers of the earth. It pushes and pulls the rock it moves through just like sound waves push and pull the air. The second type of body wave is the S wave or secondary wave, which is the second wave you feel in an earthquake. An S wave is slower than a P wave and can only move through solid rock, not through any liquid medium. The first kind of surface wave is called a Love wave, named after A.E.H. Love, a British mathematician who worked out the mathematical model for this kind of wave in 1911. It's the fastest surface wave and moves the ground from side-to-side.

The area marked by internal drainage is desert. Internal drainage means that the rivers or canals in a certain region do not flow into the sea but disappear inland after sometime due to porosity of underlying surface of the river bed. For example Luni river in Rajasthan does not reach the Arabian Sea.

A crater lake is a depression created by a volcanic crater or caldera that is filled with water. When a volcano is no longer active, the crater or caldera may fill with water from rainfall and melting snow that may also feed the lake. A lake can also exist in an impact crater, created by the fall of a meteor or in one case a nuclear weapon test in Kazakhstan. Sometimes these are also called crater lakes.

If the original day sediments are subjected to high temperature and pressure, they successively change into rocks, the correct order of which is Shale, Slate, Schist. Beginning with a shale parent, Barrovian metamorphism produces a sequence of metamorphic rocks that goes through slate, and then through phyllite, schist, and gneiss.

All the four are matched correctly. Earthquake's origin - seismic focus. Epicentre - point on earth's surface directly above seismic focus. S waves - similar to sound waves. Richter scale - severity of earthquake.

In an artesian well, the rock-layer are generally found in Non-permeable, permeable and non-permeable order. Permeable layers of rock that store and transport water are called aquifers. While porosity and permeability usually go hand-in-hand, though some porous rocks are not permeable and some impermeable rocks are porous. Permeability is affected mostly by the size and arrangement of the grains in the soil.

In old Igneous type of rocks metals like gold and copper mostly found. Gold and copper are found in ore bodies associated with porphry. Porphry is a general term applied to igneous rocks of any composition that contain conspicuous phenocrysts (crystals) in a fine-grained groundmass.

Weathering describes the breaking down or dissolving of rocks and minerals on the surface of the Earth. Water, ice, acids, salts, plants, animals, and changes in temperature are all agents of weathering.

An oxbow lake is formed by both erosional and deposition actions of a river. In lower course a river dominates in lateral erosion and bend is created by it. On outer end of bend erosion dominates and on inner end deposition dominates and finally a loop is separated known as oxbow lake.

When a glacier moves downward rock debris are produced due to friction. These debris, rocks and earth (mud) gets accumulated on top, foot and sides of the glacier an are called Moraines.

Carbonaceous rocks which produce coal and of belong to the category of rocks called Sedimentary rocks. Carbonaceous rocks are a type of the sedimentary rocks formed by the deposition of sea plants which remained buried for a long period of time.

Land covered with fresh snow reflects back more sunlight as compared to other three. Fresh snow and ice reflect 80 - 85% of the sunlight. Therefore, the skin of skiers is irradiated by sunlight from all sides, since the snow does not take up the light but reflects it and remains cold. Scientists give a name to this ability of surfaces to reflect light.

Fiords or fjords are coasts formed by the submergence of U- shaped glacial troughs. These are narrow inlets of the sea into the seacoast bounded by steep and high mountain slopes, the height matched by its vast depth too.

A horst is the raised fault block bounded by normal faults. It is a raised block of the Earth's crust that has lifted, or has remained stationary, while the land on either side has subsided.

Sedimentary rocks have layers because of different depositions of sediments (small broken pieces of rocks) over time. The different groups of sediments could have been deposited through wind, water, ice, and/or gravity at different intervals of time and compacted on top of each other, until they create a sedimentary rock that has several different types of sediments (possibly from different rock types) in the form of layers.

Conduction is not an agent which produces physical features. In conduction, heat moves from areas of more heat to areas of less heat by direct contact. Warmer molecules vibrate rapidly and collide with other nearby molecules, transferring their energy.

Batholiths and Laccoliths are formations of Igneous rocks. A batholith is the largest of the intrusive bodies. They are larger than 100 square kilometers and usually form granite cores. laccolith is a dome shaped intrusive body that has intruded between layers of sedimentary rock. The rising magma forces the overlying layers to rise up into a dome.

The igneous rocks are formed due to granitisation. Igneous rock may form with crystallization to form granular, crystalline rocks, or without crystallization to form natural glasses. Granitization, formation of granite or closely related rocks by metamorphic processes, as opposed to igneous processes in which such rocks form from a melt, or magma, of granitic composition.

The Himalayas were formed due to folding of the geo-syncline named Tethys. 225 million years ago (Ma) India was a large island situated off the Australian coast and separated from Asia by the Tethys Ocean. So it has orginated from the Tethys Geosyncline . the sediments of this folded due to the northward movement of the Indian plate against the Eurasian Plate.

The Japanese archipelago is located in an area where several continental and oceanic plates meet. This is the cause of frequent earthquakes and the presence of many volcanoes and hot springs across Japan.

The Longest Mountain Chains in the world is Andes. The Andes of South America is the longest mountain range in the world, stretching for an estimated distance of 7,000 km (4,350 miles).

A seismograph is the device that scientists use to measure earthquakes. The goal of a seismograph is to accurately record the motion of the ground during a quake.

The Richter scale is used to rate the magnitude of an earthquake, that is the amount of energy released during an earthquake.

Examples of intrusive igneous rocks are diorite, gabbro, granite, pegmatite, and peridotite.

Magma is extremely hot liquid and semi-liquid rock located under Earth's surface. When magma flows onto Earth's surface, it is called lava.

An archipelago sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.

A sand dune is a hill of sand formed by the accumulation of sand. Dune sand is fine sand from the beach that is blown inland by the winds. Dunes are formed when the sand brought in by the wind is trapped by plants or other obstacles.

The movement of these tectonic plates is likely caused by convection currents in the molten rock in Earth's mantle below the crust. Earthquakes are the short-term results of this tectonic movement. The long-term result of plate tectonics is the movement of entire continents over millions of years.