Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

Chapter 05
Weathering and Soil

True / False Questions

1. The term mechanical weathering refers to changes in a rock that are physical; there is little
or no chemical change.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

2. Chemical weathering will eventually change a quartz crystal into clay minerals.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

3. Because the crystal structure of ice is different from that of water, liquid water expands
when it freezes.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

4. Expanding ice in soil pushes large boulders down into the ground.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Soil

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

5. The reduction of pressure on a body of rock can cause it to crack as it expands.

TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

6. Plants, such as roots growing in cracks, and animals compacting the soil, have little
influence on mechanical weathering.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

7. All rocks chemically weather the same way.

FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

8. Without chemical weathering, the elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
would have long ago made the Earth too hot to sustain life.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

9. Oxygen is abundant in the atmosphere but it does not combine with minerals of the Earth's
crust.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

10. An acid is a chemical compound that gives off hydrogen ions (H+) to a chemical reaction.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Weathering

11. Hydrogen ions given off by natural acids can disrupt the crystal structure of most
minerals, making the structure susceptible to further decomposition.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

12. Ordinary rain has a pH of about 5.5 to 6 from the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and
from natural sources of acidic sulfur gases.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

13. The only processes that affect rock are weathering and climate.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

14. When feldspar is attacked by carbonic acid it forms clay minerals.

TRUE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Weathering

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

15. The single most important agent for the chemical weathering is temperature.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

16. Clay minerals help hold water and clay nutrients in soil.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Soil

17. Because of the slow pace of weathering processes, it takes millions of years for a viable
soil profile capable of supporting plant life to develop in most areas.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering
Topic: Soil

18. The B-horizon in soil is the zone of accumulation.

TRUE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Soil

19. Transportation is the picking up or physical removal of rock particles by an agent such as
running water or glaciers.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Erosion

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

20. Sand-size grains of feldspar can be preserved in a soil profile over great time periods
because of feldspar's resistance to chemical weathering.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Soil

Multiple Choice Questions

21. ___ is the picking up and physical removal of rock particles by an agent such as wind,
flowing liquid water, or glaciers.
A. Weathering
B. Extraction
C. Erosion
D. Deposition
E. Provenance

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Erosion

22. _______ refers to the group of destructive processes that change the physical and
chemical character of rocks at the Earth's surface.
A. Weathering
B. Extraction
C. Erosion
D. Deposition
E. Provenance

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Weathering

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

23. Chemical weathering generally proceeds __.

A. at about the same rate throughout a rock body
B. fastest in the intact interior of a rock body, where ions easily move short distances from
grain to grain
C. fastest on flat joint (crack) faces that are distant from any corners or edges
D. along contacts between mineral grains
E. fastest at the tip of growing cracks deep within the rock

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Weathering

24. _______ is a byproduct of rock weathering.

A. Soil
B. Metamorphic rock
C. Igneous rock
D. Water
E. Oil

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Soil

25. Water that has trickled down into a joint in a rock can freeze, expand, and _____.
A. glue the rock more tightly together
B. make the rock harder
C. seal the crack thereby preventing further weathering
D. widen the crack and hastening the rock's disintegration
E. displace surface acids that may weaken the rock

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

26. ____ tend(s) to weather much faster than sandstone.

A. Shale
B. Granite
C. Chert
D. Gneiss
E. Most other rock types

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

27. Frost wedging is most effective __.

A. in areas with many days of freezing and thawing
B. in the winter when the rock is frozen solid for months on end
C. in the spring and fall in very dry desert areas where temperatures dip down below 0C at
night and above 0C during the day
D. in the summer when abundant rainfall percolates through the cracks to freeze in contact
with the very cold rock found deep below the surface

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Weathering

28. The removal of a great weight of rock above a batholith by erosion allows the granite to
expand forming ______.
A. sheet dikes
B. weathering rinds
C. sheet joints
D. cooling fractures
E. thermal cracks

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

29. ______, formed as water evaporates inside small spaces in rock, helps disintegrate desert
rocks.
A. Calcite
B. Salt
C. Quartz
D. Hematite
E. Ice

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Weathering

30. Ferromagnesian minerals such as pyroxene, amphibole, biotite, and olivine are chemically
altered in the presence of _____.
A. quartz
B. helium
C. oxygen
D. argon
E. mica

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

31. ________ forms as a chemical weathering product of iron-rich minerals.

A. Hematite
B. Limonite
C. Quartz
D. Both hematite and limonite are correct.
E. All of the choices are correct.

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

32. The ____ describes the process in which this dominant greenhouse gas circulates among
Earth systems.
A. calcium cycle
B. sodium cycle
C. potassium cycle
D. helium cycle
E. carbon cycle

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Weathering

33. Water can combine with iron oxide to form ______.

A. silica
B. limonite
C. calcium, sodium, or potassium ions
D. galena
E. hydrogen ions

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

34. The most important natural source for the formation of acid for rock weathering at the
Earth's surface is dissolved _______.
A. carbon dioxide
B. hydrothermal effluent
C. seawater
D. mantle plumes
E. comets

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

35. Sulfuric acid is produced naturally during __.

A. emission of soil gas
B. carbonate mineral decomposition
C. normal life functions of plants and animals
D. some volcanic eruptions
E. the weathering process

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Weathering

36. _______ are commonly left after complete chemical weathering.

A. Olivine and calcium plagioclase
B. Orthoclase feldspars
C. Halite and gypsum
D. Calcite and dolomite
E. Quartz and clay minerals

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

37. What, in terms of Earth systems, forms an essential interface between the geosphere,
biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere?
A. chert
B. quartz
C. soil
D. oxides of iron and aluminum
E. ferromagnesian minerals

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Soil

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

38. When fossil fuels are burned _____, enter the atmosphere to form acid rain.
A. oxides of nitrogen (NO2) and sulfur (SO2)
B. hydrochloric acids
C. oxalic acids
D. hydrogen and bicarbonate ions
E. helium and argon

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

39. When feldspar is attacked by carbonic acid it forms _____.

A. water, clay, and potassium
B. a clay mineral
C. clays and halite
D. potassium, calcium, and bicarbonate ions
E. potassium feldspar, which does not undergo chemical weathering

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

40. _____ is the mineral least susceptible to chemical attack on the Earth's surface.
A. Olivine
B. Calcite
C. Halite
D. Quartz
E. Feldspar

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

41. Compared with quartz, minerals that include the positively charged ions of aluminum,
iron, magnesium, and calcium are ___ vulnerable to chemical weathering by acidic solutions.
A. just as
B. less
C. more
D. not

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

42. Olivine weathers rapidly because its isolated silicon-oxygen tetrahedra are held together
by _________ ionic bonds to iron and magnesium.
A. strong
B. long
C. weak
D. acid resistant
E. short

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

43. At the surface of the Earth, ultramafic rocks in kimberlite pipes weather away leaving
behind concentrations of _____.
A. diamonds
B. pearls
C. emeralds
D. olivine
E. topaz

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering
Topic: Erosion

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

44. ______ is weathered unconsolidated material on top of solid bedrock.

A. Clay
B. Sand
C. Mud
D. Dirt
E. Regolith

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Soil

45. The solution of calcite in a limestone supplies substantial amounts of ______ to ground
water.
A. calcium ions in solution
B. an acid
C. bicarbonate ions in solution
D. All of the choices are correct.
E. Both calcium ions in solution and bicarbonate ions in solution.

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

46. ___ are the most common materials precipitated as cement, which binds loose particles of
sand into a solid sedimentary rock.
A. Calcite and fluorite
B. Silica and hematite
C. Clay and silica
D. Calcite and silica
E. Feldspar and calcite

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Weathering

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

47. The _______ horizon is the uppermost layer of a soil; it consists of organic material.
A. A
B. B
C. C
D. E
E. O

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Soil

48. The _______ horizon is the dark-colored soil horizon that is rich in organic material and
forms just below the surface vegetation.
A. A
B. B
C. C
D. E
E. O

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Soil

49. The _____ horizon is the incompletely weathered parent material lying below the B-
horizon.
A. A
B. B
C. C
D. E
E. O

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Soil

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

50. As soils mature, distinct layers called ______ appear.

A. strata
B. units
C. beds
D. layers
E. horizons

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Soil

51. Under wet and humid tropical conditions the least soluble material is the aluminum oxide
called _____.
A. limonite
B. chert
C. bauxite
D. peat
E. humus

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Soil

52. The process of chemical weathering is also called ____.

A. chemical decomposition
B. rock decomposition
C. dissolution
D. decomposition
E. weathering decomposition

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Weathering
Topic: Soil

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

53. A ___ soil is one that develops from the bedrock directly beneath it.
A. residual
B. residential
C. regolith
D. retransported
E. retrograde

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Soil

54. ______ is wind transported and deposited sediment.

A. Laterite
B. Lahar
C. Loam
D. Loess
E. Gelisol

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Erosion
Topic: Soil

55. Which of the following landforms are created from unloading?

A. volcanoes
B. pressure release domes
C. sink holes
D. exfoliation domes
E. regolith

Bloom's Level: 3. Apply

Topic: Weathering
Topic: Soil

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

56. A soil formed entirely through the weathering of basalt would not contain sand-sized
grains of __.
A. clay
B. feldspar
C. olivine
D. pyroxene
E. quartz

Bloom's Level: 3. Apply

Topic: Weathering
Topic: Soil

57. Plants and burrowing organisms contribute to soil development by __.

A. establishing small holes and pathways for water and nutrients to flow
B. contributing carbon dioxide and organic acids
C. contributing their waste products, which act as nutrients
D. breaking up solid particles and churning the soil profile
E. All of the answers are correct.

Bloom's Level: 3. Apply

Topic: Weathering
Topic: Soil

58. Of the many processes that cause rocks to disintegrate, the most effective are ____.
A. animal burrowing and frost wedging
B. pressure release and frost action
C. weathering and erosion
D. transportation and deposition
E. all listed are effective

Bloom's Level: 3. Apply

Topic: Weathering

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Chapter 05 - Weathering and Soil

59. In arid climates, soils are thin and soil water tends to move ______
A. laterally
B. downward
C. upward
D. only within a given soil horizon
E. sluggishly, if at all

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Soil

60. In tropical regions where temperatures are high and rainfall abundant, highly leached soils
called _______ (oxisols) form.
A. laterite soil
B. lateral soil
C. transported soil
D. paleosol
E. pelagic soil

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Soil

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