Deck 4: Plate Tectonics and Earthquakes

Question 1

Spreading ridges produce the largest number of great earthquakes (magnitude 8 or higher).

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The biggest disasters are from great earthquakes occurring at great depths.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The slide-past motions of long transform faults occur in all but which of the following?

A)In the northeastern Pacific as the Queen Charlotte fault,located near a sparsely populated region of Canada.
B)Along the San Andreas Fault in California with its famous earthquakes.
C)At the southwestern edge of the Pacific Ocean where the Alpine fault cuts across the South Island of New Zealand.
D)Where the Indian subcontinent touches Asia.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The deadliest earthquake in recent times occurred in 1976 in Tangshan,China,causing the deaths of at least 240,000 people.

Question 5

The primary cause of deaths in earthquakes in modern times is people being swallowed alive by the Earth,rather than by building collapse.

Question 6

Three basic classes of collisions include all but which of the following?

A)oceanic plate versus oceanic plate
B)oceanic plate versus continent-bearing plate
C)continental plate versus continental plate
D)mantle plate versus lithospheric plate

Question 7

Most of the subduction-zone earthquakes of today occur around the rim of the Pacific Ocean.

Question 8

In the areas of most rapid subduction,the down-going slab may remain rigid enough to spawn large earthquakes to depths of 7000 km.

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT a divergent margin?

A)East African Rift
B)Mid-Atlantic Ridge
C)Aleutian Island Arc
D)East Pacific Rise
E)Juan de Fuca Ridge

Question 10

Earthquakes at subduction zones result from different types of fault movements,depending on whether they occur in shallow versus deeper realms.

Question 11

The deadliest earthquake in history occurred in 1556 when about 830,000 Chinese were killed in and near Xi'an on the banks of the mighty Huang River.

Question 12

Which of the following does NOT have a significant convergent margin?

A)Kamchatka
B)Australian Plate
C)South American Andes
D)Caribbean Plate
E)African Plate

Question 13

The greatest earthquakes in the world occur _____________.

A)where plates collide with each other
B)where plates separate from one another
C)where plates slide past each other
D)in the interiors of individual plates

Question 14

The Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee __________________.

A)are pull-apart basins over hot spots
B)are compressional basins and are the result of subduction
C)are compressional basins and the result of strike-slip motion
D)are pull-apart basins and the result of strike-slip motion
E)are pull-apart basins and the result of subduction

Question 15

The compressional movements at subduction zones and continent-continent collisions generate the largest tectonic earthquakes and they affect the widest areas.

Question 16

Shallow subduction zone earthquakes occur __________________.

A)in the upper portion of the down-going plate
B)at the bend in the subducting plate
C)in the overriding plate
D)All of these are correct.
E)None of these are correct.

Question 17

The North Anatolian fault in Turkey is a 1400 km-long fault zone made of numerous subparallel faults that split and combine,bend and straighten,and there is reason to expect major earthquakes to occur progressively farther to the west,ever closer to Istanbul.

Question 18

At depths below 100 km,subduction zone earthquakes occur almost exclusively in the interior of the colder oceanic lithosphere,the heart of the subducting slab.

Question 19

The Dead Sea fault zone is an Eastern Hemisphere analogue of the San Andreas Fault in California.

Question 20

The Pacific plate subducts along _________ edges and creates enormous earthquakes,such as the 1923 Tokyo seism.

A)its southern and eastern
B)its northern and eastern
C)its southern and western
D)its northern and western
E)all of its