WVGES Geoscience Education: Geology Quiz

Geoscience Education in the Mountain State:
Geology Quiz

Try answering the following questions. Ask your science teacher to check your answers or e-mail your answers to the WVGES Education Specialist at ( repine@wvgs.wvnet.edu):

Set A - General Geology Stuff

1. What's the difference between a mineral and a rock?

2. Why is an old soft drink can not a fossil?

3. How do the round rocks found in the bottom of some streambeds get that way?

4. What is another name for layered rocks?

5. What's the difference between an anticline and a syncline?

6. Can erosion form a mountain?

7. What does the contour line on a topographic map represent?

8. Why are fossils of past plant and animal life important?

9. Name a rock that burns!

10. Everyone should have a favorite rock! What's yours?

Set B - These questions are about the geology of West Virginia. These are a little harder than the questions in Set A. You will have to read a little to find the answers. Use the links to help you get started; use your browser's "Back" button (left-pointing arrow) to return to the quiz after getting help with an answer.

1. What anniversary did the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey celebrate in 1997? Find the answer, history of the WVGES

2. West Virginia has a lot of coal seams! How many are there? Find the answer, history of the WVGES

3. West Virginia is often called the "Mountain State." What two geologic actions are primarily responsible for West Virginia's rugged landscape? Find the answers, Feature Article -- Mountains

4. Are mountains permanent? How old are the ones we see in West Virginia today? Find the answer, Feature Article -- Mountains

5. Extreme data!!! What are the highest and lowest places in the State? Find the answer, highest place Find the answer, lowest place

6. If you look at the State geologic map, how old are most of the rocks in the State? Find the answer, geologic map

7. Speaking of the geologic map, do you notice anything curious about the pattern of ages of West Virginia's rocks? Can you explain this? Find the answer, geologic map

8. A geologic province is an area that has the same type of rocks and stuff throughout it. What's the Allegheny Front between and what's the difference between the two biggest geologic provinces in West Virginia? Find the answers, physiographic provinces

9. Think rocks are really uninteresting and not worth money? What can limestone, sand and gravel, and clay be used for? Find the answer, limestone Find the answer, sand and gravel Find the answer, clay and shale

10. Iron making and salt are important to the early history of West Virginia. So, why is a burning spring also important? Find the answer, history of mineral industries

11. West Virginia's coals are hundreds of millions of years old. What technological innovation of the 1800's made coal mining an important industry in West Virginia? And, why? Find the answers, history of the coal industry

12. Got bricks? What product made from clay was important to the steel industry? And, how was it used? Find the answers, history of the clay industry

13. Earthquakes in West Virginia?? True or false? Find the answer, environmental geology

14. Glaciers never covered West Virginia. Even so, how did they influence the Ohio River? Find the answer, historical geology

For more information, contact Tom Repine, WVGES Education Specialist (repine@wvgs.wvnet.edu)

Page last revised: February 1, 2008

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            West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey
  Address:  Mont Chateau Research Center
            1 Mont Chateau Road
            Morgantown, WV  26508-8079
Telephone:  304-594-2331
      FAX:  304-594-2575
    Hours:  8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. EST, Monday - Friday

Permission to reproduce this material is granted if acknowledgment is given to the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey.

Geoscience Education in the Mountain State: Geology Quiz

Geoscience Education in the Mountain State:
Geology Quiz