Grade 7 Earth/Space Pretest

Select the best answer to each question.

____ 1. Earth can be divided into layers based on chemical composition. The three compositional layers of Earth are
the core, the mantle, and the crust. Which of these answers best describes the core?

A. the innermost part of Earth below the mantle

B. the solid outer layer of Earth above the mantle
C. the hot, slow-flowing layer of material beneath the crust
D. the layer of Earth on which the tectonic plates move
____ 2. Jessica and Samantha were studying for their Earth Science test about the layers that make up Earth. They
were having trouble remembering which layers were defined by Earth’s compositional structure, and which
were defined by its physical structure. Which statement correctly lists all of Earth’s layers as defined by its
compositional structure, in the correct order moving from external to internal layers?
A. crust, mantle, core
B. lithosphere, mantle, core
C. crust, outer mantle, inner mantle, outer core, inner core
D. lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere, outer core, inner core
____ 3. Use the information in the table below to answer questions about the three compositional layers of the solid
Earth.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LAYERS OF EARTH

Layer Thickness Order Composition
Crust 5 - 70 km External alumino-silicates
Mantle 2900 km Middle ferro-magnesium silicates
Core 3500 km Inner a nickel-iron alloy and iron

Which statement correctly describes Earth’s layers according to the data in the table?
A. The middle layer is the thickest of Earth’s compositional layers.
B. The thickest compositional layer is composed of alumino-silicates.
C. The external compositional layer is the thinnest of the three layers.
D. The external compositional layer is composed of ferro-magnesium silicates.
____ 4. Mount Everest formed when two tectonic plates collided. Which of the following processes lead to the
formation of Mount Everest?

A. erosion
B. subsidence
C. uplift
D. weathering
____ 5. The diagram below describes one of the steps of the rock cycle.
 Erosion is one of the processes that can turn metamorphic rock into sediment. How does sediment turn into
sedimentary rock?
A. tectonic movement
B. uplift and subsidence
C. erosion and weathering
D. compaction and cementation
____ 6. When Raul went on a road trip with his family, they drove through some dramatic mountain chains in a
national park. Raul wanted to understand how mountains form, so he did some reading about mountain
building. Once he understood the process of mountain building, he could make an inference about what
happened in that national park millions of years ago. What must have happened in the national park?
A. Erosion must have moved all the surrounding rock to expose the rock that remains to make
up the mountain chain.
B. Tectonic plates in Earth’s crust must have collided with each other, and one of the plates
was pushed far up above the other one.
C. Weathering must have occurred to break down all the rock that was surrounding the hard
rock that remains to make up the mountain chain.
D. Tectonic plates in the Earth’s crust must have slowly eroded over time, exposing the
remaining rock that currently makes up the mountain chain.
____ 7. Which of these choices is an example of the way a geologist would use relative dating?
A. determining the minerals that make up rocks
B. placing rock layers in order of oldest to youngest
C. classifying rocks as igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic
D. using radioactive isotopes to determine the exact age of rock samples
____ 8. Chandler’s earth science class went on a field trip to walk on a trail by a mountain with places next to the trail
where they could see layers of rock that were different colors and different thickness. He remarked how easy
it was to see which layers of rock were older than the others by which ones were higher. Chandler’s teacher
responded that it can be hard to be sure that superposition is the appropriate way to date the layers of rock.
Why did his teacher question the use of simple superposition to date the rock layers?
A. Forces such as weathering and erosion can change the location of rock layers, sometimes
putting younger rocks above older rocks.
B. Forces such as gravity and magnetism can change the location of rock layers such that
older rocks are sometimes located above younger rocks.
C. Forces such as tilting, folding, faults, intrusions, and unconformities can change the
location of rock layers such that younger rocks are sometimes located above older rocks.
D. Forces such as tilting, folding, faults, intrusions, and unconformities can change the
location of rock layers such that older rocks are sometimes located above younger rocks.
____ 9. Carbon-14, a radioactive isotope of carbon, can be used for radioactive dating, or measuring the age of some
things on Earth that contain carbon. The diagram below shows what happens when carbon-14 decays over
time.
 Both carbon-12 and carbon-14 are found in organic materials, such as plants and animals. Carbon-12, a stable
form of carbon, is its most common isotope. Carbon-12 does not decay over time. When plants and animals
are alive, they take in both kinds of carbon. When plants and animals die, only the radioactive isotopes in
their cells begin to change. Which of the following is the best description about what happens to both the
carbon-12 and the carbon-14 in an organism after it dies?

A. The amounts of carbon-12 and carbon-14 will remain the same over time.
B. The amount of carbon-12 will remain the same over time, but the amount of carbon-14
will increase over time.
C. The amount of carbon-12 will remain the same over time, but the amount of carbon-14
will decrease over time.
D. The amount of carbon-12 will decrease over time, but the amount of carbon-14 will
remain the same over time.
____ 10. Imagine that you found this trace fossil on a mountaintop.

What could you conclude from your discovery?

A. This organism is now extinct.

B. This trace fossil is older than the mountaintop.
C. The mountaintop is made of metamorphic rock.
D. The rocks on this mountaintop were once at the bottom of an ocean.
____ 11. One principle used by scientists to understand how the Earth has changed over time is called
uniformitarianism. Which of the following statements best supports the principle of uniformitarianism?
A. Volcanoes happen in the present, and volcanoes happened in a similar way in the past.
B. Crustal folding does not happen in the present, so it is unlikely to have occurred in the
past.
C. Wind erosion happens in the present, but wind erosion might have worked in a different
 way in the past.
D. Water erosion does not change very much on Earth today, so it is unimportant to consider
water erosion when studying the history of changes on Earth.
____ 12. Kacey was studying geology at a university. She conducted research that uses physical evidence to support
theories about how Earth has changed over time. Kacey suspects that a certain area of land used to be covered
by small shallow lakes. To gather evidence, she planned to visit the area of land she was studying and take
notes on physical features in the layers of sedimentary rock. Which statement best supports her plan to gather
this kind of data for her research?
A. Sedimentary rock that was once at an ocean shoreline can show erosion.
B. Sedimentary rock that was covered by shallow lakes can have ripple marks and mud
cracks.
C. Sediment is deposited in layers which can become cemented together to form sedimentary
rock.
D. The composition of sedimentary rock can provide information about whether the rock
formed from decomposed plant material.
____ 13. Florida and the Atlantic ocean surrounding Florida are a part of the North American plate. Therefore,
although Florida faces the Atlantic ocean, it is not at a tectonic plate boundary with an oceanic plate.
However, plate boundaries can occur between continental plates and oceanic plates as shown in the figure
below.

What can you conclude from this figure?

A. The two tectonic plates are sliding past each other horizontally along Earth’s surface
B. The two tectonic plates are moving apart to create a mid-ocean ridge on the sea floor.
C. The two tectonic plates are converging so that a mountain range forms on the continent.
D. The two tectonic plates are diverging causing the contiental plate to buckle and form
mountains.
____ 14. The flow of lava out of a volcano causes change on Earth’s surface to occur at a rapid pace. But the steps
leading up to a volcanic eruption can be a slow process. The following steps show how volcanoes can occur at
divergent boundaries, where two tectonic plates are moving away from each other. However, the steps are not
listed in the correct order.
1. The crust stretches as each plate moves away from the boundary.
2. This causes some of the mantle and crust to melt and become magma.
3. This causes the pressure on the crust and mantle rocks below to decrease.
4. The magma is less dense than solid rock, so it rises where it can through fissures in the crust.
5. This makes the crust get thinner.
6. This causes a volcano.
As an explanation of how volcanoes occur at divergent boundaries, what is the best order of these steps?
A. 1, 5, 3, 2, 4, 6
B. 1, 3, 5, 4, 2, 6
C. 1, 3, 5, 2, 4, 6
D. 1, 5, 2, 3, 4, 6
____ 15. Many of the variable characteristics of Earth’s surface are the result of different kinds of tectonic plate
movement. Tectonic plates can move towards each other, away from each other, or past each other. Each of
these movements causes stress that can change the shape of the rock along the edges of the plates. What
scientific term refers to the variety of ways rocks can change shape as a result of stress?
A. folding
B. deformation
C. compression
D. elastic rebound
____ 16. Soil erosion can increase when humans remove trees and other vegetation from an area. What is this process
called?
A. urbanization
B. deforestation
C. decomposition
D. conservation
____ 17. The graph below shows how the population of Los Angeles, California, changed in the 1900s.
 As the population of a city increases, human activity can impact the Earth in many ways. Based on the graph,
what can you conclude about how the land space in Los Angeles changed during this period of time?
A. Most of the land space was turned into natural areas.
B. Most of the land space was turned into rural areas.
C. More natural land space was covered by human structures.
D. Less natural land space was covered by human structures.
____ 18. The terms deforestation, urbanization, desertification, and erosion are ways that people can impact Earth.
Which statement below best identifies the relationship between these terms?
A. Both deforestation and urbanization can lead to desertification and erosion.
B. Both erosion and desertification can lead to deforestation and urbanization.
C. Both urbanization and erosion can lead to deforestation and desertification.
D. Both deforestation and erosion can lead to urbanization and desertification.
____ 19. This figure shows a cross section of the lithosphere when an earthquake is taking place.
 What happened along the fault line (C) before the earthquake?

A. Pressure built up in the rock due to heating and cooling.

B. Water in the fault line was heated rapidly to form steam.
C. Stress on rocks at the fault line led to deformation.
D. Magma flowed upward from the mantle into the fault line.
____ 20. Earth’s mantle contains solid rock that is very hot and flows slowly. The cooler rock sinks as the warmer rock
rises because of differences in density. What is the scientific term for this type of movement?
A. tectonics
B. convection
C. continental drift
D. sea-floor spreading
____ 21. Imagine that far away in the universe in an undiscovered location, there is a planet very similar to Earth.
However, the core of this planet is not very hot, and its mantle is uniformly cool rock. Temperature
differences influence the movement of materials within Earth. A planet with a cool mantle should experience
different levels of activity on its surface. How would this be most likely to influence activity on this planet’s
surface?
A. This planet would still experience movement of geologic features, such as volcanoes,
earthquakes, and mountain building.
B. If the mantle did not have cool rock sinking and hot rock rising, there would be even more
volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and mountain building.
C. If the mantle did not have cool rock sinking and hot rock rising, there would not be hot
magma rising to the surface as volcanic eruptions, but tectonic plates would still move past
each other causing earthquakes and mountain buildings.
D. If the mantle did not have cool rock sinking and hot rock rising, there would not be hot
magma rising to the surface as volcanic eruptions, and the flow responsible for moving the
tectonic plates would not occur, so the continents would probably remain in one location.
Grade 7 Earth/Space Pretest
Answer Section

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. ANS: A
A is correct because the core is the innermost part of Earth below the mantle.
B is incorrect because the solid outer layer of Earth is the crust.
C is incorrect because the hot, slow-flowing layer of rock beneath the crust is the mantle.
D is incorrect because the layer of Earth on which the tectonic plates move is the asthenosphere, which is one
of the physical layers of Earth.

STA: SC.7.E.6.1
2. ANS: A
A is correct because these three layers make up the compositional structure of Earth.
B is incorrect because the lithosphere is a layer as defined by the physical structure of Earth.
C is incorrect because the layers as defined by the compositional structure of Earth do not divide the mantle or
the core in two.
D is incorrect because these are the layers of Earth as described by Earth’s physical properties.

STA: SC.7.E.6.1
3. ANS: C
A is incorrect because the innermost layer is the thickest of Earth’s compositional layers.
B is incorrect because the thickest layer is composed of a nickel-iron alloy and iron.
C is correct because the crust is the thinnest layer and it is the outer-most layer.
D is incorrect because the crust is not composed of ferro-magnesium silicates.

STA: SC.7.E.6.1
4. ANS: C
• A is incorrect because erosion takes place when natural forces transport sediments from one location to
another.
• B is incorrect because subsidence is the sinking of Earth’s crust to lower elevations, but uplift describes the
rising of Earth’s crust to higher elevations.
• C is correct because the process described is uplift, and uplift continues to increase the elevation of Mount
Everest.
• D is incorrect because weathering is the natural process by which rocks disintegrate.

STA: SC.7.E.6.2
5. ANS: D
A is incorrect because tectonic movement affects the rock cycle by moving rock around.
B is incorrect because uplift and subsidence are terms to describe different types of tectonic movement.
C is incorrect because weathering and erosion break down sedimentary rock rather than form sedimentary
rock from sediment.
D is correct because sediment forms sedimentary rock when it is compacted and cemented.

STA: SC.7.E.6.2
6. ANS: B
A is incorrect because mountain building does not occur through erosion.
B is correct because mountain building occurs when tectonic plates collide through lateral movement.
 C is incorrect because weathering does not cause mountain building.
D is incorrect because erosion of tectonic plates does not cause mountain building.

STA: SC.7.E.6.2
7. ANS: B
• A is incorrect because determining mineral composition is not part of relative dating, which is used to
compare the ages of rocks.
• B is correct because relative dating is used to determine the order in which rock layers formed and the
relative age of each rock layer.
• C is incorrect because classifying rocks by their type is not a way to determine which rock is older than
another rock.
• D is incorrect because radioactive isotopes are used to determine the absolute age, not the relative age, of
rocks.

STA: SC.7.E.6.3
8. ANS: D
A is incorrect because weathering and erosion break down and wear away rock rather than change the
position of entire layers unless combined with faulting.
B is incorrect because gravity and magnetism do not change the order of placement of entire layers.
C is incorrect because the changes that resulted in younger rock above older rock would match the predictions
of superposition.
D is correct because the forces listed can change the order of placement of entire layers of rock, and because
the change suggested does not match the predictions of superposition.

STA: SC.7.E.6.3
9. ANS: B
A is incorrect because carbon-14 is radioactive, it will decay over time.
B is incorrect because carbon-14, as a radioactive isotope, will decrease rather than increase over time.
C is correct because carbon-12 is stable, it will not change, and as carbon-14 is radioactive, it will decay over
time.
D is incorrect because carbon-12 is stable, it will stay the same over time, and as a radioactive isotope,
carbon-14 will decay over time.

STA: SC.7.E.6.3
10. ANS: D
• A is incorrect because the fish species could still exist.
• B is incorrect because there is not enough information provided about the relative age of the fossil.
• C is incorrect because trace fossils are usually found in sedimentary rock.
• D is correct because the fish fossil indicates that the rocks were once under water.

STA: SC.7.E.6.4
11. ANS: A
A is correct because uniformitarianism states that geologic processes that happened in the past can be
explained by geologic processes that happen in the present.
B is incorrect because the frequency with which a geologic process occurs does not indicate whether it did or
did not happen in the past.
C is incorrect because uniformitarianism would say that wind erosion works the same way today as it did
before.
D is incorrect because water erosion is a significant force of change today, and uniformitarianism would say
that water erosion was important in the past as well.
 STA: SC.7.E.6.4
12. ANS: B
A is incorrect because erosion indicates weathering and possible effects of water, but would not necessarily
indicate that the area had been covered by lakes.
B is correct because this statement provides features that Kacey can look for at the study site.
C is incorrect because layering and cementation is how sedimentary rock forms rather than being evidence of
sedimentary rock being covered by shallow lakes.
D is incorrect because information about rock composition is not the physical evidence that might indicate
that a lake was or was not there.

STA: SC.7.E.6.4
13. ANS: C
A is incorrect because the figure shows a convergent boundary and not a transform boundary.
B is incorrect because the figure shows a convergent boundary and not a divergent boundary.
C is correct because a mountain range can form when two tectonic plates converge.
D is incorrect because the figure shows a convergent boundary and also because continents do not buckle and
form mountain ranges at divergent boundaries.

STA: SC.7.E.6.2 | SC.7.E.6.7 | SC.7.E.6.5

14. ANS: A
A is correct because this is the logical sequence in which each step causes the following step to occur.
B is incorrect because the thinning of crust is what decreases pressure on the crust and mantle rocks below,
and magma must form before it can rise through fissures.
C is incorrect because the thinning of crust is what decreases the pressure on the crust and mantle rocks
below.
D is incorrect because the thinning of the crust does not directly cause the mantle and crust to melt and
become magma, as the step that describes decreasing pressure is misplaced.

STA: SC.7.E.6.5
15. ANS: B
A is incorrect because folding refers specifically to the bending of rock.
B is correct because deformation is a broad term that refers generally to changing the shape of rock.
C is incorrect because compression is a specific type of stress that can change the shape of rock.
D is incorrect because elastic rebound is a process by which rock returns to its original shape if stress is
removed.

STA: SC.7.E.6.5
16. ANS: B
A is incorrect because urbanization is the growth of urban areas caused by people moving into cities.
B is correct because deforestation involves the removal of trees and other vegetation.
C is incorrect because decomposition occurs when bacteria and other decomposers break down the remains of
dead plant and animal materials. Decomposition can help make soils more fertile.
D is incorrect because nutrient depletion occurs when soils are overused resulting in nutrient loss in the soil.

STA: SC.7.E.6.6
17. ANS: C
A is incorrect because with urbanization, there is less space for natural areas.
B is incorrect because with urbanization makes a city less rural.
C is correct because with urbanization, more buildings and roads are built for people to use.
 D is incorrect because the opposite trend would be expected.

STA: SC.7.E.6.6
18. ANS: A
A is correct because both deforestation and urbanization can lead to desertification and erosion.
B is incorrect because this statement has the causality backwards.
C is incorrect because although urbanization can lead to deforestation and desertification, erosion does not
lead to deforestation.
D is incorrect because although deforestation can lead to desertification, the other relationships are not
correct.

STA: SC.7.E.6.6
19. ANS: C
A is incorrect because earthquakes result from deformation of rock, not from heating and cooling.
B is incorrect because steam does not lead to deformation or earthquakes.
C is correct because stress on rocks at a fault line lead to deformation, which ultimately causes an earthquake.
D is incorrect because flowing magma builds volcanoes, not earthquakes.

STA: SC.7.E.6.5 | SC.7.E.6.7

20. ANS: B
A is incorrect because tectonics refers to study of the tectonic plates in Earth’s crust.
B is correct because convection is the movement of hot materials due to differences in density.
C is incorrect because continental drift refers to the movement of continents across Earth’s outer layer.
D is incorrect because sea-floor spreading refers to the formation of new crust on the ocean floor.

STA: SC.7.E.6.7
21. ANS: D
A is incorrect because volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountain building depend on movement inside the planet,
which results from differences in temperature causing movement of materials.
B is incorrect because these events would be less likely to occur.
C is incorrect because earthquakes and mountain building also result from the movement of rock inside Earth.
D is correct because volcanoes and tectonic plate motion are the result of the motion caused by movement of
materials in Earth’s mantle.

STA: SC.7.E.6.7