CLEMSON GEOLOGY 1010 EXAM 1- QUESTIONS
WITH CORRECT ANSWERS 2026-2027
Principles - CORRECT ANSWER -claims something that has been proven -
known to all as correct
Scientific method - CORRECT ANSWER -
observation, questions, hypothesis, collect data, and evaluation
Hypothesis - CORRECT ANSWER -educated guess; "if-
then" statement. Needs to be testable; be predictive
Theories - CORRECT ANSWER -
hypothesis but now has a lot of data supporting it; tested for years
Law - CORRECT ANSWER -essentially correct (always an exception)
Geology - CORRECT ANSWER -study of earth
Catastrophism - CORRECT ANSWER -
everything was caused by 6 catastrophies (ex: 6th was Noah's flood)
Principle of uniformitarianism - CORRECT ANSWER -
things in nature that occur again and again ex: rain washes dirt in to stream
Actualism - CORRECT ANSWER -
sometimes in the past things have sped up/slowed down + uniformitarian; the rare excepti
on
Nebula - CORRECT ANSWER -ball of gas/cloud of gas
, Nebula hypothesis - CORRECT ANSWER -
how you go from a nebula to a solar system. Gravity, solar disk model, protostar, and fusio
n
Solar disk model - CORRECT ANSWER -enough mass to flatten and start rotating of gas
Prostar - CORRECT ANSWER -
6 billion years ago/Ga, not a functional star, temperature is increasing
Fusion - CORRECT ANSWER -
2 separate atoms come together, temperature is high, elements besides hydrogen are creat
ed, surrounding disk begins to cool
Planetary accretion - CORRECT ANSWER -
build up to create planets, (rock, ice, gases), at high speeds ~ 4.5 billion years ago; planeta
ry accretion still happens ex: meteorites hit earth
Theia impact - CORRECT ANSWER -
earth collides with something as large as mars called theia (planet), lunar formation, molte
n planet, then density stratification
Lunar formation - CORRECT ANSWER -fragments come together to create the moon
Molten planet - CORRECT ANSWER -energy released is massive, lava/molten
Density - CORRECT ANSWER -mass packed in a certain space/volume
WITH CORRECT ANSWERS 2026-2027
Principles - CORRECT ANSWER -claims something that has been proven -
known to all as correct
Scientific method - CORRECT ANSWER -
observation, questions, hypothesis, collect data, and evaluation
Hypothesis - CORRECT ANSWER -educated guess; "if-
then" statement. Needs to be testable; be predictive
Theories - CORRECT ANSWER -
hypothesis but now has a lot of data supporting it; tested for years
Law - CORRECT ANSWER -essentially correct (always an exception)
Geology - CORRECT ANSWER -study of earth
Catastrophism - CORRECT ANSWER -
everything was caused by 6 catastrophies (ex: 6th was Noah's flood)
Principle of uniformitarianism - CORRECT ANSWER -
things in nature that occur again and again ex: rain washes dirt in to stream
Actualism - CORRECT ANSWER -
sometimes in the past things have sped up/slowed down + uniformitarian; the rare excepti
on
Nebula - CORRECT ANSWER -ball of gas/cloud of gas
, Nebula hypothesis - CORRECT ANSWER -
how you go from a nebula to a solar system. Gravity, solar disk model, protostar, and fusio
n
Solar disk model - CORRECT ANSWER -enough mass to flatten and start rotating of gas
Prostar - CORRECT ANSWER -
6 billion years ago/Ga, not a functional star, temperature is increasing
Fusion - CORRECT ANSWER -
2 separate atoms come together, temperature is high, elements besides hydrogen are creat
ed, surrounding disk begins to cool
Planetary accretion - CORRECT ANSWER -
build up to create planets, (rock, ice, gases), at high speeds ~ 4.5 billion years ago; planeta
ry accretion still happens ex: meteorites hit earth
Theia impact - CORRECT ANSWER -
earth collides with something as large as mars called theia (planet), lunar formation, molte
n planet, then density stratification
Lunar formation - CORRECT ANSWER -fragments come together to create the moon
Molten planet - CORRECT ANSWER -energy released is massive, lava/molten
Density - CORRECT ANSWER -mass packed in a certain space/volume
