How the Earth Was Made: Season 2 Name: _________________________

The Rockies Video Questions

Date: __________ Class: __________
How the Earth Was Made: The Rockies is the story of one of the Earth’s great mountain ranges. We start with the mystery of marine
fossils located 8,000 ft. in elevation on the top of a mountain, and discover the plate tectonic forces that lifted the Rockies around 70
million years ago. Later, the mountains were lowered by about half of their original height due to erosion, and were also attacked by
massive glaciers. In the far future, evidence for continental rifting seen in New Mexico could further level the Rockies. Select the
correct multiple-choice response for each question. After the video, write the letter for each answer in the blank at the beginning of
each question. The questions follow the same order as the information presented in the video.
1. ____. The Rockies, the longest mountain chain in North America, stretch over ____ miles from New Mexico, through
Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and north into Canada. A) 3,000 B) 3,500 C) 4,000
2. ____. Which amphitheater lies in the heart of the Rocky Mountains? A) The Gorge B) Red Rocks C) The Rouge
3. ____. The two sandstone monoliths slope ____ into the sky. A) 15° B) 45° C) 8,000 mi.
4. ____. What mystery is found 8,000 ft. high in the Colorado Rockies, 60 mi. west of Boulder?
A) Fine acoustics B) Natural birdbaths C) Fossils of marine animals
5. ____. What existed for over 30 million years, and stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the
Arctic Sea? A) A “vast inland sea” B) The ancestral Rockies C) A sterile promontory
6. ____. The warm, tropical climate attracted which creature that left behind large, round imprints in the rocks?
A) Modern day squids B) Trilobites C) Giant fossil ammonites
7. ____. What holds a key to when the Rockies first emerged, about 70 million years ago?
A) Date of the ammonite’s extinction B) Bubbles of helium C) Granite bedrock
8. ____. The layers in the Flatiron rocks tell us that they are ____ rocks, and that they were deposited in rivers.
A) igneous B) sedimentary C) metamorphic
9. ____. At Flagstaff Mountain, what darker rock lies underneath the tilted Flatiron? A) Granite B) Basalt C) Schist
10. ____. Quartz, feldspar, and mica are very characteristic of a rock that has…
A) been subjected to heat & pressure B) cooled from magma C) formed in a stream bed
11. ____. What tells the depth that the rock was formed? A) Precise quantity of iron
B) The direction of Earth’s past magnetic field C) The dark color of the rocks
12. ____. Rocks now at the surface had cooled at a depth of 15 miles. A) True B) False
13. ____. According to geologists, what global force caused the Rocky Mountains to rise?
A) Folding & faulting B) Plate tectonics C) Geosynclines
14. ____. At the time of the granite uplift, on the western margin of North America, oceanic crust was ____ beneath the
North American plate at a high rate of speed, and transferring stress into the interior of the continent.
A) subducting B) devoured C) growing
15. ____. How are the Rocky Mountains different from mountains like the Himalayas or Andes? A) They are not folded
B) The Rockies formed on the margin of a continent C) The Rockies are near the middle of a continent
16. ____. The Rockies likely formed along a line where the crust is very… A) firm B) fragile C) squamous
17. ____. How many years old was the fossilized leaf? A) 10 million B) 60 million C) 70 million
18. ____. Leaf margins in colder temperatures tend to have more… A) teeth B) smooth edges C) scales
19. ____. In a hot air balloon, for every mile you go up in the atmosphere, you lose about ____ °F. A) 5 B) 10 C) 20
20. ____. Fossil leaves found at the base of the Rockies near to present day Denver are incredibly similar to what?
A) Plants growing in the tropics today B) Present day plants from Colorado C) Ice age flora
21. ____. After comparing ancient fossil leaves from the top and foot of the mountain, what was Miller’s surprising
conclusion about the height of the mountains 60 million years ago? A) They were half as high as today
B) They were the same as today C) The mountains were twice as high as today
22. ____. At the Owl Creek Mountains, what is perplexing about the Wind River? A) Its source is a mystery
B) Its spectacular falls are retreating a few ft./yr. C) It cut a straight path through the mountain range
23. ____. In the Powder River Basin, the Pumpkin Buttes stand tall above an otherwise empty landscape. What was the
source of the granite rocks on top of the Buttes? A) The Bighorn Mountains, nearly 100 mi to the west
B) Bedrock beneath the flatiron formation C) Glacial moraines
24. ____. Why are the Pumpkin Buttes unique? A) They nearly eroded away B) They are located in Wyoming
C) They used to be the actual surface level, a thousand feet above the basin
25. ____. At Darton’s Peak, granitic cobbles from the core of the Rockies were also found at which elevation?
A) 1,000 ft. B) 9,000 ft. C) 28,000 ft.
26. ____. According to the narrator, which European mountains also appear to have been cut in half by erosion?
A) Urals B) Atlas C) Alps
27. ____. After the lower Rockies were buried by their own rock, what settled on top and covered
the area with a “thick white sheet”? A) Volcanic ash B) Glaciers C) Marine sediments
28. ____. The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers transported material into the sea, leaving the
mountains we see today. A) True B) False
29. ____. Geologist and photographer Bob Anderson observed what changes between Boulder Canyon and Long’s Peak?
A) The area remained almost unchanged over millions of years
B) They endured an even greater assault C) The terrain changed from rolling hills to steep, jagged cliffs
30. ____. According to the narrator, which cliff is famous? A) The Diamond B) El Capitan C) Mesa Verde
31. ____. On a hillside, Anderson examined one of many mysterious large boulders. A closer look revealed that…
A) it was plucked from the bedrock outcrop B) it was foreign to the site C) it was Flatiron sandstone
32. ____. On a nearby smooth surface, Anderson found ____, which could only have been produced by lots of ice.
A) very fine scratch marks B) minerals C) petroglyphs
33. ____. For the last 3 million years, ____ have come and gone from the Rocky Mountains.
A) upheavals B) rivers C) glaciers
34. ____. Ice turns V-shaped river valleys into what? A) Slick conduits B) Broad, U-shaped canyons C) Rolling plains
35. ____. What happened to the boulders 10,000 years ago? A) They became covered with moss & lichen
B) They hitchhiked down the valley at the bottom of a glacier C) They were left behind when the glaciers melted
36. ____. Over the last 25 million years, a gigantic ____ has been opening up at the southern end of the Rockies.
A) rift B) U-shaped valley C) caldera
37. ____. What stretches over 160,000 mi2? A) Colorado River B) Rio Grande Valley C) Missouri River Valley
38. ____. San Ysidro is dominated by bright yellow, porous rock known as travertine, which forms from ____, and is
made out of calcite. A) water B) magma C) deposition of cobbles
39. ____. How is the spring water likely warmed? A) Sunlight B) Heat from Earth’s interior C) Radioactive decay
40. ____. DNA analysis of microbes in the hot spring revealed that they are more like what is found at…
A) mid-ocean ridges B) Yellowstone Park C) Antarctic lakes
41. ____. What represents conclusive evidence that “deep tectonic forces” are at work along the rift valley?
A) Encroaching seawater B) Widespread seismic activity C) Helium 3 gas
42. ____. As hot magma from the mantle, 30 mi. below the surface, rises, it forces the area on top to ____,
opening up a deep chasm. A) spread B) rise C) radiate heat
43. ____. Rifting could cause the Rocky Mountains to rip apart, causing what to move in (like what covered the area 70
million years ago)? A) A river valley B) An inland sea C) A continental glacier