Quaternary Geology Questions and Answers

Q: Choose the material on which 14C dating technique can be correctly applied.

14C dating can be applied to charred food grains from the Indus Valley civilization.Radiocarbon dating works on carbon that was once part of a living organism exchanging carbon with the atmosphere, and it only reaches back about 50,000 years, since the half-life of 14C is about 5,730 years. Charred grain is plant carbon taken from the air a few thousand years ago, well inside that range.The other three fail on both counts. Organic matter in carbonaceous chondrites is about 4.56 billion years old and was never in equilibrium with the Earth’s atmosphere. Diamonds formed from mantle carbon, mostly more than a billion years ago. Proterozoic graphite is older than 541 million years. In each case any original 14C decayed away long ago.

Q: The Quaternary records have indicated that the glacial to interglacial transition is ..................... and vice-a-versa is .........................

The glacial to interglacial transition is abrupt, and the reverse is gradual.Ice-core and marine oxygen isotope records of the last 800,000 years show a sawtooth pattern: ice sheets build up slowly over tens of thousands of years, then collapse quickly in glacial terminations lasting only a few thousand years, as at the end of the last glaciation. So warming out of a glacial is abrupt, and cooling into the next glacial is gradual.The pairs gradual-abrupt and slow-fast reverse this asymmetry, and 'pulsating, smooth' does not describe it.

Q: This is the current epoch of the quaternary as is known as Oxygen Isotope Stage 1 :

The current epoch, Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 1, is the Holocene.The Holocene began about 11,700 years ago at the end of the last glacial period. Oxygen isotope stages are numbered back from the present, with odd numbers for warm interglacials, so MIS 1 is the present interglacial.The Pleistocene is the earlier epoch of the Quaternary, covering the ice ages (MIS 2 and older). Cenozoic is an era and Neogene a period, so neither is an epoch at all.

Q: Soil profiles preserved over long periods of time but which are not being actively developed today are known as :

Such soil profiles are palaeosols.A palaeosol is a soil that formed on a landscape of the past. It may be buried under later sediment or lava, or left at the surface as a relict, but in either case it records past climate and conditions rather than those of today, and is no longer forming.Lignite beds are low-rank coal, compacted plant matter rather than a soil profile. The solum is the A and B horizons of any soil, including an active modern one. Histosols are present-day organic (peat) soils of the USDA classification.

Q: Mark the correct order of stages from older to younger during the Holocene period :

The correct older-to-younger order is Boreal-Atlantic-Subboreal.The Blytt-Sernander scheme divides the Holocene of north-west Europe into: Preboreal (about 11,700-10,500 years ago), Boreal, Atlantic (the warm, moist climatic optimum), Subboreal and Subatlantic (the last 2,500 years or so).The first option puts Boreal before Preboreal, and the second and fourth run from younger to older, starting with the Subatlantic; the fourth also uses 'Preatlantic', which is not a stage in the scheme.

Q: The Acheulean hand axes begin to appear at around :

Acheulean hand axes first appear at about 1.76 Ma.The oldest securely dated Acheulean tools, from Kokiselei in West Turkana, Kenya, are about 1.76 million years old, and are associated with Homo erectus. The Acheulean then lasted until roughly 200,000 years ago.4.6 Ma is older than any known stone tool (the Oldowan begins about 2.6 Ma). 0.78 Ma is the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal, long after the Acheulean began, and 50,000 years BP falls in the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic.

Q: The amino acid formation is dextro i.e. right rotating after an organism dies then, which one of the following is true ?

The usable fact is that the dextro to levo ratio can be determined for age.This is amino acid racemisation dating. Living organisms build their proteins from L (levo) amino acids. After death the L forms slowly convert into their D (dextro) mirror images until the two reach equilibrium, at a rate that depends on time and temperature. Measuring the D/L ratio in a shell, bone or tooth therefore gives its age.The absolute amount of D forms (option A) depends on how much amino acid survives, so it is the ratio that is measured. The method is clearly useful (C is wrong), and the conversion takes tens of thousands to millions of years, not a fixed 10,000 years (D).

Q: Which stratigraphic 'Global stratotype section and point' boundary is marked in an 'Ice-Core' of the Northern Green land.

The boundary is the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary.In 2008 the International Commission on Stratigraphy ratified the base of the Holocene with a Global Stratotype Section and Point in the NorthGRIP ice core from central Greenland, at a depth of 1,492.45 m. It is dated to 11,700 years before AD 2000 and marked by an abrupt change in deuterium excess and other proxies at the end of the Younger Dryas cold event. It is the only GSSP defined in an ice core.The Permian-Triassic GSSP is at Meishan in China, and the Miocene-Pliocene and Pliocene-Pleistocene GSSPs are rock sections in Mediterranean countries. All of these are far too old for any ice core, which reaches back less than a million years.

Q: The Middle Paleolithic tools are marked by the presence of :

The key's answer is Knife and Scraper.The Middle Palaeolithic, associated in Europe with Neanderthals and the Mousterian industry and in India with the Nevasa-type industries, is marked by tools made on flakes, often by the prepared-core (Levallois) technique. Its characteristic tools are scrapers of many kinds, points, borers and flake knives.Choppers and bifaces (hand axes and cleavers) are the hallmark of the Lower Palaeolithic. Harpoons, spears tipped with bone points, needles and perforators belong to the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, when bone and antler working and blade tools became common.

Choose the material on which ¹⁴C dating technique can be correctly applied.

A.Charred food grains from the Indus Valley civilization
B.Organic matter in carbonaceous chondrites
C.Diamonds from the Earth’s interior
D.Graphite from Proterozoic sedimentary basins

Exam Year(s)

IIT JAM - 2026,

Answer: A

¹⁴C dating can be applied to charred food grains from the Indus Valley civilization.

Radiocarbon dating works on carbon that was once part of a living organism exchanging carbon with the atmosphere, and it only reaches back about 50,000 years, since the half-life of ¹⁴C is about 5,730 years. Charred grain is plant carbon taken from the air a few thousand years ago, well inside that range.

The other three fail on both counts. Organic matter in carbonaceous chondrites is about 4.56 billion years old and was never in equilibrium with the Earth’s atmosphere. Diamonds formed from mantle carbon, mostly more than a billion years ago. Proterozoic graphite is older than 541 million years. In each case any original ¹⁴C decayed away long ago.

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The Quaternary records have indicated that the glacial to interglacial transition is ..................... and vice-a-versa is .........................

A.Abrupt, Gradual
B.Gradual, Abrupt
C.Pulsating, Smooth
D.Slow, fast

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2018, SET Exam - 2018,

Answer: A

The glacial to interglacial transition is abrupt, and the reverse is gradual.

Ice-core and marine oxygen isotope records of the last 800,000 years show a sawtooth pattern: ice sheets build up slowly over tens of thousands of years, then collapse quickly in glacial terminations lasting only a few thousand years, as at the end of the last glaciation. So warming out of a glacial is abrupt, and cooling into the next glacial is gradual.

The pairs gradual-abrupt and slow-fast reverse this asymmetry, and 'pulsating, smooth' does not describe it.

Discuss in Forum

This is the current epoch of the quaternary as is known as Oxygen Isotope Stage 1 :

A.Cenozoic
B.Neogene
C.Pleistocene
D.Holocene

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2019, SET Exam - 2019,

Answer: D

The current epoch, Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 1, is the Holocene.

The Holocene began about 11,700 years ago at the end of the last glacial period. Oxygen isotope stages are numbered back from the present, with odd numbers for warm interglacials, so MIS 1 is the present interglacial.

The Pleistocene is the earlier epoch of the Quaternary, covering the ice ages (MIS 2 and older). Cenozoic is an era and Neogene a period, so neither is an epoch at all.

Discuss in Forum

Soil profiles preserved over long periods of time but which are not being actively developed today are known as :

A.Palaeosols
B.Lignite beds
C.Solum
D.Histosols

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2021, SET Exam - 2021,

Answer: A

Such soil profiles are palaeosols.

A palaeosol is a soil that formed on a landscape of the past. It may be buried under later sediment or lava, or left at the surface as a relict, but in either case it records past climate and conditions rather than those of today, and is no longer forming.

Lignite beds are low-rank coal, compacted plant matter rather than a soil profile. The solum is the A and B horizons of any soil, including an active modern one. Histosols are present-day organic (peat) soils of the USDA classification.

Discuss in Forum

Mark the correct order of stages from older to younger during the Holocene period :

A.Boreal-Pre-Boreal-Subboreal
B.Subatlantic-Atlantic-Subboreal
C.Boreal-Atlantic-Subboreal
D.Subatlantic-Subboreal-Preatlantic

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: C

The correct older-to-younger order is Boreal-Atlantic-Subboreal.

The Blytt-Sernander scheme divides the Holocene of north-west Europe into: Preboreal (about 11,700-10,500 years ago), Boreal, Atlantic (the warm, moist climatic optimum), Subboreal and Subatlantic (the last 2,500 years or so).

The first option puts Boreal before Preboreal, and the second and fourth run from younger to older, starting with the Subatlantic; the fourth also uses 'Preatlantic', which is not a stage in the scheme.

Discuss in Forum

The Acheulean hand axes begin to appear at around :

A.4.6 Ma
B.1.76 Ma
C.0.78 Ma
D.50,000 years BP

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: B

Acheulean hand axes first appear at about 1.76 Ma.

The oldest securely dated Acheulean tools, from Kokiselei in West Turkana, Kenya, are about 1.76 million years old, and are associated with Homo erectus. The Acheulean then lasted until roughly 200,000 years ago.

4.6 Ma is older than any known stone tool (the Oldowan begins about 2.6 Ma). 0.78 Ma is the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal, long after the Acheulean began, and 50,000 years BP falls in the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic.

Discuss in Forum

The amino acid formation is dextro i.e. right rotating after an organism dies then, which one of the following is true ?

A.The amount of dextro rotations can be counted for age
B.Dextro to Levo ratio can be determined for age
C.There is no use for age calculation
D.Amino acids complete the rotation by 10000 years

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: B

The usable fact is that the dextro to levo ratio can be determined for age.

This is amino acid racemisation dating. Living organisms build their proteins from L (levo) amino acids. After death the L forms slowly convert into their D (dextro) mirror images until the two reach equilibrium, at a rate that depends on time and temperature. Measuring the D/L ratio in a shell, bone or tooth therefore gives its age.

The absolute amount of D forms (option A) depends on how much amino acid survives, so it is the ratio that is measured. The method is clearly useful (C is wrong), and the conversion takes tens of thousands to millions of years, not a fixed 10,000 years (D).

Discuss in Forum

Which Global Stratigraphic Section and Point (GSSP) stage boundary is marked in a speleothem ?

A.Northgrippian stage
B.Meghalayan stage
C.Gelesian stage
D.Zanclean stage

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2024, SET Exam - 2024,

Answer: B

The stage boundary marked in a speleothem is the base of the Meghalayan stage.

The Meghalayan, the latest stage of the Holocene, begins at 4,200 years before 2000 CE with an abrupt drying event. Its GSSP, ratified in 2018, is defined in a stalagmite from Mawmluh Cave in Meghalaya, India, the first GSSP placed in a speleothem.

The Northgrippian GSSP is in the NorthGRIP ice core from Greenland, while the Gelasian and Zanclean GSSPs are in marine sedimentary sections in Sicily, so none of them is in a cave deposit.

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Which stratigraphic 'Global stratotype section and point' boundary is marked in an 'Ice-Core' of the Northern Green land.

A.Permian-Triassic boundary
B.Miocene-Pliocene boundary
C.Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary
D.Pleistocene-Holocene boundary

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2025, SET Exam - 2025,

Answer: D

The boundary is the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary.

In 2008 the International Commission on Stratigraphy ratified the base of the Holocene with a Global Stratotype Section and Point in the NorthGRIP ice core from central Greenland, at a depth of 1,492.45 m. It is dated to 11,700 years before AD 2000 and marked by an abrupt change in deuterium excess and other proxies at the end of the Younger Dryas cold event. It is the only GSSP defined in an ice core.

The Permian-Triassic GSSP is at Meishan in China, and the Miocene-Pliocene and Pliocene-Pleistocene GSSPs are rock sections in Mediterranean countries. All of these are far too old for any ice core, which reaches back less than a million years.

Discuss in Forum

10.

The Middle Paleolithic tools are marked by the presence of :

A.Chopper and Bifaces
B.Harpoon and Spears
C.Knife and Scraper
D.Needles and Perforators

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2025, SET Exam - 2025,

Answer: C

The key's answer is Knife and Scraper.

The Middle Palaeolithic, associated in Europe with Neanderthals and the Mousterian industry and in India with the Nevasa-type industries, is marked by tools made on flakes, often by the prepared-core (Levallois) technique. Its characteristic tools are scrapers of many kinds, points, borers and flake knives.

Choppers and bifaces (hand axes and cleavers) are the hallmark of the Lower Palaeolithic. Harpoons, spears tipped with bone points, needles and perforators belong to the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, when bone and antler working and blade tools became common.

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