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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. After work crews deal with the moving mountain on Iceland's erupting island, what challenge do they face?
(a) Pumps that fail due to excessive heat.
(b) Orders from Iceland's government to stop all cooling efforts.
(c) New lava flow that threatens the town.
(d) Blinding blizzard that buries the equipment.

2. Officials propose to protect Hilo, Hawaii's second-largest city and port, against lava flows through what?
(a) Relocation.
(b) Plexiglass shields.
(c) Barriers.
(d) Careful monitoring.

3. What gives Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson the idea to cool the oncoming flow of lava?
(a) Watching lava cool by the sea.
(b) Stories he'd heard of ancestors doing the same.
(c) His post-graduate studies.
(d) Watching children play by the water.

4. How do the returning residents benefit from the cooled but still hot lava rocks on Vestmannaeyjar?
(a) Lava rocks are used to create healing hot springs.
(b) Heat from the rocks promotes growth of beneficial bacteria.
(c) The rocks are used for heating purposes.
(d) The heat provides protection against invaders.

5. On January 23, 1973, the five thousand residents of Heimaey, the only populated island of Vestmannaeyjar, are threatened by what?
(a) War.
(b) Lava.
(c) Cracking ice shelf.
(d) Flu epidemic.

6. After the eruptions of 1973 end, how many of Heimaey's evacuees return?
(a) All of them.
(b) Two-thirds.
(c) Half.
(d) Only a handful.

7. Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson is a native of which country?
(a) Greenland.
(b) Iceland.
(c) Sweden.
(d) Finland.

8. When does the author visit Vestmannaeyjar?
(a) When the ice shelf collapses.
(b) During the eruption.
(c) Fifteen years after the eruption.
(d) Fifteen years after the collapse of the ice shelf.

9. What childhood fear does Magnus Magnusson share with the author?
(a) Iceland will break in half.
(b) Vestmannaeyjar will fall into the sea.
(c) Helgafell will erupt.
(d) Heimaey will become a ghost town.

10. When workers in Vestmannaeyjar hose down lava, why do they keep moving?
(a) Because the lava flow keeps shifting.
(b) To cool down other parts of the flow.
(c) To keep their boots from burning up.
(d) To stay warm in the cold climate.

11. Sigurdur Jonsson is an Iceland resident who works on what?
(a) Tourism.
(b) Fishing boats.
(c) Polar bear protection.
(d) Pumping crews.

12. Valdimar Jonsson is a professor of what?
(a) Icelandic folklore.
(b) Volcanic eruptions.
(c) Thermal fluids.
(d) Mob mentality.

13. What do work crews call the two-million ton floating mountain that breaks off during the 1973 eruptions?
(a) Surtsey the Fiery.
(b) Flakkarinn the Wanderer.
(c) Haukadalur the Ominous.
(d) Dettifoss the Mountain.

14. Both Iceland and Hawaii are the world's most what?
(a) Dangerous places to live.
(b) Productive geophysical hotspots.
(c) Inhabited islands.
(d) Earthquake-prone islands.

15. The oldest parts of Iceland are how old?
(a) Five millions years.
(b) One and a half million years.
(c) Twenty-nine million years.
(d) Fourteen million years.

Short Answer Questions

1. With "City Flow" moving towards them in Heimaey, what do pumping crews do?

2. What does the U.S. Army Air Corps do to an insulating vent on Mauna Loa volcano in 1935?

3. After being hosed down, how long does it take for red-hot lava to turn black?

4. When does hot lava stop glowing red?

5. Sveinn Eiriksson is a man of:

(see the answer keys)

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