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Lesson #1
Objectives
Historical Geology - Principals and techniques of geology to reconstruct and
understand the geological history of Earth.
Principal of Superposition of Strata - An Un - Deformed Stratigraphic Sequence, the
Oldest Strata will be at the bottom.
Principal of Original Horizontality - Layers of sediment are originally deposited under
the action of gravity.
Principal of Lateral Continuity - Layers of sediment extend laterally in all directions.
Rocks are always similar. Separated by a valley or other erosional feature.
Uniformitarianism - Assumption that the same laws and processes that operate in the
universe apply everywhere in the universe. Idea that earth has changed very little since
the earth has changed very little from the beginning to the present time.
Principal of Faunal (Biological Succession) Life forms of each age in the Earths
long history were unique for particular periods, that the fossil remains of life permit
geologists to recognize deposits around the world.
Principal of Cross Cutting Relationships A rock that penetrates another body of
rock must be younger than the rock mass penetrated.
Nicolaus Steno Principal of Superposition - Any sequence of undisturbed strata,
oldest layer is at the bottom.
James Hutton Uniformitarianism Physical and Chemical laws that govern nature
are uniform.
William Smith Principal of Biological Succession
Georges Cuvier Charles Lyell Principals of geology, Principal of crosscutting relationships.
Charles Darwin Natural Selection. On species.
Standard Geological Timescale
Relative Dating - Determining the relative order of past events without determining
absolute age.
Absolute Dating - Process where you determine the age on a specified time scale in
geology. (Chronometric dating)
Role of Radioactivity
Questions;
1, 2, 3, 5, 8 Pages 31
1. Describe the general steps used by geologists and
other scientists in their attempt to solve particular
problems or explain natural phenomena. `
A.
B.
C.
D.
Question
Hypothesis
Test Hypothesis
Accept/Reject/Modify Hypothesis
Lesson #2
1.
2.
Quartz is a mineral that is most familiar and important of all the silicate
minerals. It is common in many different families of rocks.
Feldspar
-- 60% of the total weight of the Earth's crust.
-- They are both a 6-6.5 hardness and they cleave well in both directions.
-- Pink or white
-- White or gray
Two families:
-
Feldspars are nearly as hard as quartz and range in color from white to pink or
bluish gray. They have good cleavage in two directions & the resulting flat, often
rectangular surfaces.
Mica Family of silicate materials easily recognized by its perfect cleavage along
one directional plane.
Two chief varieties are the colorless or pale colored muscovite, and the dark
colored Biotite mica. (magnesium + iron).
Hornblende Vitreous, black or very dark green material. Crystals tend to be
long and narrow.
Augite Dark colored. Crystals are stumpy in shape, with good cleavages
developed along two planes that are nearly at right angles.
Olivine Glassy looking iron/Magnesium silicate w/ and olive green color.
3.
5.
6.
7.
1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9
1. What is a mineral? What characteristics of a true mineral
such as quartz or feldspar would not be present in a piece
of glass?
Minerals are naturally occurring solid, inorganic substances that
have a definite chemical composition or range of compositions as
well as distinctive properties that reflect the composition and
regular internal atomic structure.
2. What are the eight most abundant elements found in
rocks and minerals?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Oxygen
Silicon
Aluminum
Iron
Calcium
Sodium
Potassium
Magnesium
Platform Surrounding regions where ancient rocks are covered by flatlying or gently warped layers of sedimentary rocks.
Orogenic Belt Elongated Regions that border the Craton and have been
deformed by compressional forces since Precambrian time.
2.
3.
Arrangement
The arrangement can help to determine if the sediment had been winnowed and
sorted by currents or had been dumped rapidly. Sand grains deposited in water
currents acquire a preferred direction that align according to the direction of flow.
4.
6.
Facies Refers to the characteristic aspects of a rock from which its environment
of deposition can be inferred.
7.
8.
Lesson #4
1.
Define the term fossil and understand the following types of fossil
preservation: recrystallization, replacement, carbonization, and
permineralization.
Recrystallization Less stable hard part Mineralogies are transformed, through
void time, by temperature and pressure to more stable minerals. The
2.
3.
4.
The chance inability to find key fossils might lead to erroneous interpretations.
Two or three million years from now, geologists might have difficulty in firmly
establishing on fossil evidence that the North American opossum, the Australian
wallaby, and the African aardvark lived during the same episode of geologic time.
However, if they found fossils of Homo Sapiens with each of these animals, it
would indicate their contemporaneity.
Homo Sapiens can be considered the cosmopolitan species, for it is not
restricted to any single geographic location.
The aardvark and wallaby are said to be endemic species in that they are
confined to a particular area.
Lesson #5
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Both are termed body waves because they are able to penetrate deep into the
interior or body of our planet. Travel faster in rocks of greater elasticity, and their
speeds increase steadily as they move downward into the more elastic zones of
the Earths interior.
Fluid w. no rigidity. S-Waves cannot propagate and P-Waves are markedly
slowed.
Surface Waves large motion waves that travel through the outer crust of the
Earth. Their pattern of movement resembles that of waves caused when a pebble
is tossed into the center of a pond. Last to arrive at a seismographic station.
Destruction results because surface waves are channeled through the thin outer
region of the Earth & energy is less rapidly dissipated into the large volumes of
rock traversed by body waves.
2.
Briefly describe the properties of the inner core, outer core, mantle, and
crust and indicate the role of seismic discontinuities (Mohorovicic and
Gutenberg) in locating the boundaries between these layers.
Discontinuities:
Mohorovicic Observations that seismograph stations located about 150km
from an earthquake received earthquake waves sooner than those nearer to the
focus. Reasoned that below a depth of about 30km there must be a zone
having physical properties that permit earthquake waves to travel faster.
That layer is the upper mantle. (between crust and mantle)
Gutenberg Located nearly halfway to the center of the Earth at a depth of 2900
km. Its location is marked by an abrupt decrease in P-wave velocities and the
disappearance of S-waves caused by a change in composition. It is the outer
boundary of the Earths core.
Inner core Scientists believe that the inner core has the same composition as
the outer core, and it only exists as a solid because of the enourmous pressure at
the center of the Earth. Solid. Certain wave patterns that could only be explained
by assuming that the inner core behaved seismically as if it were solid. Estimated
to be around 85 percent iron and lesser parts nickel.
A magnetic field is developed by the flow of electric charges and requires good
electrical conductors.
Shadow zone Areas where S Waves do not appear.
Outer Core See inner core.
Mantle Stony, metallic, composition. Oxygen and silicon dominate and are
accompanied by iron and magnesium as the most abundant metallic ions. Rich in
Olivine + pyroxene.
Multiple Layers:
-
Dynamic enveloping shell of the Earth and is itself divided into many lithospheric
plates.
Crust All of the solid Earth above the Mohorovicic discontinuity. Thin, brittle
veneer that constitutes the continents and floors of the oceans. The crust is not a
homogeneous shell. 2 distinct kinds of crust.
Oceanic Crust Beneath ocean floors.
Continental Crust Boundaries of ocean basins. Thicker than oceanic
counterpart but less dense. Isostasy Segments of the Earths crust as they
come into floatation equilibrium with denser mantle material. Explains why
continental crust stands higher than the oceanic crust.
3.
Reverse fault exhibit a hanging wall that has moved up relative to the foot
wall
Strike Slip -
Syncline -
Domes -
Basins 6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
List several lines of evidence that support the plate tectonic theory.
11.
Surface Waves Large motion waves that travel through the outer crust of the
Earth. Their pattern of movement resembles that of waves caused when a pebble
is tossed into the center of a pond. Develop whether P or S-waves disturb the
surface of the Earth as they emerge from the interior. Last to arrive at a
seismograph station. Primary cause of destruction from an earthquake.
Destruction results because surface waves are channeled through the thin outer
region of the earth. & their energy is less rapidly dissipated into the large volumes
of rock traversed by body waves.
3. What is a seismic disconuity? Hat are the Gutenberg and
Mohorovicic discontinuities located?
Mohorovicic Observations that seismograph stations located about
150km from an earthquake received earthquake waves sooner than those
nearer to the focus. Reasoned that blow a depth of about 30km there
must be a zone having physical properties that permit earthquake
waves to travel faster. That layer is the upper mantle. (between crust
and mantle)
Gutenberg Located nearly halfway to the center of the Earth at a depth
of 2900 km. Its location is marked by an abrupt decrease in P-wave
velocities and the disappearance of S-waves caused by a change in
composition. It is the outer boundary of the Earths core.
Seismic Disconuity A surface which velocities of seismic waves change
rapidly. See above for the two different discontinuities.
5. How to anticlines (and domes) differ from synclines (and basins) with
regard to the age relations of rocks exposed across the erosionally
truncated surfaces of these structures?
The limestone represents deposition furthest from shore, the shale represents
deposition closer to shore, and the sandstone represents deposition at the
shoreline. The vertical succession reflects an upward transition from offshore
limestone to nearshore sandstone; thus, the water was becoming increasingly
shallow as the rock column was deposited. This would reflect the retreat of the
shoreline towards the ocean (regression).
9. What are the principal categories of faults? What kinds of faults might
one find in regions subjected to great compressional forces? What kinds of
faults result primarily from tension in the Earths crust?
12. Compile a list of items that Alfred Wegener might have used to
convince a skeptic of the lidity of his theory of continental drift.
Argued for the existence in the past of a supercontinent that de dubbed Pangea.
That portion of Pangea that was to separate and frm North America and Eurasia
came to be known as Laurasia, whereas the southern portion retained the earlier
designation of Gondwanaland. Pangea was surrounded by a universal ocean
named Panthalassa, which opened to receive shifting continents when they
began to split apart 200 years ago.
Correspondence is too good to be fortuitous, even when considering the
expected modifications of shorelines resulting from erosion, deformation, or
intrusions following the break-up of Pangea around 200 million years ago.
Sedimentologic criteria indicating similarity of climatic conditions for widely
separated parts of the world. Locations of such coal deposits should approximate
an equatorial zone relative to the ancient pole position for that age.
Many of the geologic features almost perfectly correspond to how the Earth
moved.
Fossil records give important evidence.
Character,sequence, age, and distribution of rock units have also been examined
for insights into the concepts of drift.
13. According to plate tectonics, how did the Himalaya mountains form?
The San Andreas fault? The Dead Sea and Red sea?
Each of these reflects a different type of plate margin interaction. The Himalayas
are the result of India colliding with Asia (convergent plate margin). The San
Andreas Fault is a transform fault (passive margin) between the North American
plate, which is moving south, and the Pacific plate, which is moving north.
Finally, the Dead Sea and Red Sea occupy depressions resulting from the early
stages of rifting (divergent plate margin).
14. According to plate Techtonics, where is new material added to the sea
floor, and where is older material consumed?
New oceanic crust is generated at spreading centers (Midocean ridges) and
destroyed at Subduction zones.
16. What is remanent magnetism? What is its origin? How is it used in
finding ancient pole positions? How has remanent magnetism helped
validate the concept of plate techtonics?
Remanent Magnetism Magnetism frozen into ancient rocks.
When igneous rocks cool past the Curie temperature (temp above where
substance is no longer magnetic) of their magnetic Mineralism. Some of the
magnetism remains from earlier times.
Remnant magnetism in a mineral is ultimately due to the fact that some atoms
and ion have so called magnetic moments (they behave like tiny moments). Iron
ions align themselves within the crystal lattice so that their magnetic moments
are parallel.
When magnetite takes on its Remanent magnetism, the iron ions align
themselves within the crystal lattice so that their magnetic moments are parallel.
(Ancient pole positions)
Lesson #7
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6.
Metamorphed, and intruded rocks that mark the location of collision of the various
Cratonic elements.
7.
8.
List the major fossils of the Precambrian and explain the differences
between prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms.
BANDED IRON, STROMATOLITES, ARCHAEA CELLS, DICKINSONIA, ETC.
differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms: prokaryotic
organisms do not have a nucleus and eukaryotic organisms do. Eukaryotic DNA
is linear; prokaryotic DNA is circular (it has no ends)
9.
10.
11.
2. What is the source of the suns heat? Given the amount of solar radiation
intercepted by the Earth, why is the Earths surface not hotter than it is?
The suns heat comes from nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms into atoms of
helium.
The Earth has experienced differentiation, a process whereby a planet becomes
internally zoned or layered.
Radiation is reflected back to space. Another part of the incoming radiation is
absorbed by the atmosphere and radiated back into space.
Another part of the incoming radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere and
radiated back into space.
3. What evidence indicates that the universe is expanding?
The spectral signatures of galaxies are red shifted. The red shift indicates that
the galaxies are moving away at incredibly fast speeds.
12. What geologic evidence suggests that free oxygen was beginning to
accumulate in the Earths atmosphere about 3 billion years ago?
Banded iron formations are important as a source of iron and as an indicator of
atmospheric evolution. Banded iron formations are special sedimentary rocks
comprised of alternating layers of iron rich and iron poor layers. The fact that the
iron in banded iron formation was weakly to strongly oxidized indicates that
oxygen was beginning to accumulate in the environment at that time.
13. Discuss the role of symbiosis in the evolution of eukaryotes. What
organelles may have originated by symbiosis?
Suggests that the nucleus and well-ordered genetic material in a eukaryotic cell
may have arisen through ingestion, not digestion, of one prokaryotic cell by
another. Through time the ingested cell was modified into the chloroplast and
mitochondria of the typical Eukaryote
5. How to eukaryotes differ from prokaryotes (see chapter 6)? When do
eukaryotes appear in the fossil record?
Eukaryotic organisms are those with a well-defined nuclear wall, definite
chromosomes, and a capacity for sexual reproduction. By contrast, prokaryotic
organisms possess cells with no definite nucleus and lack membrane-bounded
organelles. They are capable of only asexual reproduction and are typically
smaller. The earliest appeared about 1.6 to 1.4 billion years ago.
8. What are metazoans? What is the earliest known occuresnce of
abundant metazoans? With regard to their general appearance, what are
the three major groups of Ediacaran metazoans?
Metazoans are multicellular animals.
11. When did continental glaciation occur during the Proterozoic? What is
the evidence that such glaciation occurred? Why is it unlikely that
continental glaciers would have formed during the Archean?
In the region north of Lake Huron, there exist conglomerates and laminated
mudstones assigned to the Gowganda Formation. The unsorted conglomerates
and varied sands and shales are indicative of glacial conditions. The period of
glaciation occurred sometime between 2.6 and 2.1 billion years ago. The higher
thermal regimes of the Archean would have made sufficient ice accumulation to
form glaciers improbable.