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School
North Dakota State University *
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Course
106
Subject
Geology
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
docx
Pages
4
Uploaded by HighnessRavenMaster978
Topics and Questions
1.
The Nature of Science
What is the process of scientific inquiry?
-
The process of scientific inquiry is seeking an answer or explanation based on
evidence, and the steps are observation, hypothesis, experimentation, result, and
conclusion.
Why is scientific inquiry useful for studying how the Earth has changed through time?
-
Im a crimmy justice major tf i look like
What is the theory of uniformitarianism? Why is it important in geology?
-
The theory of uniformitarianism is that the present is the key to the past.
Observations and understanding of the natural world are crucial to understanding
its past.
What is the difference between a scientific hypothesis and a theory?
-
A scientific hypothesis is an educated guess, whereas a scientific theory is a
hypothesis that has been tested repeatedly and has been proven true repeatedly.
2.
The Rock Record
What are sedimentary rocks? How do sedimentary rocks represent geologic time?
-
Sedimentary rocks are rocks that are created from compressed sediment that
collects over a long period of time
How is the evolution of life preserved within sedimentary rocks?
-
Sedimentary rocks hold well-preserved fossils, and continuous changes in the
environment, climate, and catastrophic events show in the sediments as well.
What is the Williston Basin? How do the rocks there represent geologic time?
-
The Williston Basin is a 15,128ft thick sedimentary formation under much of
western North Dakota
3.
Relative Time
What is the difference between relative time and absolute time?
-
Relative time is in the order of events, and absolute time is the age of events (i.e.
100myo)
What are the principles of superposition, original horizontality, and lateral
continuity?
-
Superposition is when the top layer is the youngest, and the bottom layer is the
oldest.
-
Original horizontality is when sediment is deposited horizontally, and if it’s not
horizontal, it means a deformation caused by a younger geologic event occurred
-
Lateral continuity is when layers of sediment are initially laterally extended in all
directions
To what type(s) of rocks do these principles apply?
-
All sedimentary rocks and sediments
What are the principles of cross-cutting relationships, inclusions, and fossil
succession?
-
Cross-cutting relationships are when the rocks that cut through other rocks are
younger than the others
-
Inclusions are when younger rocks contain fragments of older rocks (the
fragments are always older than the younger whole rocks)
-
Fossil succession is when the oldest fossils are within the oldest rocks, and the
youngest fossils are within the youngest rocks
To what type(s) of rocks do these principles apply?
-
Sedimentary rocks
What is an unconformity in the rock record?
-
A break in a rock sequence that represents a period of no deposition
4.
Absolute Time
What are some examples of countable layers on the Earth?
-
Tree rings, layers of mud in frozen lakes, layers of ice in exposed glaciers, and
growth layers from coral from a modern reef.
What time scales are represented by layers?
-
What is an isotope of an element?
-
Isotopes are stable or unstable versions of elements with differing nuclear
properties
What are the protons and neutrons of an atom and how do they affect the nucleus of an
atom?
-
If decay causes a change in the number of protons in the nucleus, then the
product of the decay is a new element at the expense of the original element
What is radioactive decay and why does it happen with some elements?
-
Radioactive decay is a change in the unstable nuclei of some elements, and it
happens because of unstable isotopes
What are parent isotopes and daughter isotopes?
-
Parent isotopes are the ones that undergo radioactive decay and become the
daughter isotopes
What is a half-life of an isotope?
-
The time needed for one-half of parent isotopes in a rock to decay into daughter
isotopes
What are examples of radioactive isotopes?
-
Igneous rock or crystals
5.
The Geologic Time Scale
What are eons, eras, periods, and epochs of geologic time?
-
Intervals in the rock record
What types of geologic events are defined at the end of an interval of geologic
time?
-
Rapid extinction events
How are these represented in the rock record?
-
They’re marked by a sharp and sudden change in the amount of fossils found
When did visible life appear in the rock record?
-
The Phanerozoic era
How much of Earth's history occurred prior to this?
-
4.56bn years
What geologic events define the end of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras?
-
The Paleozoic era ended with a rapid extinction event, and the Mesozoic era
ended with the largest extinction event ever recorded.
How are these represented in the rock record?
-
The Paleozoic era is marked by the appearance of coal, and the Mesozoic era is
marked by the appearance of birds
What is the current era of geologic time and when did it begin?
-
The current geologic era is the Cenozoic era, and it began 65 million years ago
6.
Earth Materials
What is a mineral and how does it differ from other solid materials on the Earth?
-
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid comprised of some of the most abundant
materials on Earth
Why are so many common minerals composed of silicon, oxygen, and metal
elements?
-
Because those are the most abundant minerals
Felsic and mafic minerals both contain silicon and oxygen, but how do they differ
in composition and physical properties?
-
They’re formed by freezing liquid rock
How do igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks differ?
-
Sedimentary is compressed, metamorphic is heated, and igneous is cooled
magma
What are intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks and how do they form?
-
Intrusive cools slowly and leaves beautiful large crystals, and extrusive cools
quickly and leaves microscopic crystals
How is sediment produced at the Earth's surface?
-
Erosion
How do detrital and chemical sedimentary rocks differ?
-
Detrital is composed of fragments from other rocks, and chemical is composed of
minerals precipitated from water
Be prepared to classify the examples of minerals and rocks covered in lectures.
Minerals by their compositional group (e.g., silicates), and rocks by their class
(igneous intrusive or extrusive, sedimentary detrital or chemical).
7.
Plate Tectonics
What do “magnetic stripes” on the seafloor record about Earth's history?
-
They record the flips in Earth’s magnetic field
What is the theory of seafloor spreading and what is the geologic evidence of it?
-
The formation of the Earth’s crust and the evidence is that the ocean crust
spreads laterally, and when the mantle rises, molten material cools forming crust
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What is a divergent plate boundary?
-
A new crust is formed over the rising arm of a mantle convection cell
What types of rocks form at mid-ocean ridges?
-
Igneous rocks
What is a convergent plate boundary?
-
Plates are crashing into each other the sinking arm of a mantle convection cell
What is the process of subduction?
-
It’s when the ocean crust sinks, forming a deep ocean trench, and the subduction
causes melting, which builds a chain of volcanoes on the continental edge
How does continental and oceanic crust differ?
-
Oceanic crust is about 5-10 kilometers thick of dense, mafic igneous rock. Hotter
closer to mid-ocean ridges and colder further.
-
Continental crust is about 30-50 kilometers thick of less dense, felsic rock. More
buoyant and hard to recycle at plate boundaries
What types of geologic features appear at convergent plate boundaries?
-
Either volcanoes or volcanic islands
What is a hotspot?
-
Narrow column of rising mantle material
What do geologic records of the Yellowstone hot spot and the Hawaiian hot spot
indicate about Earth's history?
-
Stationary columns of magma, originating deep within the mantle, have slowly
risen to the surface and formed volcanoes