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197 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is the mysterious time interval between the birth of the Earth and 3.85 Ga called?
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Hadean Eon
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What was the Earth's surface like during the Hadean Eon?
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An inferno
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During the Hadean era the earth underwent internal _______. Which is when gravity pulls molten iron down to the center of the Earth, accumulating to form the core, leaving a mantle composed of ultramafic rock
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Differentiation
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What was formed during the Hadean Eon through a Mars-sized protoplanet colliding with the Earth?
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The moon
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What may have accumulated during the Hadean Era?
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The first oceans
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What is the problem with the rocks during the Hadean Era?
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There essentially is no rock record
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How was the atmosphere during the Hadean Eon?
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Toxic
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During the Archean Era, formation of the continental crust occurred through ______
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Accretion
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What is Accretion?
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Combination of land Masses
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During what period of earth did life first begin through simple prokaryotes?
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Archean Eon
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During what period of earth were the first continents form and tectonics established?
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Archean Eon
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When was the Proterozoic Eon?
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2.5 Ga- 542 Ma
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What is it called when thick and cool pieces of crust become very resistant?
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Cratonization
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During what period of earth did photosynthesis and increased complexity of organisms occur?
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Proterozoic Eon
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What caused the Cambrian explosion?
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The production of new ecological niches and the isolation of populations that resulted when small continents formed and drifted apart.
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What three eras did the Phanerozoic Eon consist of?
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The Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic
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What is the "snowball Earth"?
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Glaciers covered the land and ocean resulting in a frozen surface.
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What caused mass extinction throughout earth's history?
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Radical climate shifts such as the Ice Age and the great oxygenation event.
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What event resulted in other environments not being able to absorb or dissolve oxygen produced by organisms?
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Great oxygenation event
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What were the results of the mass extinctions on earth?
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Life evolved and diversified to occupy the new environments that formed.
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What did the K-T boundary event mark?
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An abrupt global change in fossil assemblages
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What happened in the K-T boundary event?
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A sudden mass extinction of most species on earth
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What caused the K-T boundary?
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A huge meteorite impacted earth
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What are the remains of organisms that lived by carrying out photosynthesis and were then buried and preserved in rock after they died called?
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Fossil Fuels
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How do we form oil?
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First, it begins in an aqueous environment. Second, Plankton die and combine with clay (there must be low oxygen content). Third, Sedimentary layers accumulate over the plankton and compress it. Plankton turns into organic rich mud which eventually turns to black shale. Fourth, due to pressure and heat from depth, kerogen forms. As temperature increases, kerogen turns to oil. The oil rises.
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How are gas, oil, and tar produced?
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Fossil fuels consist of hydrocarbon chains. Due to viscosity and volatility, the length of chain determines the final product. Short chain molecules occur in natural gas at room temperature. Moderate-length chain molecules occur in liquid form (gas and oil). Long-chain molecules occur in solid form (coal).
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What stores gas and oil underground?
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Hydrocarbon reserve
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What is the association that deals with the materials, conditions, and time of the development of hydrocarbon reserves called?
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Hydrocarbon system
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Since organic shale contains the raw materials from which hydrocarbons form, what do we refer to it as?
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Source rock
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Pro's and Con's of Solar energy
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Pros: Humanity would have a reliable and totally clean solution for powering modern technology.
Cons: Expensive and no technology available to really make it work |
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Pros and Cons of Wind energy?
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Pros: Wind farms harness produce wing-generated electricity.
Cons: Varies with the wind, no steady supply. Covering landscape with windmills is not appealing. |
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What can happen with Nuclear Energy use?
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Cons: nuclear waste, which is the radioactive material produced in a nuclear plant. Reactors also run the risk of meltdown.
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What time of energy is formed from rapid production of crops specifically for the purpose of producing biomass for fuel production called?
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Biofuels
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What type of energy exists from the internal heat of the earth due to the crust becoming progressively hotter with increasing depth?
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Geothermal energy
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Pro's and con's of Hydroelectric energy?
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Pros: Energy is clean and renewable. Large resourvoirs behind the dams of power plants may provide irrigation water, flood control, and recreational opportunities.
Cons: Technology for large-scale solar energy does not exist yet. |
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Pro's and Con's of Fuel Cells
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Pros: Fuel cells are efficient and clean.
Cons: Limitation lies in the need for a design that will protect the cells from damage by impact and that will enable them to store hydrogen safely. Also, it takes a significant amount of energy from other sources to produce the hydrogen used in fuel cells. |
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How is coal formed?
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A swamp must fall and be buried in an oxygen-poor environment. Compaction and partial decay of the vegetations transforms into peat. Once peat is buried deeply over layers of sediment, the peat becomes lignite. After further burial, the lignite alters to form bituminous coal. Coal is found in sedimentary beds interlayer with other strata.
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How is nuclear power produced?
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Controlled fission in reactors produces nuclear power.
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What kind of resource is oil?
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Nonrenewable
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Why are we living in an "Oil Age"?
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Because so much of our money depends on oil
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What is the peak of production for a given reserve called?
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Hubbert's Peak
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What two disasters gave Nuclear Energy a bad name?
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Fukishima and Chernobyl
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What is a Fuel cell?
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Chemical reaction between anode and cathode to produce energy
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How do magma chamber ore deposits form?
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Massive sulfide deposits can form when sulfide ore minerals sink to the bottom of a magma chamber
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How do Hydrothermal deposits form?
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Hydrothermal deposits form when water circulating around and through magma dissolves and redistributes metals
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How else do Hydrothermal form?
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Massive sulfide deposits also form when ore minerals precipitate around hydrothermal vents along a mid ocean ridge.
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What is an ore deposit?
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An economically significant occurrence of ore
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What is another name for non-metallic resources?
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Industrial minerals
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What are some types of non-metallic resources?
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Stone production in quarries, crushed limestone quarries.
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What are some uses for non-metallic resources?
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Crushed stone forms highways, railroads, cement, concrete, and asphalt.
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What refers to the slow, gradual downslope movement of regolith on a slope?
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Creep
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What is the relatively slow moving mass-movement event, during which moving rock does not disintegrate but rather stays somewhat coherent?
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Slump
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What is a moving slurry of mud resulted from long term weathering?
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Mudflow
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What is a slurry consisting of a mixture of mud and large fragments called?
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Debris Flow
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What is a devastating mudflow that consists of a mixture of volcanic ash and water from the snow which melts in a volcano's heat or from heavy rains?
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Lahars
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What is a sudden movement of rock and debris down a non vertical slope that consists only of rock?
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Rockslide
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What is a sudden movement of rock and debris down a non vertical slope that consists mostly of regolith?
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Debris slide
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What is a chaotic jumble of snow surging downslope?
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Avalanche
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What occurs when a mass free falls from a cliff?
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Rockfalls/Debris Falls
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What factors contribute towards slope stability?
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If the resistance force caused by friction is greater than the downslope force, the block does not move.
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What factors contribute towards slope failure?
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If the slope angle increases, the downslope force due to gravity increases. If the downslope force becomes greater than the resistance force, the block starts to move.
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How can we prevent mass movement?
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Revegetation, Regrading, Reducing subsurface water, Preventing undercutting, Constructing safety structures, and Controlled blasting of unstable slopes.
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What is clastic sedimentary rock?
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Cemented together clasts, solid fragments and grains broken off of preexisting rocks.
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How do you classify clastic sedimentary rocks?
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Based on clast size, clast composition, angularity, sorting, and character of cement.
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What are relatively small elongated ridges that form on a bed surface at right angles to the direction of current flow?
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Ripple marks
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What are distinct internal laminations that are inclined at an angle that cut into a ripple or dune?
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Cross beds
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What are relatively large elongated ridges built of sediment transported by a current?
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Dune
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If a mud layer dries up after deposition, it cracks into roughly hexagonal plates that typically curl up at their edges. What do we refer to the opening between the plates as?
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Mud cracks
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As currents flow over a sediment surface, they may erode small troughs called?
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Scour Marks
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What sedimentary rocks are found in Terrestrial Environments through surface water reacting with iron to produce iron oxide minerals in terrestrial sediments?
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Redbeads
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What sedimentary rocks are found in a Glacial environment as a glacier moves down a valley in the mountains?
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Glacial till
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What sedimentary rocks are found in a Mountain stream environment while the stream carries finer sediments downstream?
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Breccia and conglomerate
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What sedimentary rocks are found in an Alluvial-fan environment when a stream pours from a canyon mouth and spreads out over a broader region?
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Arkose and conglomerate
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What sedimentary rocks are formed in a Sand-dune environment when strong winds move dust and sand away, resulting in well sorted sand accumulating in dunes?
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Thick layers of well-sorted sandstone
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What sedimentary rocks are formed in River environments when finer sediments drift along creating river deposits?
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Fluvial sediments
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What sedimentary rocks form in Lake environments when water can't move course sediment?
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Finely laminated shale
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How are biochemical sediments formed?
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When an organism uses materials dissolved in air or water to build their tissue
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What is a preexisting rock that undergoes a solid-state change in response to the modification of its environment called?
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metamorphic rock
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What do Geologists refer to the parallel surfaces and layers that can occur in a metamorphic rock.
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Foliation
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How is foliation formed?
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Either because it contains inequant mineral crystals that are aligned parallel to one another or because the rock has alternating dark colored and light colored layers.
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What type of foliations take place in slate?
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Slaty cleavage
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What type of foliations take place in phyllite?
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fine grained mica
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What type of foliations take place in schist?
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Schistosity
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What kind of foliation takes place in Gneiss?
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Gneissic banding
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When gneiss begins to melt and freezes before flowing out of the source area, a mixture of igneous rock and metamorphic rock forms called?
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Migmatite
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What non foliated rock is fine grained, contains a variety of metamorphic minerals, and depends on the composition of the protolith and temperature and pressure of metamorphism?
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Hornfels
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What non foliated rock forms by the metamorphism of pure quartz sandstone?
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Quartzite
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What non foliated rock during its formation is composed of calcite and derives from limestone?
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Marble
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What type of metamorphism is caused by igneous intrusions that develops adjacent to the contact of an intrusion with its wall rock?
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Contact
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What type of metamorphism involves heat, compression and sharing in large regions?
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Regional
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When cold seawater sinks through cracks in the oceanic crust and heats up, it transforms into hydrothermal fluid. This fluid rises through the crust and causes what type of metamorphism?
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Hydrothermal
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What kind of metamorphism takes place due to the passage of a shock wave in a rock?
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Shock
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The rare rock Blueschist occurs only in accretionary prisms. Where is the prism located?
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Subduction zones
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Why is the temperature at the base of the accretionary prism relatively low?
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Because the sub ducted oceanic lithosphere beneath the prism is cool
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What is the rock mass above a sloping fault plane?
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Hanging wall
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What is the rock mass below the fault plane?
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Footwall
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What happens when the hanging wall slips down the slope of the fault?
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Normal fault
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What happens when the hanging wall slips up the slope?
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Reverse fault
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What happens when the hanging wall is shallowly sloping?
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Thrust fault
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What happens when near vertical planes on which slips occur parallel to an imaginary horizontal line?
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Strike-slip fault
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What is the defined as the force that resists sliding on a surface?
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Friction
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Small earthquakes are called?
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Aftershocks
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The theory that earthquakes happen be causes stresses build up, causing rock adjacent to the fault to bend elastically is called the?
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Elastic Rebound Theory
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P waves stand for? What do they do?
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Primary waves; they are compressional body waves
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S waves stand for? What do they do?
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Secondary waves; they are shear body waves
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L waves stand for? What do they do?
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Surface waves; they cause the ground to ripple back and forth producing a snake like movement
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R waves stands for? What do they do?
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Surface waves; they cause the ground to ripple up and down
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Which seismic waves travel the fastest?
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P waves, S waves, & Surface waves
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How does a seismometer work?
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Systematically measures the ground motion from an earthquake. Two configurations: One for measuring vertical ground motion and one for measuring horizontal ground motion.
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What is an earthquake record produced by a seismometer called?
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Seismogram
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How do you find the location of an earthquake's epicenter?
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Measure the difference between the time that the P-wave arrives and the time that the S-wave arrives at a seismometer station. (S-P)
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What refers to the effect of an earthquake's ground shaking; What scale measures it?
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Intensity; Modified Mercalli Intensity scale
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What represents the maximum amplitude of ground motion that would be measured by a seismometer during an earthquake? What scale measures it?
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Magnitude; Richter scale
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What kind of seismicity occurs from two oceanic plates forming and moving apart?
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Divergent plate-boundary seismicity
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What kind of seismicity occurs when one plate slides past another without the production of oceanic lithosphere?
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Transform plate-boundary seismicity
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What kind of seismicity occurs when a down going plate begins to subduct and scrapes along the based of the overriding plate?
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Convergent plate-boundary seismicity
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What are some potential hazards from earthquakes?
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Ground shaking, landslides, sediment liquefaction, fire, tsunamis, and disease.
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What kind of deformation uses cracking and breaking of bonds that lead to the formation of a permanent crack which the material no longer connects?
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Brittle Deformation
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What kind of deformation breaks some bonds but has new ones quickly form
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Ductile deformation
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What is commonly referred to as a distortion (changing shape) in rocks?
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Strain
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When a layer of rock becomes longer, it has undergone?
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Shortening
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When a layer of rock has become shorter, it has undergone?
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Shortening
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What factors determine whether deformation is brittle or ductile?
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Temperature, pressure, deformation rate, and composition
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When a Deformation rate has a sudden change in shape it causes ________ deformation; When a Deformation rate has a slow change in shape it causes a ______ deformation.
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Brittle; ductile
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When there is great pressure, Deformation is more?
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Ductile
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Temperature effects Deformation because warmer rocks tend to deform _______ while colder rocks tend to deform _____
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Brittlely; Ductilely
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What is defined as the force applied per unit area of the plane
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stress
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Why does Composition effect Deformation?
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Softer rocks break apart easier
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Faults are classified by what two things?
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Dip of the fault surface and the shear sense across the fault.
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What is the curve in the shape of a rock layer called?
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Fold
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What kind of fold has an arch like shape in which the limbs dip away from the hinge?
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Anticline
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What kind of fold has an arch like shape in which limbs dip toward the hinge?
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Syncline
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What kind of fold has the shape of a carpet over a star step?
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Monocline
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What kind of fold has the shape of an overturned bowl?
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Dome
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What kind of fold is shaped like an upright bowl?
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Basin
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How are mountains formed?
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Convergence, collision, and rifting. During collisions, crust thickens, large thrust faults and folds form, and metamorphism develops. Rifting yields fault block mountains.
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Horizontal compression during collisional orogeny causes the crust to?
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Shorten horizontally and thicken vertically.
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By adding igneous rock to the crust, what does it do?
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Thicken it
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Removal of the lithospheric mantle causes what?
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Rise to maintain isostasy
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What is the balance between the lithosphere being pushed up by buoyancy and down by gravity called?
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Isostasy
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What is the principle that geologic processes today can be observed in the past and will continue in the future called?
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Uniformitarianism
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What is it called when sedimentary layers are deposited horizontally because of gravity?
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Original horizontality
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What is the idea that in a sequence of sedimentary rock layers, each layer must be younger than the one below for a layer of sediment cannon accumulate unless there is already a substrate on which it can collect?
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Superposition
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What is the idea which states that if one geologic features cuts across another, the feature that has been cut is older?
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Cross-cutting relations
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What is the idea which states that sediments generally accumulate in continuous sheets within a given region?
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Lateral continuity
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What is the idea that a rock containing an inclusion must be younger than the inclusion?
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Inclusions
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Which Scottish scientist discovered unconformity?
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Hutton
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What is a fossil assemblage?
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Group of fossil species
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What is the name given to worldwide correlations among similar fossils found together signifying they existed at the same time?
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Fossil succession
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What are the largest subdivisions in Earth history broken up into?
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Eons
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Which first three eons make up the Precambrian Eons together?
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Hadean, Archean, and Proterozoic
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What is the subdivision after the Phanerozoic Eon?
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Eras
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What were the name of the three eras subdivided by the Phanerozoic Eon?
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Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic
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We further divide an era into?
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Periods
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We further divide each period into?
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Epochs
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How can we determine absolute age with radioactive decay?
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Radioactive decay causes a half life. Because an element's half life is constant, we can calculate the age of a mineral by measuring the ratio of parent to daughter isotopes in the mineral.
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What is an Orogeny?
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Collision of two plates (subduction zones)
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The array of interconnecting streams together constitute the _____?
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Drainage network
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What kind of drainage network pattern has rivers flow over a fairly uniform substrate and uniform slope which looks like the pattern of branches?
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Dendritic
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What kind of drainage network pattern has forming on the surface of a cone shaped mountain flow outward from the mountain peaks?
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Radial
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What kind of drainage network pattern has rectangular grid of fractures break up the ground, channels form along fractures, and stream join each other at right angles?
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Rectangular
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What kind of drainage network pattern develops a landscape of parallel valleys and ridges, major tributaries flow down a valley and join a trunk steam that cuts across the ridges?
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Trellis
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What kind of drainage network pattern is on a uniform slope, which has several streams with parallel courses develop simultaneously?
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Parallel
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How can stream discharge be determined?
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At a stream-gauging station, where instruments measure the velocity and depth of water at several points across the stream
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What is a stream discharge?
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Reflects the size of its drainage basin and the climate
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What is the total volume of sediment carried by a stream known as?
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Sedimentary load
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What three components make up a sedimentary load?
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Dissolved load, Suspended load, and Bed load
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Which load consists of large particles that bounce or roll along the stream floor?
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Bed load
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Which load has running water dissolve soluble minerals in the sediment or rock that it flows over into a stream that brings dissolved minerals with it?
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Dissolved load
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Which load usually consists of tiny solid grain that swirl along with water without setting to the floor of the channel?
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Suspended load
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What forms where the gradient of a stream becomes so steep that all the water literally free falls above the steamed?
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Waterfall
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When water slows and drops its sedimentary load, what forms?
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Alluvial fan
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What is it called when a stream divides into numerous strands weaving back and forth?
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Braided stream
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What is a river channel that winds back and forth in a series of snake like curves called?
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Meandering Stream
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What develops when running water of a stream enters standing water?
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Deltas
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What refers to the amount of space between grains/ability of those pore spaces to connect?
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Porosity
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What is a rocks ability to have water flow through it?
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Permeability
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What effects water table levels, ground water mitigation?
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Wells
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What is this event? Ground intersects water table, hills slope, pressure at impermeable barrier, perched water will intersect a hill surface, downward percolating water hits impermeable layer that intersects hill.
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Artisens well
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What pollutant does ground water create?
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Plume
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Unpack snow is 90% air, when does this change?
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When it turns into Firn 25%, but when it turns into glacier possibly 20%
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What are the two main categories of glaciers?
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Mountain and Continental
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What are the types of mountain glaciers?
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Cirque, valley, ice caps, and piedmont
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Describe the ice caps?
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Mounds of ice that submerge peaks and ridges at the crest of a mountain range
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Describe the cirque glaciers?
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Fill bowl shaped depressions
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Describe Valley glaciers?
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Rivers of ice that flow down valleys
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Describe Piedmont glaciers?
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Fans or lobes of ice that form where a valley glacier emerges from a valley and spreads out into the adjacent plain.
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What exist in or adjacent to mountainous region?
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Mountain glaciers
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What are vast ice sheets that spread over thousands of miles of continental crust?
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Continental glaciers
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Where do the only continental glaciers exist?
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Antartica and Greenland
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When the rate at which ice builds up in the zone of accumulation exceeds the rate at which ablation occurs below the equilibrium line, then the toe moves forward into previously unglaciated regions. What is this called?
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Glacial advance
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If the rate of ablation exceeds the rate of accumulation, then the position of the toe moves back towards the origin of the glacier. What is this called?
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Glacial retreat
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As a result of freezing and thawing from a mountain glacier, what bowl shaped depression is formed on the side of the mountain?
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Cirque
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If the ice later melts, a lake called a _____ may form?
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Tarn
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As glaciers flow, clasts embedded in the ice act like teeth and grind away the substrate, this process produced what?
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Glacial striations
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What was created by glaciers?
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Peaks of the Alps,
Half Dome in Yosemite, Glacially polished outcrop in Central Park, and Glacial striations in Victoria. |
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After glaciation, what landforms were created?
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U-shaped valleys, hanging valleys, truncated spurs, and horns
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