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114 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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lithosphere |
crust and outer mantle |
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asthenosphere |
inner mantle
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paleomagnetism
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study of the earth's magnetic field |
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Curie Temperature |
above this temperature minerals lose their magnetic properties |
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Seafloor Spreading hypothesis |
as plates diverge magma comes up onto sea floor and Fe crystals solidify in the direction of the earth's magnetic field |
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continental rifting process |
uplifting, thinning, flooding, seafloor spreading -mantle basically comes through the crust |
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divergent plate boundary |
two plates subduct one another, oceanic crust goes under continental crust because it is denser -associated with volcanic arcs (island or continental) |
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continental-continental convergence |
two crusts come together and form mountains, tectonic activity common because two solid plates are grinding instead of melting/subducting |
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Transform and Strike-Slip Fault Plate Boundaries |
two plates rubbing parallel with eachother, stress builds up and then one plate slips along the other one and causes an earthquake |
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Hot Spot or Mantle Plume |
mafic magma intrusion, like a random pimple of lava |
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UNIT 8- crustal deformations and structural geology |
YOURE JUST GETTING STARTED LETS GOOOOOO |
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deformation |
all changes in orientation and location of a rock |
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stress |
amount of force applied to an area -can be tensional or compressional |
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How rocks Deform |
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Folding or Faulting |
-breaking |
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gradual stress |
earthquake |
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brittle deformation |
shallow depths breaking occurs |
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ductile deformation |
deeper has higher pressure and temperatures which causes re-crystallization -folds |
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plunge |
angle of inclination for a fold |
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anticlines and synclines |
anti bulge up and syn bulge down |
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dipslip fault |
a vertical strikeslip fault with a hanging wall and foot wall -normal movement is hanging wall moves down and reverse movement is foot wall moves up |
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strike |
measure of compass direction |
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dip |
tilt of the rock |
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Law of Superposition |
Older rocks are deeper down, new layers are deposited on top |
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Principle of Original Horizontality |
Rock layers are originally horizontal |
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unconformities |
a gap in the rock layers caused by erosion, deformation, or non-deposition |
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angular uncomformity |
shift of the angle of layers with respect to horizontal plane |
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Disconformity |
period of erosion causing deformation, parallel to strata and hard to identify |
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Nonconformity |
intrusion of a barrier (like igneous rock) seperating rock layers |
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Phanerozoic Era |
stretches from end of Pre-Cambrian to today |
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Paleozoic |
land animals and plant dominance |
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Mesozoic |
land animal and reptile dominance |
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Cenozoic |
mammal dominance |
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mass extinctions separate these eras which are all classified by the dominant species type |
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Principle of Cross Cutting Relationships |
-newer rocks crosscut older rocks (magma cutting across a layer) 1) Sediment Deposits 2)Movement of Fault A 3)Deposition of upper layers 4)Movement of Fault B 5)Intrusion of Baoliths 6)Intrusion of Dikes and Sills |
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UNIT 9- GROUNDWATER AND GLACIATION / OIL |
ALMOST HALFWAY |
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groundwater |
exists in pores and between sediment particles -affected by vegetation, slope steepness, rainfall, and surface cover |
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Water Table |
starts at surface and goes to bottom of ground water saturation |
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Porosity |
amount of pores (open space) within a sediment |
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Permeability |
ability of a sediment layer to allow water to flow - porosity and permeability do not have to be related (lots of small pores = high porosity but low permeability) |
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specific yield |
amount of water that will flow due to gravity |
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specific retention |
amount of water that sticks to rocks and sediment particles |
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Aquifer |
permeable layer allowing water flow |
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Aquitard |
non-permeable layer with no water flow |
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hydraulic gradient |
(height of water at point 1-height of water at point 2)/ distance between them |
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Spring |
natural outflow of groundwater where water table intersects the surface |
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Hot Springs |
-6-9 degrees warmer because of depth, pushed to surface by pressure and temperature -hottub |
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Geysers |
-pressurized hot springs -EXPLOSION |
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Well |
-deep hole to extract water from the water table -draw down effect can dry up nearby wells if this well goes too deep |
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Limestone |
-carves caverns and penetrates into rock over time |
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Stalactites |
formed from water flowing through cavern roof to get to water table, calcium carbonate deposit |
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Stalagmites |
water drips and hits cavern floor depositing calcium carbonate |
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column |
-stalactite and stalagmite meet |
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sinkhole |
formed by limestone eroding rock underneath the soil, cavern can collapse to cause big hole |
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glacier |
-forms from compaction and recrystallization of snow on land |
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ice sheet |
-massive glacier (greenland, arctic, and antartica) |
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ice shelf |
extension of a glacier over water |
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glaciers flow and create icebergs too |
piedmont iceberg= at mountain bottom outflow glacier= normal glacier |
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internal deformation |
ice flows over layers of itself plastically because of weight, requires over 50m of ice formation |
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basal slip |
bottom of glacier slides against ground, water forms from melted ice |
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softbed deformation |
pressure causes glacier to deform the land it sits on and moves it |
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abrasion |
-grinding/erosion of ground against bottom of glacier |
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plucking |
rocks are broken off and carried in the glacier |
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spurs |
-formed by ice moving around a sharp corner |
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glacial striations |
-long scratches on ground from glacier movement |
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UNIT 10- ECONOMIC ORE AND PETROLEUM DEPOSITS |
YOU'RE HALFWAY |
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ORE DEPOSITS |
minerals with economic value -need a source (crust concentrates elements from intrusive magma, or leaching from transportation methods) -transportation and a site of deposition -ore deposits ordered based on density and rate of cooling (fractional crystallization and gravitational settling) |
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immiscibility |
separation of fluid layers |
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alteration zone |
area of rock alteration around an ore deposit (chemically) |
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Gangue |
worthless minerals grown into the ore deposit, need to be removed during processing |
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grade |
-concentration of the ore in the rock (ppm, ppb, grams per tonne) |
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waste |
-rocks that host or contain the ore deposits |
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Igneous Ore deposits |
-higher temp minerals form first -layers form in plutons of lava -form at divergent plate boundaries -bornite, chalcopyrite, millerite |
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kimberlitic magma |
carries diamonds to surface in xenoliths -diamond pipes penetrate continental crust -quick release like a pop bottle |
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Sedimentary Ore Deposits |
placer, aggregate (crushed stone, gravel, sand) and stone, evaporitic (salt water evaporated and precipitated its super saturated elements), petroleum -carried down streams and deposited when they fall out of the suspended load (intrachannel bars) |
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evaporitic minerals |
calcium carbonate, sodium, halite, sylvite -food, de-icing, and fertilizer |
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petroleum |
decaying organic matter pressurized into hydrocarbon stores -100 degrees gives wet gas and 150 gives methane -oil seeps to surface because it's less dense than the surrounding rocks -occurs below water table |
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how is petroleum trapped |
unpermeable layer on top and permeable layer on the bottom |
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structural, stratigraphic, and salt dome traps |
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Hydrothermal Mineral Deposits |
hot water flows through cracks and leaches ore elements -precipitates ores during rapid pressure or temp changes |
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Epithermal and mesothermal gold deposits |
surface to 1500m = epithermal 1500- is mesothermal -lode gold deposits are structurally isolated by faults |
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Skarn and Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) |
alteration to carbonate rocks and influx of hydrothermal fluids -near plutons |
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Volcanic Massive Sulphide (VMS) |
-most common hydrothermal deposit, cool quickly at ocean floor |
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sulphide minerals build up at the vent (smokers) |
-chalcopyrite, bornite, sphalerite, galena, pyrite |
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SEDEX Deposits |
similar to VMS's but sedimentary rocks are involved; not igneous |
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UNIT 11- MINING |
DONT QUIT NOW |
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STAGES OF MINING |
PEDER- prospect, explore, develop, exploit, reclaim |
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Prospecting |
-stake a claim of land, need to have plan (crown land) -encourage subsurface exploration, preserve publics interest, allocates land to companies with good intentions |
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Exploration |
-find mineral deposit so you can plan your mine -chemical, x-ray, spectrographic, and radiometric land evaluations -need to drill for samples geophysical survey= completed by air, look for anomalies |
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Development |
-begins once profitability is ensured -need to complete assessments, consult natives, arrange finances, and acquire water rights -need to build roads, buildings, power sources, transportation methods |
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Exploit |
-recovery of ore, requires a mine engineer |
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Reclamaition |
re-contour and re-vegetate -restore water quality -remove all developments and close mine shafts -restore physical land |
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cutoff grade |
-when mining is no longer economically feasible |
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preliminary economic assessment and then feasibility study |
basic economic evaluation and then in full detail mine plan (for investors) |
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geoscientists qualification |
the APGO- association of professional geoscientists in ontario |
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mineral processing |
turning mineral into higher quality product, smelting, cutting, refining |
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Surface mine |
-common, need wall stability |
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tailings |
areas with finely ground waste rock |
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leach piles |
stacks of ore to be leached by ore solutions to draw out metals |
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drainage and collection ponds |
water used in rock treatment, needs to be filtered before being returned to the environment |
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Underground mine |
complex and expensive, has many components: headframe (holds hoisting equipment), cage, skip (container in shaft to transport ore), decline (slope for underground access), level is where the mining occurs, stope = ore extraction, ore pass = vertical drop so ore is crushed before being skipped to teh surface, and ventilation shafts |
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UNIT 12 - PROCESSING |
THIS IS IT JUST 1 MORE |
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CONCENTRATORS |
processing plant |
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primary crushing |
occurs at bottom of mine shaft before material is skipped to surface |
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grinding |
reduce ore rock to fine sand state -wet process |
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heap-leach methods |
-gold extraction cyanide flows through a huge pile of rock and dissolves metals, solution flows along insoluble polyethylene liner into carbon absorption tanks |
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Froth Floatation |
-recovers base metals -slurry/pulp is mixed with chemicals that cause metals to become hydrophobic, they react with air bubbles and flow up/out of the tank |
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smelting and refining |
-base metal ores shipped to smelters to use heat to produce a raw material |
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sustainable development |
meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future |
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3 pillars of sustainability |
environmental protection, economic growth, and social equity |
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sustainability requires: engagement, people, environment, and economy |
-proactively consult with communities, maintain or improve well being of people affected by the mine, restore environment, improve local economies |
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environmental protection agencies |
USEPA and CEPA |
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acid rock drainage |
-oxidation of sulphide minerals in presence of air, water, bacteria -mining accelerates this natural process |
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reclamation |
recontouring, capping (proper soil cover), reseeding, monitoring |
