Study Guide for Midterm (Geology of NP)

Geology is a ?

Science

Geology is a science just like what other two subjects?

Chemistry and Physics

what does the Greek word “geo” mean?

Earth

What does the Greek word “logia” mean?

study of

Geologists use what type of methods?

Scientific Methods

What is the scientific method used for?

To find answers to questions and solutions to problems.

How do scientists gather data?

Observations/experiments

Who was the first Superintendent of Parks?

Stephen Tyng Mather

What does the National Park Service do?

Created and protected by the government

What was Grant’s initial motivation behind the national parks?

“Pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

On March 1, 1872, President Grant authorized the first national park called?

Yellowstone

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the _____________ __________ into law.

Antiquities Act

What are the three managements and maintenance shared across 3 governmental departments?

• Dept of Interior

• Dept of Agriculture

• Dept of War

Whats another name for time units?

geochronologic units

Which era does the quaternary period belong to?

B. Cenozoic

Which era does the jurassic period belong to?

C. Mesozoic

Which era does the quaternary period belong to?

A. Paleozoic

What is an atomsphere?

envelop of gas surrounds the planet

What is a hydrosphere?

Oceans, surface water on land, and groundwater

Hydrosphere covers about _____% of the surface and ________% of the land.

70% ; 30%

What is a biosphere?

all living organism

What is a geosphere?

solid earth, from the surface to the center

What are the main components of Earth’s atmosphere and their percentages?

Nitrogen: 78.08% ; oxygen: 20.95% ; Other gases: 0.97%

Name the three diff parts of earth’s interior?

core mantle, crust

Rank Earth’s interior from most dense to less dense.

Core, Mantle, Crust

What two components is the lithosphere composed of?

The crust and upper mantle

Most rocks on Earth contain?

silica

What’s a unified theory?

Study the dynamic creation, movement, and destruction processes of plates

What are plates?

Fragments of lithosphere

What are plate boundaries?

defined by the areas of concentrated seismic and volcanic activities, rifts, faults, and mountain ridges

What are three different types of plate boundaries?

Divergent, convergent, and transform

What do divergent plates do?

Move away from each

What do convergent plates do?

Move towards each other

What do transform plates do?

move sideways past each other

What events occur during divergent plate boundaries?

• Mid-Ocean Ridge

• Continental Rift

• Earthquakes

• Volcanism

What events occur during convergent plate boundaries?

• Ocean Trench

• Mountain Range

• Earthquakes

• Volcanos

What events occur during transform plate boundaries?

• Transform fault

• Earthquakes

What types of lithospheres do divergent plate boundaries have?

• ocean-ocean

• continent-continent

What types of lithospheres do convergent plate boundaries have?

• ocean-ocean

• ocean-continent

• continent-continent

What types of lithospheres do transform plate boundaries have?

• ocean

• continent

What is a trench?

Subducting lithosphere

The unifying theory of geology is?

Plate tectonics

The unifying theory of geology is linkage to two ideas which are?

Continental Drift and Sea Floor Spreading

Wegener hypothesized that the continents used to fit tg as a single supercontinent named

Pangaea

What is the pangaea?

all land, unified super-continent

Pangaea consisted of a northern landmass called ________ and a southern landmass called ____________ .

Laurasia ; Gondwana

What are the 5 pieces of evidence used to support continental drift?

• Matched fit of continents

• Radiating glacial patterns

• Climate belts

• Fossil distributions

• Matching geologic units

The ______ glacial deposits called till and striations are found in regions where glaciers do not occurs today.

Permian

Which type of rocks preserve evidence of ancient climate belts?

Late Paleozoic rocks

These types of organisms occur on many of the southern continents

Mesozoic fossil organisms

What is the remanent magnetism in ancient rocks?

Paleomagnetism

What revied interest in the continental drift?

Paleomagnetic studies

Earth’s magnetic field is probably due to the?

Movement of molten iron

Where is the movement of molten iron located?

Earth’s outer core

Seafloor is not a single what?

static piece

Spreading centers (___________ _______) where new crust is formed and seafloor spreads

Mid-ocean rirdges

The age of seafloor rocks get progressively _________ toward the mid-oceanic ridge.

younger

The thickness of seafloor sediments get progressively ___________ toward the ridge

thinner

Mantle heat probably results from

radioactive decay

A ridge push develops by what?

gravitational energy

During a slab pull, the old oceanic lithosphere becomes more ________ than the underlying atomsphere?

dense

Which geologist led an expedition by boat down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869?

John Wesley Powell

When was the Grand Canyon established as a national park?

February 26, 1919

The Grand Canyon is over how many miles deep?

1 mile deep

The Grand canyon exposes a record of two ______ of geological time.

eons

Two sequences of ____________ rocks record early mountain-building

Precambrian

The ___________ River carries tons of sediments past any point each day.

Colorado

What is discharge?

The volume of water carried by a river

What is a sediment load?

how much sediment a river can carry

What is a bed load?

Made up of coarser sands and gravels

Colorado Plateau has undergone a long series rapid uplifts since the end of what time?

Mesozoic time

When did the Gulf of Cali open?

6 million years ago

The sequences of rocks of the Grand Canyon range in age from?

Proterozoic to Permian

What are mappable rock layers of distinct and recognizable rocks?

Formations

What is a stratigraphic column?

Useful representation to describe the vertical location of rock units

Name the rocks of the Grand Canyon from oldest to youngest:

• Vishnu Basement Rocks

• Grand Canyon Supergroup

• Layered Paleozoic

Which rocks consist of all the crystalline rocks?

Vishnu Basement Rocks

Mountain building about 725 million years ago tilted and lifted these rocks

Grand Canyon Supergroup

The Grand Canyon supergroup consits of two man groups of rocks:

• The older Unkar Group

• the younger Chuar Group

These rocks include 3,000 to 5,000 ft of flat-lying sedimentary rocks

Layered Paleozoic rocks

What is the Mesozoic Era also known as?

The Age of Dinosaurs

What is the Cenozoic Era also known as?

The Age of Mammals

What is a mineral?

Naturally occurring crystalline solid with a definite chemical composition

These are made up of grains of 1+ varities of minerals

Rocks

Igneous rocks are:

• cool from magma

• cool from lava

Sedimentary rocks:

• formed from preexisting rocks

• Loose sediment are lithified to make up sedimentary rocks

Metamorphic rocks are:

• Altered so much by burial, heat, and chemical fluids that they acquire a new rock identity

Molten rock material is also called

Magma

What’s another name for magma?

Lava

What is the definition of rock texture?

the grain size of component minerals ranging from extremely fine to extremely coarse.

Which type of igneous rocks have a fine-grained texture with crystals too small to be seen by the regular eye?

Extrusive igneous rocks

Which type of igneous rocks tend to have a coarse-grained texture?

Intrusive igneous rocks

What is obsidian?

A rock that cools so quickly that no crystals have time to form, instead it becomes a natural glass

What is a pluton? Which type of rocks have this feature?

A body of cooled magma ; Igneous

What are dikes?

Igneous rocks that show up as dark ribbons or bands cutting through old sedimentary beds.

What are sills?

Igenous rocks that are squeezed between rock layers

Where does volcanic ash come from?

thrown out from small cinder cones on the canyon rim

Sedimentary rocks go through what type of processes?

• Weathering

• Erosion

• Transportation

• Decomposition

• Cementation

• Lithification

What is decomposition of rocks?

chemical alteration by the addition or subtraction of various substances