“Need-to-Knows” for GEOL 111
Final
This sheet is Not exhaustive - but may be used to get an idea of what I
think is important
Remote Sensing
Know how seismology can be used for exploration
Know and be able to draw P- and
S-wave “shadow zones”
Know the relationship between seismic wave velocity and rock density
Know about phase transitions – discontinuities in mantle
Define Gravity - Isostacy – Bouguer gravity anomaly
Know that gravity changes in response to:
* changes in topography
(elevation or distance from core)
* changes in latitude
(because of the “bulge” at the equator
* changes in rock type
Know what changes in gravity can tell us:
* Locations of
underground ore deposits.
* Locations of
upwelling hot mantle (primarily at
ocean ridges).
* Where plates are
subducting.
Know how Seismology can help identify:
* The interior
structure/composition of Earth
* Location of
Plate Boundaries
* Where to look
for oil and minerals at great depth or within the oceans
* Where
underground atomic explosions have taken place – and how large!
Hydrologic Cycle basics
Types of Base Level - and Ultimate Base Level
Stream Gradient - Discharge - Competence - Capacity
Types of Sediment Loads – Bed (saltation, traction), Suspension, Chemical (dissolved), .... etc.
Flow velocity and velocity profiles of streams and rivers
Floods - Meandering - Braiding - what causes these features/processes
Hjulstroms diagram
Be able to draw a stream profile
and include several cross-sections showing the shape of the channel at the
headwaters, middle and in the flood plain.
Be able to explain where the
competence, capacity and discharge are the highest and lowest – and why.
Be able to draw or explain terms
such as cutbank, point bar, thalweg,
meander, floodplain, etc.
How is groundwater Gained - and Lost
Aquifers and Aquicludes - confined and perched aquifers
Define terms such as: Porosity - Permeability - Cone of Depression - Karst Topography
Zone of Saturation - Water Table - Zone of Aeration - What factors control placement of WT
Darcy's Law - formula; definition; application
Hydraulic Gradient - formula; definition; application
Basic Types of Springs
Types and Sources of potential contamination
Be able to draw a diagram with features such as: Water Table, influent
and effluent streams, springs, well, cone of depression, etc.
Karst
What is “Karst” – and how is it formed?
Features associated with karst landscapes/topography
Compare the processes associated with groundwater purity in
Karst regions to groundwater, say, in
Types and sources of potential groundwater contamination
Definition of a Glacier - Alpine vs Continental Glaciers - and how they're similar and different
Granular snow - Firn - glacial ice
Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA)
ALL types of glacial Movement
Glacial Budgets - Ablation vs Accumulation
Types and Locations of Moraines (Medial, Lateral, Terminal)
Types of Glacial Sediments (Till, types of moraines)
Be able to draw some sort of sketch showing the types of movement, crevasses, ELA, Zones of Accumulation and Ablation, calving and melting areas, moraines
Milankovitch Cycles
What features control these cycles? (i.e. precession, obliquity, eccentricity, etc.)
Draw how these factors combine to
produce positive or negative effects
Know albedo, and “positive feedback loops”
Types of shorelines
How waves are generated - Wave Length - Wave Height - Wave Period - Wave Base level
- be able to correctly label these features on a drawing of
a wave
Refraction - Longshore Currents/Drift
Erosional and Depositional Shoreline features
Artificial (man-made) Solutions to beach erosion (jetties, groins, breakwaters, etc.)
Draw a sketch showing
each of these features; longshore drift using the
movement of a single grain of sand as an example, a baymouth
bar or spit, a barrier island, a groin, show the effect that the groin has on
the development of the shoreline, wave refraction, erosion of headlands
Other/Cumulative Stuff
Basics of Plate
Tectonics/Continental Drift
Types
of plate boundaries
Draw a cross-section of a
subduction zone.
- Include these features: oceanic
slab, mantle wedge, trench, volcanic arc, ascent of magma, areas of contact, regional, hydrothermal metamorphism (Chapter 14)
Draw Bowen’s reaction series
and include: the minerals, the various igneous rocks
Types of volcanoes and
Types of volcanic eruptions
- shields, stratovolcanoes, cinder cones, etc
-
explosive vs. effusive; influence of SiO2,
gas content, etc.
Mechanical vs Chemical Weathering - Define both and know specific
processes for each
What do these
processes do in terms of breaking down rock at Earth's surface?
Sediment Grain
size and associated clastic sedimentary rock rock types/names
Clastic vs Chemical
sedimentary rocks
- Evaporites,
Carbonates, Biochemical, Organic rocks
Sedimentary
environments
Processes of lithification
Metamorphism = Transformation of pre-existing rocks in the
solid state
- caused by heat, pressure, chemically
active fluids, faults, burial, .....etc.
Types and Agents
of metamorphism and metamorphic rocks - including metasomatism
Draw the Barrovian
Zones - Index Minerals -
Isograds
Prograde metamorphism of a pelitic
(clay-rich) rock
(Shale - slate - phyllite - schist - gneiss)
Foliation - and other metamorphic textures
Stream
Gradient - Discharge
- Competence -
Capacity
Types of
Sediment Loads - Bed, Suspension, Chemical, Saltation,
Traction, .... etc.
Porosity -
Permeability - Cone of
Depression - Karst Topography
Zone of
Saturation - Water Table
- Zone of Aeration
Darcy's Law -
formula; definition; application
You
will have to give the geologic history of a cross-section (identify
cross-cutting relationships, superposition, tilting events, etc.) – like the
drawing on Figure 9.8 – or others in the lab book (e.g. Figures 8.9-8.12) – Those of you not taking the lab may pick
up examples in the box on my office door
The
Rock Cycle
- be able to draw a complete version of the
Rock Cycle