GEOL 5 - Historical Geology (with Lab) Exam # 2 Study Guide - Spring 2007 May 1, 2007 Professor: Dr. Alessandro Grippo, Ph.D.   General Information Last Updated  •  April 22, 2007 NOTE: You will ONLY need to bring one Scantron Form 882-E a number 2 pencil an eraser This study guide must be interpreted (literally) as a guide to study and not as a listing of possible questions. It is YOUR responsability to cover the materials listed here on the lecture textbook, the lab textbook and your notes, including those you have taken during the projection of movies, if any. I would also strongly recommend that you peruse your notes for completeness of information: some concepts have been expressed with much more detail in class than are explained on the book, and you are responsible for that; know what the key terms and concepts are (see the list at the end of each chapter on your textbook); exercise with the questions for review also found at the end of each chapter. read the summary at the end of each chapter, try to answer review questions, try to work wiiith others if you find it useful never hesitate to ask me questions in class or during the lab   Study Guide: part 1 - LECTURE Last Updated  •  April 22, 2007 This second midterm focuses, for its lecture part, on four chapters and three apparently unrelated subjects: Biology, Plate Tectonics and Environmental Issues such as Carbon and Oxygen and their importance not only in the present, but also in the past. Connections exist when you think that, for instance, several life forms have modified chemical cycles - think of the increase in the oxygen content in the atmosphere for instance - and that left a trace in rocks that have been exposed thanks to tectonic movements. As always, after studying review the chapter summary at the end of each chapter; try to answer the review questions; try studying with other students in the class if you feel comfortable with that; ask question in class so that everybody can take advantage of explanations Chapter 7 - Evolution and the Fossil Record Know the whole chapter, but in particular: Know the Introduction Know Adaptations Know Charles Darwin's Contribution Read, in order to better understand this chapter, Genes, DNA and Chromosomes (no direct questions on this short paragraph) Read, in order to better understand this chapter, Populations, Species and Speciations; know what speciation is Read, in order to better understand this chapter, Rates of origination; know what evolutionary radiations and adaptive breakthroughs are Know the Molecular Clock and Evolutionary Convergence Know Extinction and Evolutionary Trends Chapter 8 - The Theory of Plate Tectonics Know the whole chapter; expect many questions to come out of this chapter (that has been discussed at least three times between lecture and lab) Know the History of Alfred Wegener's continental drift theory Know about the rise of Plate Tectonics Know about paleomagnetism Know faults and folds (folds are mentioned in Chapter 9 on the textbook but you should have in-depth notes on both faults and folds) Know about faulting and volcanism (seismic and volcanic activity) along Plate Boundaries Know about Plate Movements, including measuring the movement, hot spots, thermal plumes, etc. Chapter 9 - Continental Tectonics and Mountain Chains Know the whole chapter; expect many questions to come out of this chapter too (it has also been discussed, as the previous one, at least three times between lecture and lab) Know about the Rifting of Continents Know about Mountain Building, including examples Know about Suturing of Small Landmasses to Continents (exotic terranes) Know about the Tectonics of Continental Interiors Chapter 10 - Major Chemical Cycles Know the whole chapter Know the Introduction, what the greenhouse effect is, what greenhouse gases are Know about Chemical Reservoirs Know about Carbon Dioxide, Oxygen and Biological Processes Know how Carbon isotopes are used Know the Phanerozoic Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (of course you are supposed to know what the Phanerozoic is from the lab lecture - see below for lab study guide) Know the Feedbacks in the Carbon Cycle Know Oxygen isotopes, Climate and the Water Cycle Know ocean Chemistry and Skeletal Mineralogy Know about Chalk, Ca/Mg ions in the oceans, calcite and aragonite seas   Study Guide: part 2 - LAB Last Updated  •  April 22, 2007 Be prepared to answer questions and resolve exercises in the style of those encountered in the various chapters of the lab manual, particularly for chapters 7, 8 and 9. Chapter 5 - Major Tectonic Settings of Earth History Know the whole chapter Know the difference between cratons and orogens Know where different kinds of sediment settle Know what a molasse and a flysch are Know Walther's Law Know what a facies and a facies association are Know (from previously covered chapters also) the different parts of an ocean basin (shelf, slope, rise, etc.) and what sediment settles there Be able to solve any problem in this chapter Chapter 6 - Sea-Floor Spreading and Plate Tectonics (this chapter needs to be integrated with materials and notes from the lecture) This chapter goes along with chapters 8 and 9 on the lecture textbook; be sure you know the basic math on how to relate distance of the oceanic crust from the ridge, its age, and the rate of spreading of the plate in exam Know the whole chapter Know names and location of the main plates Know what paleomagnetism is Be able to solve any problem in this chapter Chapter 7 - Age Relations and Unconformity This and the next two chapters are fundamental in the study of Historical Geology. Be sure to know everything we covered on these chapters. These materials have already been covered during lecture for the first exam, so you might want to review your old notes Know the whole chapter Know the difference, again, between absolute and relative time Know all of Steno's principles, plus cross-cutting and inclusions Know what unconformities are, what they mean, and all the kinds we encountered Chapter 8 - Rock Units and Time-Rock Units Know the difference between rock units (Formations, etc.), time-rock units (Systems, etc.) and time units (Periods, etc.) Know what a fossil is and what indicates (age, environment, etc.) and its utility for correlation Know what the Standard Geologic Column is Know all the Eons/Eonothems; Eras/Erathems; Periods/Systems: names, rank (for instance, the Cretaceous is part of the Mesozoic, which is part of the Phanerozoic) and relateive age order Know the numerical ages (number) of Eons and Eras boundaries (4.6, 3.8, 2.5 by; 544, 245, 66.4 my - all of these at pages 74 and 75 of the lab manual) Know what a geological section and a type section are Know the difference between relative and absolute age Know the basics of absolute age determination: I will NOT ask you to determine an age, but rather how to do that Know the main couples of parent/daughter isotopes and their utility (for instance, can they be used on rocks or not? which rocks? why? why is Carbon 14 different from the others?) Be prepared to solve a puzzle like that of Fig. 8.5, that you have already practiced in class I will NOT ask you specific questions on the Colorado Plateau or Capitol reef National Monument, except fo generic questions on unconformities (see previous chapter) or which rock types form more resistant cliffs (question 6, page 83) Chapter 9 - Ancient Shorelines Know what paleogegraphy is, and how it is possible to reconstruct is with the aid of isopach maps; what isopach lines are; how an isopach map is different from a facies map Know what a facies is Be sure to understand how a map such as that of fig. 9.1 page 85 works and to know the answer to, among others, question 2 on the same page Know what transgression and regression are Know what Walther's Law says Know what formations and groups are (rock units, or lithostratigraphic units; see also lab manual chapter 8 and your textbook) Chapter 10 - Fossils and Their Living Relatives (part 1: Protists) Know what a fossil is Know how fossils are preserved Know about classification an nomenclature Know Fossil and Living Protista: their distribution (Fig. 10.5 page 96) and Coccolithophores, Diatoms, Foraminifers, Radiolaria. We have discussed these four groups when we talked about b>pelagic limestones and cherts; in here you will find additional information Go back to the home page Go back to the spring 2007 page