Alessandro Grippo, Ph.D. Images, notes and labs Images Notes Labs   images Last Updated  •  April 27, 2022     These texts and images, far from being a complete analysis of the subject, are meant to integrate the lectures, the labs and any other kind of information pertinent to our Geology classes. Minerals and Rocks A simple list of the most important Minerals and their chemical composition in the study of igneous rocks An elementary guide to the identification of Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks (illustrated) Go directly to the Igneous Rocks page Go directly to the Sedimentary Rocks page Go directly to the Metamorphic Rocks page Thin Sections: a look at rocks under the microscope The digital archives of the Perkins Geology Museum at the University of Vermont: a wide variety of Rocks, Minerals, Fossils and Thin Sections, illustrated Volcanoes: a simple comparisons of the three main kinds of volcanic buildings Biology and Paleontology Protists: a gallery of phytoplanktonic and zooplanktonic organisms (University of California, Berkeley) Protists: an even more complete gallery of phytoplanktonic and zooplanktonic organisms (University College London) Phyla: a general overview of all Living Organisms from the Tree of Life web project A description and a few illustrations of Lower Plants Phyla: the different forms of life in Animals , illustrated (PBS) Fossilization: examples from Humans Digital Paleobiology uses advanced techniques to reveal fossils details that would otherwise go unnoticed: Synchrotron Light is used to "see" through opaque materials, such as amber, without having to destroy to them. (BBC) Sedimentology and Stratigraphy Sedimentary Structures and Colors Lab notes on Sandstones (includes definitions of sorting, rounding, and sphericity) Lab notes on Carbonates A few, illustrated concepts of Stratigraphy (includes, among others, the concept of C.C.D.) Unconformities Oceanography Perpetual Ocean: a NASA video about Ocean Currents in motion over a 2-years period Draining the Ocean Basin, a video from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (UC San Diego) Structural Geology, Plate Tectonics and Paleogeography Folds and Faults (work in progress) The Paleomap Project of Christopher R. Scotese. This projects illustrates the plate tectonic development of the ocean basins and continents, as well as the changing distribution of land and sea during the past 1100 million years The following link will take you to the web page of Dr. Ron Blakey, Professor of Geology at Northern Arizona University. Dr. Blakey set up a series of fascinating illustrations about plate tectonics that he called "Views of the ancient Earth". These illustrations can be of enormous help in understanding the ancient geography and tectonics of our planet. Please keep in mind that this is an external link, and Dr. Blakey is showing some maps as samples in order to sell them. I am not responsible for its contents. I will not ask any question in my exams or quizzes out of this page, but I strongly encourage you all to browse and peruse the wonderful illustrations: the Paleogeography and the Geologic History of Earth Once on Dr. Blakey's page you can choose your area of interest: Global Earth, Europe, North America, details of the Western Interior Seaway, details of the American Southwest, details of the Greater Permian Basin of New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. Within every single set, choose your time period and, once you find your map, click on it and it will be enlarged. Scales in Space and Time A NASA interactive image about The Scale of the Universe, from a Planck Length (10-35 m) to the size of the Universe (1027 m) An old (1977), classic video about scale: Powers of Ten UC Berkeley's Walter Alvarez project: ChronoZoom, the Universe as a Timeline, or a visualization of Big History.   notes and powerpoints Last Updated  •  May 30, 2022       These notes and powerpoint are meant to integrate the lectures, the labs and any other kind of information pertinent to our Geology classes. Introduction to Geology and Plate Tectonics Powerpoints Introduction (Geology 1 and Geology 4, Physical Geology) Introduction (Geology 5, Earth History) Introduction (Geology 31, Oceanography) Plate Tectonics, part 1: Earth's structures and Foundations Plate Tectonics, part 2: from Continental Drift to Plate Tectonics Plate Tectonics, part 3: Plate Boundaries, Hot Spots, and Mechanisms Minerals and Rocks Powerpoints Introduction to Minerals Basic Chemistry for Geology Mineral Properties and Identification Gemstones Introduction to Rocks and the Rock Cycle Intrusive Igneous Rocks and Plutonism Extrusive Igneous Rocks and Volcanism Weathering and Soils Clastic Sediments: Textures Clastic Sedimentary Rocks Chemical Sedimentary Rocks: Introduction; Phosphorites and Carbon-Rich Rocks Chemical Sedimentary Rocks: Ironstones Chemical Sedimentary Rocks: Evaporites Chemical Sedimentary Rocks: Carbonates, part 1: Introduction; Authigenic (Inorganic) Carbonates Chemical Sedimentary Rocks: Carbonates, part 2: Shallow Water Biochemical and Bioclastic Carbonates Chemical Sedimentary Rocks: Carbonates, part 3, and Cherts: Deep Water Biochemical and Bioclastic Carbonates; Cherts Sedimentary Structures, Provenance, and Sediment Color, with an introduction to Sedimentary Environments Metamorphic Rocks Relative Time: Basic Principles of Stratigraphy Facies and Sea-Level Changes Numerical Time Oceanography The ocean wild like an organ played, The seaweed’s wove its strands, The crashin’ waves like cymbals clashed, Against the rocks and sands Bob Dylan, Lay Down Your Weary Tune Notes and Illustrations part 1: the oxygen minimum and deep-water circulation Powerpoints Chapter 1: Introduction to Planet "Earth" Chapter 2, part 1: Plate Tectonics (Earth's structures and Foundations) Chapter 2, part 2: Plate Tectonics (from Continental Drift to Plate Tectonics) Chapter 2, part 3: Plate Tectonics (Plate Boundaries, Hot Spots, and Mechanisms) Chapter 3: Marine Provinces Chapter 4, part 1: Marine Sediments Chapter 4, part 2: Marine Sediments Chapter 5, part 1: Water and Seawater Chapter 5: part 2: Water and Seawater Chapter 6: Air-Sea Interaction Chapter 7: Ocean Circulation Chapter 8: Waves and Water Dynamics Chapter 9: Tides Chapter 10, part 1: Beaches, Shoreline Processes, and the Coastal Ocean Chapter 10, part 2: Beaches, Shoreline Processes, and the Coastal Ocean Chapter 10, part 3: Beaches, Shoreline Processes, and the Coastal Ocean Chapter 10, part 4: Beaches, Shoreline Processes, and the Coastal Ocean Chapter 10, part 5: Beaches, Shoreline Processes, and the Coastal Ocean Chapter 10, part 6: Beaches, Shoreline Processes, and the Coastal Ocean Chapter 11, part 1: Marine Pollution Chapter 11, part 2: Marine Pollution Chapter 12, part 1: Marine Life and the Marine Environment Chapter 12, part 2: Marine Life and the Marine Environment Chapter 13, part 1: Biological Productivity and Energy Transfer Chapter 13, part 2: Biological Productivity and Energy Transfer Chapter 13, part 3: Biological Productivity and Energy Transfer Chapter 14: Animals of the Pelagic Environment Chapter 15: Animals of the Benthic Environment Paleontology, Biology and Evolution Notes and Illustrations Paleontology 1: an introduction Paleontology 2: modes of fossilization and taphonomy Paleontology 3: taxonomy and clades Paleontology 4: diversity and paleoecology Bacteria: a few basic notes Revenge of the bacteria: a video that shows how bacteria react to our aggressive approach towards them Evolution and the fossil record: a summary of chapter 7 Powerpoints Paleontology and Life, part 1 Paleontology and Life, part 2 Paleontology and Life, part 3 (includes coccolithophorids, forams, diatoms, and radiolarians) Paleontology and Life, part 4 Environments and Life, part 1, introduction Environments and Life, part 2, the Atmosphere Environments and Life, part 3, the Terrestrial Realm Environments and Life, part 4, the Marine Realm Sedimentology Notes and Illustrations part 1: texture of clastic sedimentary rocks (sandstones) part 2: texture of chemical sedimentary rocks (carbonates) Powerpoints Sedimentary Structures Carbonates, a quick summary Chalk and Cherts, a quick summary Sedimentary Rocks under the Microscope, Sandstones and Carbonate textures: a quick summary Stratigraphy Notes and Illustrations part 1: introduction part 2: geochronology, geochronometry and chronostratigraphy part 3: deep time and the names of chronostratigraphic units part 4: lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy part 5: geomagnetism and magnetostratigraphy part 6: event stratigraphy, seismic stratigraphy, geophysical logs and coring operations part 7: sea-level change, sedimentary basins, sequence stratigraphy, cyclostratigraphy Powerpoints History of Stratigraphy Basic Principles of Stratigraphy Facies and Sea-Level Changes Main Stratigraphic Units Magnetic Stratigraphy Event Stratigraphy Seismic and Sequence Stratigraphy Cyclostratigraphy Numerical Time Structural Geology and Tectonics Notes and Illustrations part 1: introduction and types of deformation part 2: attitudes: strike and dip; magnetic declination part 3: geologic structures: fractures and joints part 4: geologic structures: folds (under construction) part 5: geologic structures: faults (under construction) Powerpoints Structural Geology and Tectonics Canadian Shield and Platform Tectonic Settings these notes are not available yet Earth History Recent studies seem to indicate that Earth was not as hot as we thought during the Hadean. An article by Michelle Hopkins, Mark Harrison and Craig Manning, all at the University of California, Los Angeles, points out how certain zircons, dated at 4.02-4.19 billion years ago, could have formed only in an environment similar to present-day convergent margins. This implies that, contrarily to what we thought, plates must have already existed by that time, and that they were already subducting. Read more about this by clicking the following two links: the first will take you to an abstract of the scientific article that appeared on Nature on November 27, 2008; the second a broader and more general article that appeared on the New York Times on December 1, 2008. Low heat flow inferred from >4 Gyr zircons suggests Hadean plate boundary interactions: the abstract of the Nature article A New Picture of the Early Earth: the article from the New York Times Physical Geology These materials are for Geology 1 and Geology 4 only. Superposed Streams (from the textbook 10th edition)   Labs and assignments Last Updated  •  May 30, 2022    A     W A R N I N G    T O     S T U D E N T S     F R O M     O T H E R     C O L L E G E S Not long ago, students from a North Carolina community college and other institutions in places as exotic as New Jersey and New York have been using materials from this section in order to cheat on their lab quizzes. Apparently the situation was so bad that their instructors were not able to handle the situation and control their classes anymore, and their chair felt the need to write me and "tell" me to take these materials down. The situation repeated itself in October 2016, when some unidentified person from a small school in Ohio sent me a generic message asking me to take down my keys. It seems useful to remind these students and their instructors that these materials are answers that I provide to my students. They are not taken from any text and they are there to help my students. They will be available when necessary for my students and taken down when appropriate. Again, these materials are intended uniquely for Santa Monica College students. While the general public is more than welcome to browse these pages, ANY non-authorized use of their content is illegal and prohibited. Only those Santa Monica College students who are enrolled in the class for which these links are provided, at the moment in which they are provided, are authorized to use these materials. Any other use is, again, illegal. These materials are copyrighted. Please check again what it says on this page for further information. You are responsible for your actions! If you are not one of my students at Santa Monica College and you click on the following links, or you access the relative pages in ANY other way, you are breaking the law and you accept full legal responsibility for your actions. A     W A R N I N G    T O     S T U D E N T S     F R O M     S A N T A    M O N I C A     C O L L E G E These lab keys are for you to review AFTER you worked on your lab. Do no copy from them, do not look them up on the server or on a cached page. Do not cheat on these labs. Geology 1: Physical Geology Rock identification charts that will be used on exams: Igneous rocks identification chart Sedimentary rocks identification chart Metamorphic rocks identification chart Geology 5: Earth History with Lab I am teaching this class during Spring 20210 Sedimentary Rocks under the Microscope: a key to Lab 3 (available since April 8, 2021) Ancient Sedimentary Environments: a key to Lab 4 (available since April 8, 2021) Major Tectonic Settings of Earth History: a key to Lab 5, (available since April 8, 2021) Geology 31: Oceanography I am teaching this class during Spring 2021 Geology 35: Field Geology I am not teaching this class during this or the next semester   Cradle of Life Last Updated  •  December 7, 2012     Cradle Of Life will help you to improve the comprehension and the sense of what we are doing in the classroom and in the lab: we will be reading, through the words of a UCLA research scientists, what it means to go through the process of scientific inquiry, with its several steps, errors and wrong directions. This process is at the base of scientific discovery. There is a direct link between the materials on Cradle Of Life and those on Stanley's Earth System History. You will slowly discover during the course of the semester how Cradle of Life can be a fascinating companion to our lectures. You will be quizzed on a weekly basis on the reading assignments from Schopf's book. I will be adding web pages (links will be listed below) for most of the book's chapters. In these pages I will summarize the type of information you need to get out of Cradle Of Life chapters. I will probably NOT give you guides of this kind for all of the chapters. I would strongly recommend that you read the information on the backcover of the book and browse its Table of Contents before reading the first assignment. Take a look at the chapters' layout right from the start. It will give you an idea of what the book is about and what thread keeps it together. It will ultimately set the right tone for a better understanding of the material. Since you will be reading these materials on your own, my suggestion is that, for every assigned chapter, read the introduction, preview the text and browse the figures, then go to the conclusions at the end. It will take you 10-15 minutes. At this point, start over and study the whole chapter. If you think it will be enough to read a single chapter just once, or to briefly review it before the quiz, you will soon realize that it will not work. You need to know the materials well. Back to Top | Back to Home Page © Alessandro Grippo since 1994, in Los Angeles, California