Exam Three Study Guide

Found in the Appalachian Region, the Juniata Formation extends from central-southern Pennsylvania to Tennessee (Davies 2010). Though the thickness of the Juniata Formation is far from constant across its lateral extent, it is approximately 2000 feet thick in northern Pennsylvannia and thins towards the southwest (Crowder 1980). Named for the Juniata River running through southern Pennsylvania, this formation consists of sediments from the Taconic Orogeny in the late Ordovician period (Crowder 1980). Figure one displays the characteristic layers of alternating red sandstones and shales, which are divided into three distinct units (Darton

Two new species of horned dinosaurs have been found in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Southern Utah. The bigger of the two new dinosaurs, Utahceratops gettyi, had a skull 2.3 meter (around 7 feet) long. The first part of the name combines the origin of the find and ceratops, Greek for “horned face”. The second part of the name honors Mike Getty, the paleontology

The Lynne deposit lies within the early Proterozoic Penokean fold belt of the southern province of the Precambrian Shield. The fold belt is divided into two major terranes in Wisconsin (Sims 1989). The first is the northern Penokean terrane, which contains major oxide facies iron formations and granitic intrusions (DeMatties 1989). The second major terrane, separated from the Penokean terrane by the Niagara fault zone, is the Wisconsin magmatic terrane, characterized by a volcanic island arc-basin assemblage (Sims 1989). This southern terrane lacks major oxide facies iron formations, but contains abundant tonalite-granite intrusions (DeMatties 1989). The Wisconsin magmatic terrane is further subdivided into the northern Pembine-Wausau terrane and the southern Marshfield terrane, which are separated by the Eau Pleine shear zone, a north-dipping subduction zone (Sims 1989).

The book RISING FROM THE PLAINS (1986) talks about how the Rocky Mountains had developed in Wyoming, McPhee was accompanied by David Love during this book. It was the first of the books “Annals of the Formal World” that talked about the effects of human beings, and how it complicates science. The book concentrates on how different parts of geology directly affects

One of the major things noticeable from the cross section is that quite a few of the rock layers are over turned, where the older rock layers are above the newer rock layers. This is seen in the contact between the Quartz Monzonite of Papoose Flat and the Campito Formation which is also a disconformity. Next there is some fault zones separating the Camptio, Poleta, and Harkless formations. We then see some more overturned layers with the contacts between Saline Spring Valley Formation (lower and upper members) above the Mule Spring Formation along with some inferred folding. With a normal fault separating the inferred folding event, we see where the overturning occurs. In between the Cambrian layers we see Tertiary Basalt nonconformities also being folded, thus with that we know that the folding event was more recent than the formation of the Basalt. Next there is a large Basalt field with a spot of the Harkless formation. Again we see over tuning as the Basalt field ends there are the Devonian and Mississippian rock Layers on top of the basalt. Separating these overturned layers from the Harkless Formation and the Saline valley Formation (upper member), which are not overturned, is a thrust fault. From this information, there was a major stress event sometime after the Tertiary period causing the rock layers to fold and overturn. And from this stress event and from the folding, normal and thrust faults are formed. Finally we see that there were alluvial and landslide deposits from the Quaternary after the folding, faulting, and over

Powerful forces of the earth cause a landmass to slide under the water. The hot water from the floor of the ocean then melted the rock from the land, forming granite rocks (U.S. Department of the Interior). Mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary rock are scattered through Sierra Nevada Batholith, which covered most of the park during the Jurassic and Cretaceous times (Harris). Weathering and the batholithic makeup impact the exterior of the landforms within these national parks. Yosemite National Park has a very similar geological history compared to the Sequoia and King Canyon National parks, due to the fact that they all lie in the Sierra Nevada’s peak and western slopes (Harris). When it comes to lithospheric extension in the Death Valley Region, during the time of rapid growth, the plates in this region rapidly expanded. In the region of the Sequoia and King Canyon national park the plates did not expand rapidly, thus indicating that more extension occurred in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon region (Jones). Under the surface, there are many marble caves that are endemic to the area (U.S. Department of the Interior). It is clear that natural forces like these have the ability to create beautiful and interesting geology. The description of the tectonic plates would be an ocean continent subduction zone (U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey). This occurs because of the above process. A specific rock located in the national park is the Moro Rock. Moro rock is a large granite rock that is shaped like a dome. It was made by the process of exfoliation that has to do with the layers of granite expanding over time (U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey). The exfoliation process creates many of the rock features located in the park. This exfoliation process is the same one that creates many of

The land rose up and created a precipitous eastern edge of the batholith and a gentle western edge. 10 million years ago, uplift, which is the vertical rise of Earth’s surface due to natural causes, started to occur and accelerated quickly. Soon, the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range that we know today towered 14,000 feet in elevation. Throughout uplift, cracks formed in the granite of the mountains. They formed due to the pressure that came with the uplift. The erosion that stripped away most of the overlying rocks caused the remaining rock to expand and crack. These cracks are still forming today and they provide a template for future erosion.

Weathering, geologic processes such as erosion, and climatic shifts allow for this immense desert ecosystem to continually evolve and change which has taken place for millions of years. This geologically wealthy environment is composed of alternating flat-lying layers of soft and hard deposits of mostly sedimentary rocks. Interchanging slopes and cliffs along the landscape helped form these layers of rock which can be seen fully exposed in areas of the mesa. Deposition of this landscape mainly occurred during the Permian, Pennsylvanian, Triassic and Jurassic time periods. The assortment of warm hues of sandstone were produced by varying levels of iron oxide minerals during formation.

The first deformation event (D1) resulted in folding of volcanic rocks in the Wabigoon and Wawa subprovinces (Hooper and Ojakangas, 1971; Hudleston, 1976; Hudleston et al., 1987; Jirsa et al., 1992) and locally within the Quetico subprovince (Bauer, 1985b). Most D1 folds in the Wawa terrane in MN rarely display axial-planar cleavage, with Bauer (1985b), Hooper and Ojakangas (1971), Hudleston (1976), and Jirsa et al. (1992) having identified cleavage (S1) development locally in the Vermillion greenstone belt (Peterson, 2001). In the Wabigoon terrane, D1 resulted in recumbent folding that overturned the stratigraphic sequence and the first regional schistosity (Poulsen et al., 1980). S1 is generally subparallel to the layering in the metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks, and a gneissic foliation attributed to D1 is well developed in gneissic domes (Czeck and Poulsen, 2010). Although D1 likely created significant thrust or oblique faulting, direct evidence

The Arkoma Basin is one of several foreland basins that formed along the Ouachita Orogenic Belt during the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian time periods. It covers approximately 33,800 square miles and extends from southeastern Oklahoma to central Arkansas (Perry, 1997). The Arkoma Basin is bounded to the north by the Ozark Uplift, to the south by the Ouachita Mountains, to the northwest by the Anadarko Basin, to the southwest by the Arbuckle Uplift, and to the southeast by the Mississippian Embayment (Figure 5). The red box in figure 5 denotes the general location of the study area, which is in the eastern Arkoma section.

However, Hildebrand, (2009, 2013) affiliate the pre Cretaceous rocks, particularly the Neoproterozoic rocks crops out in central and east Utah, to the microcontinent Rubia, but such interpretation needs translation of rocks for a very long

The Slave Structural Province is a unique and distinctive Archean craton in the northwest Canadian Shied, which is indicated by its rock types, deposits and structures (Padgham,1992). The Slave province covers much smaller than (1/10) that of Superior Province, which is about 213 000 km2. The supracrustals (33% of Slave province) consist of 70-80% of greywacke- mudstone and approximately 20% of volcanic rocks, which is high in SiO2 (felsic to intermediate) (Padgham,1992). There are abundant mineral deposits in the Slave Province: gold deposits, rare-element-rich pegmatite and zinc-lead-silver-concentrated volcanogenic massive sulfides (VMS), which differ from the high contents of copper-zinc-gold in the Superior Province (Padgham & Fyson, 1992).

One piece of this history is the subsurface Paleozoic rocks. Paleozoic rocks are for the most part hidden in the Park despite being in the Colorado Plateau, which is likely due to both erosion, and it being buried in other various rocks. Next is the deposition of the Moenkopi Formation during the early Triassic time period. When North America was still apart of Pangea, the area that was the Colorado Plateau was located within close range of the Equator. 300-600 feet of sand and mud were accumulated during this time, with marine life being included which tells Geologists that the sea sometimes was in the area. The climate at the time was warm, with varying times of humid and dry spells. There is very few beds of the Moenkopi Formation left in the area once again due to erosion. Third is the deposition of the Shinarump Member of the Chinle Formation. This basal conglomerate was deposited on top of the Moenkopi Formation. It is made up of gravel and sand, which indicates that there was water depositing it. The Shinarump Member also averages between 35-50 feet thick. Next in the geological history is the deposition of Chinle beds later in the Triassic time period. When the sea regressed to the west of the area, a large plain was left behind. As the climate changed, so did the environment. Soon grasslands and marshes began to form in the area. During this time hundreds of feet of shaly material accumulated which formed both the Lower Petrified Forest Member and the Upper Petrified Forest Member. In some parts, these two members are separated by the Sonsela Sandstone Member, composed of the most petrified wood compared to all other rock units featured in the Park. The Owl Rock Member is at the top of the Chinle Formation, and completes it. Near the end of the Triassic time period, tectonic activity was occurring heavily in the Arizona basin. In the western sea at this time a chain of volcanoes erupted,

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are a structurally complex block having a Precambrian igneous core that is bounded by major, high-angle reverse faults and highly contorted, steeply dipping to overturned sedimentary beds of Paleozoic and Mesozoic age. The range resulted from uplift and eastward thrusting during the Laramide orogeny commencing in Late Cretaceous time and continuing intermittently to possibly late Tertiary time (Wanek and Read, 1956).

The Natural History Museum of Utah opened the doors of it’s new, highly acclaimed collections in 2011. It is roundly considered to be one of the best museums of its kind in the whole country. Just outside its doors you will find the more than one hundred acres of gardens and trails that make up the Red Butte Garden and Arboretum natural area. This unspoiled stretch of Wasatch foothills is an excellent place to quietly commune with nature, unless you happen to visit during the outdoor concert series, which attracts top national and