GEOLOGY 102
STUDY GUIDE PAGE

EXAM 1

Astronomy

What is our current theory about the origin of the Universe?  What facts support this theory?  What about he origin of the solar System and the facts that support that theory?

Do you understand gravity?

Can you explain where all the elements come from?

Minerals and Rocks

The key words, those in bold face and at the end of the Chapters, make good true/false and multiple choice questions.

Do you know the parts of the atom?  Can you calculate the charge on an ion?  What is an isotope and why is it important to geology, be able to give an example?

Do you know the various families of minerals and their basic building blocks?  Do you know the minerals on the "Y" diagram? They are divided on the basis of color, composition, and weight, can you make that distinction?  The "Y" diagram is also useful in discussing the major types of volcanic eruptions, can you explain that?  Do you know the various physical properties that we use to identify minerals?

Can you explain the rock cycle? 

Do you know the textures that are used to identify the three rock types?  Do you know how we generate magma?  What is the difference between magma and lava?  How can magma evolve?  How does crystallization occur and how does that create the textures for Igneous rocks?

Remember that the rock names and their textures make good matching questions.

The formation of rocks is a process!  We add the names and try to pigeon-hole the various rocks into the names we created.  Can you explain this in relationship to the relationship of Diorite and Granite?  why do we have much more granitic rocks on the continent than we have gabbroic rocks.

MORE TO COME WITH THE NEXT TWO LECTURES.  IF ANY OF THESE DO NOT RING A BELL, BE READY TO ASK ABOUT THEM IN CLASS!!

EXAM 2

Chapter on Global Plate Tectonics

Can you describe the problems that Wegner had in justifying Continental Drift?  What about the information that he had to support this idea?  What is the difference between his idea and Global Plate Tectonics?

How does magnetism help explain our current theory?  What is seafloor spreading?

Do you know the three types of plate boundaries, their earthquake types and volcanic eruption types?  Do you know the stress fields for each?  How about the geographic examples I gave for each?

What is the Ophiolite sequence?  Can you explain hot spots?

Most important, do you understand the process?  Can you work out some predictions that can be made based on this concept and how to test them?

Chapter on Volcanoes

Can you describe the process of a volcanic eruption, including the precursors?  What about the eruptive styles?

Can you describe the types of volcanic mountains created by eruptions and why they are shaped the way they are?  What is the difference between a crater and a caldera and how do they form?

Can you explain viscosity, and how it affects eruptive styles?  What are the factors that affect viscosity?

Can you describe the type of eruption for each hazard, what the hazard is and the mitigation for each?

Can you identify the various plutons formed by igneous activity?

Chapter on Earthquakes

Can you define the key terms for this chapter?  Do you know the different seismic waves that are created, where they are created and how they move?

Can you determine the location of the epicenter?  Why does the time lag work for this calculation?

What is the difference between the various scales for measuring earthquakes?

Can you identify the types of fault movement?

EXAM 3

Chapter on Weathering

Do you know the difference between mechanical (physical) and chemical weathering?  Do you know the different means by which each of the two types of weathering operate?  What is the importance of water in the weathering process?

What are the soil horizons that I put on the board and what happens in each horizon?  What are the differences between pedocals, pedalfers, and laterites?

Chapter on Mass Wasting

Do you know the different forms of mass wasting?  Why is mass wasting important?  Which form causes the most damage without injury?  Which form is most likely to cause injury?  During what time of the year do the various forms of mass wasting occur?

How do we mitigate mass wasting events?  How do we cause mass wasting events?

Chapter on Hydrology

Can you identify the parts of the hydrologic cycle?  How do we affect the humidity of the air?  How do we affect the frequency of flooding?

Can you calculate the discharge?  the gradient?

Can you explain the development of the stream landforms such as point bars, meander neck, cut off, oxbow lake, meander marsh and scar?

Can you identify the three types of deltas based upon their appearance and tell what processes contribute to their shape?  Can you describe the differences between deltas and alluvial fans?

What is the importance of the stream velocity as to whether a stream deposits or erodes sediment?

What are dams used for?  Why does that cause us problems?  What are some of the unintended consequences of building dams?

Chapter on Ground Water

Can you identify the parts of the ground water system, both unconfined and confined?  Do you know the importance of the cone of depression produced when a water well is pumping?

What are the differences between a point source of pollution and a non-point source?  What are the problems associated with the non-point source of pollution.

We are water mining our ground water, taking out more than we put in.  What are some of the problems associated with this activity?

Chapter on Glaciers

What causes glacial ice ages?  What three things are necessary for a glacial ice age?  What causes the advance and retreat of the glacial ice sheet.  How is glacial ice different from the ice in your freezer?

Can you identify the erosional features made by a valley glacier and the depositional features made by an ice sheet?

What are some of the hazards associated with glacial ice, its presence or its absence?

Chapter on Deserts

What causes deserts?  Can you discuss the different causes of the deserts that appear in different latitudes and geographical settings?

Can you identify ;the different types of sand dunes?

What is desert pavement and how does it form?

Plate Tectonics

As I said in class I will have questions on Plate Tectonics on all of the remaining exams.  Be sure you know the geographic examples of the plate boundaries that I gave in class.  Remember the types of volcanoes and earthquakes that occur at each.  Study the Ophiolite Sequence and the causes of the various layers.

EXAM 4

Chapter on Geologic Time

Know the origin of the Solar System and the many bits of information that support this theory.

Can you explain the theory of Natural Selection that Darwin proposed and the 4 observations that he made that support this theory?  What is evolution and has it worked in the past and is it going on today?  How do you know?  What do we mean that evolution is parsimonious? 

Can you use the Laws and Principles of Relative Dating to unravel the sequence of events if I present an outcrop to you?  Can you use the ratios to determine how many half lives have past and how old a sample is if you know the relative amounts of parent and daughter products and the length of time of a half life for that radioactive isotope?

Chapter on Geologic History

Can you tell me about the early history of the Earth, its life forms and feeding strategies?  What are prokaryotes and eukaryotes?  What are stromatolites?

Can you explain the sequence of development of animals from invertebrate to mammal?  What are lobe-finned fish?  What is so important about them?  How do we know the Dimetredon was a mammal-like reptile?  Can you deduce the life habits of an aquatic reptile, such as ichthyosaur?  What was so unusual about the skin of the flying reptiles?  Did they have a color scheme?  what does that imply for other reptiles from the same time period?

We thought that dinosaurs were slow moving, dim witted, cold blooded reptiles.  How has this concept changed and why?  What do we mean by non-avian dinosaurs?  Was archaeopteryx a dinosaur with feathers or a bird with dinosaur characteristics?

What is an extinction event?  What killed the non-avian dinosaurs?  Are dinosaurs alive today?

What is the megafauna?  What were some of the changes that horses and camels underwent during the Cenozoic of North America?  Where did man originate?  Was the development of the genus Homo linear or bushy?  What makes man different?  Why did man develop such a large brain?  What type of grip does man have that is different from other anthropoids?

Chapter on the Ocean Floor

Upon what do we base the layering of the ocean?  Can you describe some of the adaptations that animals have used to live in such inhospitable waters?  What are the parts of the ocean floor?  Do they vary in any organized way as one goes away from or towards the mid ocean ridge system?

Can you tell is an ocean current is fast or slow? warm or cool?  What is thermohaline circulation and why is it important?

Why is the West Coast of North America so different from the East Coast?

Chapter on the Coastal Zone

What are the depositional and erosional landforms of the coastal zone?  How are they formed?

What is the long shore current and how is it formed?  Can you determine the direction of the long shore current from a diagram?  What is so important about sand on the beach?

Can you explain the various types of tides that we have?

Can you explain the purpose and design flaw of the various constructions man places in the surf zone?

Plate Tectonics

As I said in class I will have questions on Plate Tectonics on all of the remaining exams.  Be sure you know the geographic examples of the plate boundaries that I gave in class.  Remember the types of volcanoes and earthquakes that occur at each.  Study the Ophiolite Sequence and the causes of the various layers.

FINAL EXAM

Do you know how many atmospheres the earth has had?  What their composition was?  How they formed?
Be able to explain or identify the temperature layering of the atmosphere, what causes the various layers, what the source of heating is.
How is heat transferred, through a solid, through a liquid, through a vacuum.
Can you explain the Greenhouse Effect?
Can you describe the states of matter?  What are the changes in state?  What occurs at these changes?  Can you calculate the energy involved in these changes?  What is so important about the concept of latent heat?
Can you calculate the Relative Humidity?  Can you explain the controls on Relative Humidity?
A very important concept is that of adiabatic heating and cooling.  Can you explain how and why it occurs?
Can you calculate the temperature at various elevations using the normal lapse rate, the dry adiabatic and the we adiabatic lapse rates?  What is the difference between the two adiabatic lapse rates?  When do you use each of them?
In general terms can you describe the types of clouds?  What cloud type gives the long lasting gentle rainfall?  What cloud type gives the torrential downpour?
Can you explain fog? 
There are two types of precipitation, can you describe the occurrence of each?
Why is there wind?
Can you explain the Coriolis Effect?  Why does it happen?  What does it cause?
Can you draw and indicate the wind directions in the Highs and Lows that occur in the mid latitude belts?
Can you describe or identify the general circulation pattern of Earth's atmosphere?
Can you describe and tell why the local wind patterns develop?
El Nino and La Nina have major impacts on our weather and the weather around the world.  How and why do they form?  What seems to control them?  Can they be predicted and how?
Can you describe the types of air masses, where they form and what changes occur as they move?
What is a front?  What are the types of fronts?  What happens at each of the types of fronts, i.e. weather, cloud pattern, etc?  How are fronts indicated on weather maps?
A mid latitude cyclone has both a warm and a cold front.  As it traverses the United States, these fronts move.  Can you describe or identify the types of weather that occur behind and in front of the fronts as the mid latitude cyclone moves across the country?
Can you identify the three stages of the development of a thunderstorm and tell what kind of rainfall is occurring and the direction of air movement in the cloud.  Can you describe how thunderstorms develop?  What is the difference and why the difference between our thunderstorms and those in Tornado alley?
What is a tornado, where does it develop, why and how does it develop?
Describe a hurricane and the weather that occurs in the various parts of this storm?  What are the dangers presented by a storm such as a hurricane?  What are typhoons?
What is the source of the energy to drive tornadoes and hurricanes?
I will only be concerned about global warming, its consequences and the various feedback mechanisms that affect.

Plate Tectonics

As I said in class I will have questions on Plate Tectonics on all of the remaining exams.  Be sure you know the geographic examples of the plate boundaries that I gave in class.  Be able to identify what type of plate boundary is shown on my maps.  Remember the types of volcanoes and earthquakes that occur at each. 

As always, I will be more than happy to review your cheat sheet for this exam, at any time during the course of the lectures for this exam.  The exam period is longer, and the exam will be commensurately longer as well.  the format will be the same as all of the preceding exams.