Geology 1 Lectures

Geology 1 Lectures
textbook chapters refer to 'Earth', 8th edition, by Tarbuck and Lutgens
Lecture order below from Spring 2006

'Intro to Geology and the Earth' (Ch 1)

• What is Geology?
• What areas are sub-topics of Geology?
• Where can a geologist get a job?
• What is the scope of this class?  (what will be covered this term?)
• Slides 
  • a pictorial overview of the course material for the entire term
  • introducing the concepts of perspective and scale
    and how to tell whether a picture/photo
    is from a satellite or is an aerial photo
    or is from some other source
  • recognition of infrared photos and what info they offer
• Basic Features of the Earth
  • tilt of the Earth and it's relation to the seasons
  • size of the Earth
    • circumference
    • radius
  • intro to the atmosphere
    • thickness
    • in comparison with size of earth
    • composition
  • intro to the oceans
    • how many?
    • ocean vs. a sea?
    • the oceans cover what % of the surface of the Earth?
    • how deep?
  • inside the Earth
    • crust, mantle, core
• Formation of the Earth
  • The Big Bang
  • evidence?
  • Theory vs. Fact?
  • the nebular hypothesis
  • formation of the solar system, the planets and the Earth
  • cooling history of the Earth
  • formation of the core, crust, atmosphere and oceans
• A slightly more detailed look at the layers inside the Earth
  • crust
  • mantle
    • upper mantle
    • lithosphere
    • middle mantle, asthenosphere
    • lower mantle (mesosphere)
  • core
    • outer core
    • inner core
  • How do we know anything about the interior of the Earth?
    • What is the deepest hole ever drilled?
               

'Plate Tectonics' (Ch 2, 12 & 13)
        What is Plate Tectonics?
        Evidence for Pangea; in the order the evidence was discovered
        Continental Drift
        Exploring the Ocean
            the MOR
            Magnetic Stripes, the Earth's Magnetic Field
             and geomagnetic reversals
           1968 DSDP
        Iceland
        Sea Floor Spreading?

        Continental Drift + Sea Floor Spreading ==> Plate Tectonics!
        Plate Tectonics is global recycling
        Types of Plate Edges/Margins

        The geology at each type of plate edge: cross-sections
        Locations of Earthquakes and Volcanoes
        Hot Spots
        Determining Plate Edges
        Hot Spots
        Plate Speeds
        Plate Tectonics... Fact or Theory?
        What causes the plates to move?
        Supercontinents and the history of Pangea
        Constructing a Geologic Cross-section across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

An Introduction to Rocks and Minerals (Ch. 1 & 3)
        The Three Basic Rock Types
        The Rock Cycle
        What is a mineral?
        How Do Minerals Form?
             crystal growth demo + CD-ROM animations
        Where Do Minerals Form? (Ch. 21)
             examples: gold, diamond, etc.
Igneous Rocks (Ch. 4)
Volcanoes (Ch. 5)
        Types of Volcanoes
              Mafic Volcano features and formations
             +slides and powerpoint
             shield volcanoes, calderas, 
             pahoehoe, aa lava
             volcanic necks, hexagonal basalts,
             lava tubes, flood basalts, etc.
             Shiprock, Devil's Tower, etc.
             Pillow Basalts (Ch. 13)
               video: Fire Under The Sea 
         Sialic/Felsic Volcano features and formations
             +slides, video clips and powerpoint
             composite (stratovolcanoes)
             volcanic ash, pyroclastic flows,
             lahars, volcanic lightning
             Mt. St. Helens, Crater Lake, etc.
         Cinder Cones
             +slides
             Paricutin, Mexico
         Plug Domes; ex. Mt. Lassen
         Film: Volcano: Surtsey 
         Hot Springs, Geysers, Fumaroles, etc. (Ch. 17)
             +slides and powerpoint

• Weathering/Erosion (Ch. 6)
  • Mechanical
    • ice-wedging/freeze & thaw
    • sheeting/exfoliation/unloading
    • other; e.g., plants and animals
  • Chemical
    • water
      • universal solvent
    • oxidation
      • metals
    • Bowen's Reaction Series
  • Joints
  • Spheroidal Weathering
  • Soil Profile
    • topsoil
    • regolith
    • bedrock
  • Rates of Weathering
    • Bowen's Reaction Series
  • slides
    .

• Shorelines (Ch 20 & 13)

  • Wave Erosion

    • sea cliff retreat

    • wave-cut terrace

    • wave-built terrace

    • sea caves, arches and stacks

  • Refraction

  • Longshore Drift

    • Video: “Beach: River of Sand” MV 23223

      • Q: Where does sand come from?

      • Q: What are beaches made of?

      • Q: Summer vs. Winter beaches?

      • Q: Which direction does the sand go

        • Q: On the west coast?

        • Q: On the east coast?

      • Q: Where does the sand ultimately end up?

    • Example: case study at Santa Barbara

  • Deposition

    • beaches

    • spits

    • baymouth bars

    • tombolos

    • barrier islands

    • deltas

  • Evolution of Shorelines

    • straight

  • Changing Sea Levels

    • tectonic and eustatic

    • marine terraces and drowned valleys

  • slides
    .

• Groundwater (Ch 17)
  (Homework topic often covered during the Geo 9 course, if there is student interest and time)

  • drinking and agricultural water - supplies 20% of U.S. freshwater demand

  • 20 times the amount of water in rivers and lakes

  • Definitions

  • Porosity

  • Permeability

  • a rock can have HI porosity and LO permeability

  • Flow rates

  • Groundwater Dynamics

  • Inflow

  • Water flow - gravity and lowest pressure

  • WATER TABLE

  • Wells

  • cone of depression, water wars

  • overdraft

  • ground subsidence

  • a.New Orleans

  • b.Mexico City

  • c.Long Beach (oil removal)

  • saltwater encroachment

  • a.Salinas Valley and Monterey Bay

  • b.Florida Everglades

  •  Aquifers

    • permeable layers

    • aquiclude

    • ARTESIAN WELLS

  • Contamination

    • Environmental Geology/Hydrology

    • septic tanks, leakage from disposal sites, gas stations, etc.

  • slides

  • Caves -speleology and spelunking

  • limestone, CaCO₃

  • dissolution = CAVES

  • deposition = TRAVERTINE, CaCO₃

  • stalactites and stalagmites

  • sinkholes

  • Karst Topography

  • disappearing streams

• Tufa Towers

  • Mono Lake

  • Greenland

• slides
  including photos from

  • Carslbad Caverns

  • Mono Lake and Greenland

  • Florida

  • Bowling Green Kentucky

  • Llano Estecado, East of Lubbock, Texas

  • Australia

  • New Mexico 

  • Kaibab Limestone, Arizona

  • Gui Lin, China

  • Puerto Rico (Arecibo region)

  • etc.

• Geomorphology: Landforms (Ch 2-20)

  • Weathering

    • jointing and fractures,  spheroidal weathering,  exfoliation

  • Mass-Wasting

    • landslides,  rockfall, talus slopes

  • River Systems

    • V-shaped valleys                 point bars

    • Youth to Old Age                levees

    • meanders                            stream terraces

    • oxbow lakes                        entrenched meanders

    • peneplains                           monadnocks

    • floodplains                           Yazoo streams

  • Drainage Patterns

    • dendritic                              radial

    • trellis                                   rectangular

  • Mountains

    • tectonics, orogeny, faulting and folding

    • Appalachians                      Rocky Mountains

    • Basin and Range                 Sierra Nevada

  • Volcanoes

    • shield                                  flood basalts

    • composite                            necks

    • cinder                                  columnar jointing

    • pillow basalts                        pahoehoe and aa lavas

  • Coastal Systems

    • sea stacks                            beaches

    • arches                                 spits

    • tombolos                              barrier bars

    • baymouth bars                     marine terraces

    • reefs: fringing, barrier and atolls

    • lagoons                                estuaries

  • Glacial Systems

    • U-shaped valleys                  drumlins

    • moraines                              kettles

    • cirques                                 eskers

    • horns                                    striations

    • hanging valleys                      glacial polish

    • erratics

  • Caves and Karst Topography

    • sinkholes                              disappearing streams

    • stalactites                             columns                                               

    • stalagmites                            tower karst

  • Dunes

    • longitudinal                          star

    • barchan                               transverse

    • parabolic                             cross-bedding

  •  DIFFERENTIAL EROSION AND STRUCTURE

    • hard and resistant vs. soft and weak

    • Plateaus                               cuestas

    • mesas                                  hogbacks

    • buttes                                  strike valleys

    • pillars                                   natural arches

    • pinnacles

  • HORIZONTAL STRATA

    • often interbedded shales, ss and ls

    •  arid climate:      shales less resistant = SLOPES

    • ss & ls more resistant = CLIFFS

    • cap rock

    • dendritic drainage

    • e.g., Grand Canyon & Colorado River

    • Bryce Canyon NP, Utah

    • hoodoos

    • natural arches

    • basalts

  •  INCLINED STRATA

    • tilted rx and erosion

    • cuestas, flatirons, hogbacks

  • slides

• Geomorphology
  • joint rocks
  • cap rocks
  • arches
  • slides
    including photos from 
    • Monument Valley, Arizona; 
    • Garden of the Gods, CO; 
    • the Colorado Plateau; 
    • Bryce Canyon, Utah; 
    • Dead Horse State Park, Utah; 
    • Mexican Hat, Utah; 
    • Goblin Valley State Park, Utah; 
    • Rainbow Bridge (near Lake Powell); Arches National Monument, Utah; 
    • Natural Bridges Monument, Utah
    • etc.

• Folds
  • anticlines, synclines, monoclines
  • domes and basins
  • slides
    including photos from 
    • Sheep Mountain Anticline, Wyoming
    • Virgin Anticline, near St. George, Utah
    • Waterpocket Monocline, Utah
    • Black Hills of South Dakota
    • Appalachian Mountains
    • Rocky Mountains
    • etc. 
• Faults
  • Horizontal
    • right and left lateral
    • San Andreas Fault
  • Vertical
    • normal and reverse
    • hanging wall and footwall
    • practice problems on screen
      and in Green Study Guide
  • Basin and Range
    • types of faults
    • tectonics
    • Horst and Graben
    • MOR
    • listric normal fault model
    • Owen's Valley, Death Valley
  • Block Rotation
    • Sierra Nevada
  • Add in Lake Tahoe
  • slides
    • how to identify and recognize faults
      • lineations
      • sag ponds
      • fault gouge
      • offset streams
    • a visual tour of the San Andreas Fault

• Seismology and Earthquakes
  • Historic
    • 1906 SF                      
    • 1964 Alaska
    • 1989 Loma Prieta
  • Where
    • Plate margins
      • divergent
        • shallow, less than 100 km deep
      • convergent
        • deep, up to 600-700 km deep, Benioff Zone
      • transform
    • Volcanoes
    • Intra-plate
  • Seismographs/Seismometers
    • inertia
    • simple pendulum
    • electromagnetic
  • Types of Earthquake Waves
    • Body Waves
      • P-waves          
      • S-waves
    • Surface Waves
  • Typical Seismic Record
  • Locating an Earthquake
    • distance
    • lag time = distance travelled
    • epicenter
    • triangulation
  • Focus
  • California Seismic Network

  • Intensity and Magnitude

  • Intensity

    • Modified Mercalli Scale and the Rossi-Forel Scale

  • Magnitude

    • Richter Magnitude

    • Moment Magnitude

  • Earth's Internal Structure

  • Mohorovicic Discontinuity

  • P waves travel through solid, liquid and gas

  • S waves travel through solids ONLY

    • NOT through liquids or gases

  • S-wave SHADOW ZONE

  • P-wave SHADOW ZONE

  • Global Seismic Monitoring       

    • Monitoring nuclear testing

  • Prediction?

  • China

  • Loma Prieta

  • Parkfield

  • Precursors and Aftershocks

• Planetary Geology = ET Geology
  (Homework topic often covered during the Geo 9 course, if there is student interest and time)
  • applying what you've learned about the Earth to the geology of other planets
    .
  • The Moon
    • craters?
      • sinkholes?
      • volcanic craters?
      • meteor impacts?
    • basalts and anorthosites
    • flat floors and lunar highlands
    • dark and light
    • slides & video clip
  • Venus
    • roughly the same size as the Earth
    • seeing the surface
      • radar
      • Arecibo
    • slides & video clip
      • mountains
      • lineations
      • plate tectonics on venus?
  • Mars
    • the 'red planet'
      • why is it red?
      • what does that tell you about the atm of Mars?
    • mountains
    • lineations/linear valleys
    • dendritic channels
    • polar ice caps
    • life on Mars?
    • slides & video clip

The following is an outline of the topics covered in the Geo 9 (Homework) class, Spring 2006

• Intro to the Geologic Time Scale (Module 1)
  • Radiometric Age Dating;
    • e.g., radiocarbon  (Module 1)
  • Life Through Time (Module 1)
    • -what fossils are prevalent in which time periods
    • -what are stromatolites, trilobites, etc.?
• Mass Wasting (Module 3)
• Deserts (Module 3)
• Metamorphic Rocks (Module 3)
• Natural Resources; Ch. 21 (Module 5)
  this topic follows nicely after these other topics that we've already covered in lecture:
  • mineral formation
  • rock formation
  • plate tectonics
  • coal
  • oil and gas
  • all of the above topics are implemented in the Natural Resources topics
  • click here for a more detailed outline of the 
    Natural Resources section
• Stratigraphy; Ch. 9 (Module 6)
• Glaciers, Ch. 18 (Module 5)
  • slides; click for outline
• Groundwater part 1, Ch. 17 (Module 7)
• Groundwater part 2, Ch. 17 (Module 7)
  • caves & karst & slides
• Planetary Geology, Ch. 22 (Module 7)
  • the Moon, Mars and Venus
  • w/slides and video clips