Text: Marshak, S., 2009. Essentials of Geology 1st , 2nd, or 3rd edition. W. W. Norton pub. 

The best way to study for an exam is to study continuously throughout the semester by re-writing the notes you take in class. While you are re-writing them, you can use the textbook to fill in any gaps in your notes. By gaps, I mean concepts you did not understand, or maybe could not take notes on because the professor was going too fast. (If you have questions on the material after doing that, then by all means come in and ask me or e-mail your question to me: gleasong@cortland.edu.)

To study for this exam, you must go over your lecture notes.

The test will be based on both lecture notes and on the textbook. This study guide is designed to point out aspects of the readings in the textbook that will help you understand your lecture notes.

Office hours are:   Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:30 to 10:45 AM, Tuesdays from 1 to 2:30 and by appointment.

Weathering

Interlude B: A Surface Veneer: Sediments and Soil (3rd ed.)
Chap 5: A Surface Veneer: Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks (1st & 2nd ed.)

 Pages: 1st ed.: 124-130 (Chap. 5)
2nd ed.: 121-128 (Chap. 5)
3rd ed.: 138-145

Figures:  1st ed.: 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6
2nd ed.: 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.9
3rd ed.: B.2, B.3, B.4, B.5, B.6, B.7, B.8

Terms: chemical weathering, dissolution (aka solution), exfoliation, frost wedging, hydrolysis, joints, oxidation reaction, physical weathering, root wedging, salt wedging, sediment, weathering

Questions:

How does physical weathering differ from chemical weathering? 

Feldspar minerals are very common in igneous rocks, but not usually found in sedimentary rocks. Describe the weathering process that converts feldspar to clay minerals. 

Chap 6: Pages of the Earth's Past: Sedimentary Rocks

 Pages: 124-130, 134-154 (1st ed., Chap. 5)
131-152 (2nd ed., Chap. 5)
152-173 (3rd ed.)

Figures:  5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.12, 5.13, 5.14, 5.15, 5.175.19, 5.21, 5.23, 5.29 (1st ed.);
5.14, 5.15, 5.16, 5.17, 5.18, 5.19, 5.24 (2nd ed.)
6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.11, 6.12, 6.15, 6.20 (3rd ed.)

Terms: bed, biochemical (or biogenic) sedimentary rocks, cementation, chemical sedimentary rocks, clastic (detrital) sedimentary rocks, clasts, coal, compaction, deposition, lithification, mud cracks, ripple marks, sediment, sedimentary environment, sedimentary rock, sedimentary structures, sorting, transportation

Questions:

Describe how a sedimentary rock is formed from an unweathered rock. 

How are clastic (detrital) and chemical sedimentary rocks different?

Describe how grain size and sorting of sediments change as sediments move downstream. 

What is so cool about depositional environments?

What kind of conditions are needed for the formation of chemical sedimentary rocks?

Name some examples of biochemical sedimentary rocks (let's put coal into this category), chemical sed. rocks, and clastic sed. rocks.

Chap 7: Change in the Solid State: Metamorphic Rocks

Pages: 155-174 (1st ed., Chap. 6)
153-173 (2nd ed., Chap. 6)
175-193 (3rd ed.)

Figures: 6.1, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.7, 6.8, 6.10, 6.15, 6.17, 6.19. 6.20 (1st ed)
6.1, 6.2, 6.4, 6.6, 6.8, 6.9, 6.16, 6.17, 6.19, 6.20 (2nd ed)
7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.9, 7.10 (3rd ed)

Terms:  differential stress, foliation, gneiss, marble, contact metamorphism (thermal metamorphism), regional metamorphism (dynamic metamorphism), metamorphism, metamorphic rock, metasomatism, "parent rock", phyllite, protolith, quartzite, recrystallization, schist, slate

Questions: 

How are metamorphic rocks different from igneous rocks?

What two features are used to classify metamorphic rocks?

How does heat change a rock?

How does hot water moving through a rock change it?

How does pressure change a rock?

How does differential stress (i.e., different pressures in different directions) affect the texture of a rock?

Arrange the following metamorphic rocks in order from lowest grade to higest grade:
        gneiss, phyllite, schist, and slate

What are the differences between regional metamorphic rocks and contact metamorphic rocks? What is different about how they form?

In what plate tectonic setting does blueschist form?

In what plate tectonic setting does serpentinite form? What type of metamorphism creates it?

Interlude C: The Rock Cycle

Figures: B.2 (1st ed.)
B.1, B.2 (2nd ed.)
C.1, C.2 (3rd ed.)

Questions: 

Be able to describe the processes any rock goes through to become another type of rock.  For example:

Describe how a sedimentary rock can move through the rock cycle and become a metamorphic rock. What happens to the mineral grains in the sedimentary rock as it undergoes contact (thermal) metamorphism? as it undergoes regional metamorphism?

Describe how an igneous rock becomes a sedimentary rock.

Chap 13: Unsafe Ground: Landslides and other mass movements

Pages: 354-375 (1st ed.)
373-390 (2nd ed.)
361-377 (3rd ed.)

Figures: 13.3, 13.5, 13.6, 13.8, 13.9, 13.10, 13.11, 13.12, 13.14, 13.16, 13.18, 13.21, 13.22 (1st ed.)
13.2, 13.4, 13.6, 13.8, 13.9, 13.10, 13.11, 13.12, 13.13, 13.14, 13.16, 13.18, 13.19 (2nd ed.)
13.2, 13.3, 13.9, 13.10, 13.12, 13.14, 13.15, 13.16 (3rd ed.)

Terms: avalanche, creep, debris, debris fall, debris flow, debris slide, downslope force, fall, flow, landslide, mass movement, mud flow, normal force, regolith, resistance force, rock fall, rock slide, shear force, slide, slip, slump, talus, totgraphic relief, undercutting

Questions: 

How does a slump differ from creep? How does a slump differ from a mudflow?

How does the angle of a slope change the force holding a block of material on that slope?

How does a small amount of water hold material together?  How does this change when the sediment is over saturated?

What factors trigger downslope movement?

What would you look for as evidence of creep? as evidence of a historic debris flow?

What role do things like bedding planes, foliations or cracks in rocks play in mass wasting?

Study the questions on your Field Trip Handout.

Chap 18: Amazing Ice: Glaciers and Ice Ages

Pages: 480-501, 503-511 (1st ed.)
493-515, 516-522 (2nd ed.)
469-491 (3rd ed.)

Figures: 18.2, 18.3, 18.6, 18.7, 18.9, 18.10, 18.11, 18.12, 18.15, 18.16, 18.19, 18.20, 18.21, 18.22, 18.24, 18.25, 18.33, 18.36, 18.37, 18.39 (1st ed.)
18.2, 18.3, 18.7, 18.8, 18.10, 18.12, 18.13, 18.18, 18.19, 18.20, 18.21, 18.23, 18.25, 18.26, 18.27, 18.29, 18.30 (2nd ed.)
18.2, 18.3, 18.5, 18.6, 18.8, 18.10, 18.11, 18.14, 18.15, 18.16, 18.17, 18.18 (3rd ed.)

Terms: ablation, arete, continental glacier, crevasse, drumlin, end moraine or terminal moraine, erratics, esker, firn, glacial abrasion, glacial advance, glacial lake-bed sediment, glacially polished surfaces, glacial plucking, glacial retreat, glacial striations, glacial till, glacier, hanging valley, horn, kame, kettle hole (or lake), lateral moraine, medial moraine, moriane, alpine glacier or valley glacier, outwash plain, rock flour, sublimation, terminus or toe, U-shaped valley, zone of ablation, zone of accumulation

Review Questions:

Desscribe the transformation of snow to ice.

Explain how aretes, cirques, and horns form.

Explain how the balance between ablation and accumulation determines whether a glacier advances or retreats.

How does a glacier transform a V-shaped river vallley into a U-shaped valley?

What kind of deposits do glaciers create? how are these different from water deposits?

What landforms result from glacial deposition?

What features in Central New York did glaciers create ~10,000 to 12,000 years ago? (hint: recall the field trip)

Explain how a kettle lake forms.

Chap 10: Deep Time: How old is old?

Pages: 280-302 (1st ed.) 
283-305 (2nd ed.)
276-297 (3rd ed.)

Figures: 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.9, 10.10, 10.12, 10.15, 10.17, 10.18 (1st ed.)
10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5,  10.6, 10.9, 10.10, 10.14, 10.17 (2nd ed.)
10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.9, 10.12, 10.15 (3rd ed.)

Terms: absolute age, angular unconformity, blocking temperature, Cenozoic Era, contacts, correlation, cross-cutting relationships, daughter isotope, disconformity, era, formation, fossil assemblege, fossil correlation, fossil succession, geologic column, half-life, lithologic correlation, Mesozoic Era, nonconformity, numerical age, original continuity, original horizontality, Paleozoic Era, parent isotope, radioactive decay, radioactive isotopes, radiometric age dating, relative age, superposition, unconformity, uniformitarianism

Questions: 

Compare numerical age and relative age.  Catagorize the terms given above as either pertaining to relative age dating or to numerical age dating.

Describe the principles (or "laws") that allow us to determine the relative ages of geologic events. See pages 279-281 (3rd ed.) [284-285 (2nd ed.)] for the list.  

How does the principle of fossil succession allow us to determine the relative ages of geologic events?

How does an unconformity develop?  What are the three types of unconformities?  What are their differences and similarities?

What does the process of radioactive decay entail?

What are you actually determining the age of when you get a radiometric date on a mineral?

How do we determine numerical ages for sedimentary layers?  How do we use the principle of cross-cutting relations to do this?

What is the radiometric age of the Earth? What is this based on?

Look over Figure 10.3 (pg. 284 in 1st edition; page 288 in the 2nd edition; page 280 in the 3rd edition) in your textbook. Write out the geologic history of the block. Include the relative age of the rock units and the geologic events.

How do you calculate the decay constant from the half-life?

Given the decay rate of a Parent-Daughter pair of 9.8 x 10^-10 yr^-1, calculate the age of a rock with a P:D ratio of 1,000,000:600,000. You can look up the equation for this one: N= No*e^(-lamda*t), but on the test, I would not tell you what the constants stand for.

Chap 8: A Violent Pulse: Earthquakes

Pages: 209-235, skim 235-239 (1st ed.)
206-235, skim 235-239 (2nd ed.)
200-224, skim 224-229 (3rd ed.)

Figures: 8.1, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.9, 8.11, 8.12, 8.13, 8.17, 8.18, 8.19, 8.21, 8.22, 8.23, 8.24, 8.25, 8.26, 8.27, 8.28 (1st ed.)
8.1, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8. 8.9, 8.10, 8.11, 8.14, 8.15, 8.18, 8.21, 8.22, 8.23, 8.24, 8.25, 8.27, 8.29, 8.30, 8.31 (2nd ed.)
8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.6, 8.8, 8.9, 8.10, 8.13, 8.14, 8.15, 8.19, 8.21, 8.23, 8.24 (3rd ed.)

Terms:  body waves, compressional wave, displacement, earthquake, epicenter, fault, focus, footwall, hanging wall, liquefaction, normal fault, reverse fault, thrust fault, strike-slip fault, shear waves, surface waves, shortening (compressoin), lengthening (extension), seismic waves, P-waves, S-waves, seismograph, seismogram, seismometer, tsunami, Wadati-Benioff zone (also known as Benioff-Wadati zone)

Questions: 

Compare normal, reverse, and strike-slip faults.

What is the Wadati-Benioff zone and why was it significant in understanding Plate Tectonics?
 
Describe the motions of P-waves and S-waves. Are these body waves or surface waves? What are their relative velocities?

How do you locate an earthquake? How many seismic stations are required to locate an earthquake?

How does a seismograph work?

What is material amplification?

Which type of earth material will shake more during an earthquake? bedrock or unconsolidated sediments? 

How does liquefaction occur during an earthquake and how does it cause damage? 

Interlude D: Seeing inside the Earth 

Pages: 241-248 (1st ed.)
240-247 (2nd ed.)
232-239 (3rd ed.)

Figures: C.2, C.7, C.8, C.9 (1st ed.)
C.2, C.6, C.7, C.8, C.9 (2nd ed.)
D.3, D.6, D.7 (3rd ed.)

Terms: refraction, P-wave shadow, S-wave shadow, core-mantle boundary, outer core, inner core

Questions:

Explain what each of the body waves tell us about the Earth's outer core.  Hint: P-wave shadow and S-wave shadow will figure promentantly in your answer.

That is it for this exam.

Useful links:

Syllabus

Physical Geology web page