Text: Marshak, S., 2004. Essentials of Geology 1st or 2nd 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:  Mondays 10-11,  Wednesdays 1-3, Thursdays 10-11

Chap 7: The Wrath of Vulcan: Volcanic Eruptions 

Pages: 181-208 (1st ed.);
180-205 (2nd ed.)

Figures: 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.12, 7.13, 7.15, 7.16, 7.18, 7.23, 7.25 (1st ed.);
7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.11, 7.12, 7.15, 7.16, 7.22, 7.24 (2nd ed.)

Terms: ash fall, Aleutian Islands, Andes Mountains, andesite, basalt, continental volcanic arc, crater, eruption, explosive eruption, heat flow, Hawaii, hot-spot volcanoes, Kilimanjaro, lahar, lava flow, magma chamber, mantle plume, obsidian, pyroclastic debris, pyroclastic flow, rhyolite, shield volcano, composite volcano (stratovolcano), volcanic island arc, volcano

Questions:

Explain how magma viscosity and gas pressure effect the eruptive style of a volcano.

Describe the activity in the mantle that leads to hot-spot eruptions.  What type of volcano is most likely to form from hot-spot eruptions? 

What are the differences between an Island arc and a Continental volcanic arc.  What are the similarities?

List some major volcanic hazards.

Describe the differences between shield volcanoes and composite volcanoes. How are these differences explained by the chemical composition of their lavas and other factors? You need to know the meaning of silicic (felsic), intermediate, and mafic magma chemical composition.

What controls a magma's viscosity?  (Hint: there are 2 factors.) What does this mean for eruptions at shield volcanoes?

Know some specific geographic examples (and their names and locations) of shield volcanoes and of composite volcanoes (see Figure 7.16, page 193 (1st ed.) OR Figure 7.12, page 191 (2nd ed.), for help).

What igneous rocks would you expect to find on the flanks of a shield volcano? on the flanks of a composite volcano?

 

Chap 8: A Violent Pulse: Earthquakes 

Pages: 209-235, skim 235-239 (1st ed.);
206-235, skim 235-239 (2nd 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.)

Terms:  body waves, compressional wave, displacement, earthquake, elastic rebound theory, epicenter, fault, focus, footwall, hanging wall, hypocenter, liquefaction, normal fault, reverse fault, thrust fault, strike-slip fault, shear waves, surface waves, shortening (compression), 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.
 
Describe the motions of P-waves and S-waves. Are these body waves or surface waves? What are their relative velocities (i.e., which one is faster?)?

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? the rock granite or the rock sandstone? 

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

 

Interlude C: Seeing inside the Earth 

Pages: 241-248 (1st ed.);
240-247 (2nd ed.)

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

Chap 10: Deep Time: How old is old? 

Pages: 280-302 (1st ed.); 
283-305 (2nd 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.)

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.

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?

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) 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 a number of  Parent atoms, a number of Daughter atoms, and the half-life for that P-D series, calculate the age of cooling of a rock.

Chap 9: Crags, Cracks, and Crumples: Crustal deformation and mountain building 

Pages: 249-271 (1st ed.);
248-272 (2nd ed.)

Figures: 9.3, 9.4, 9.6, 9.8, 9.12, 9.14, 9.15, 9.16, 9.17, 9.24, 9.26, 9.27, 9.28 (1st ed.);
9.3, 9.4, 9.6, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.11, 9.13, 9.14, 9.15, 9.16, 9.17, 9.18, 9.22, 9.24, 9.25, 9.26, 9.27, 9.29  (2nd ed.)

Terms: accreted terrane, anticline, brittle deformation, compressive stress, craton, cratonic shield, cratonic platform, deformation, dip, dip-slip fault, ductile deformation, fault, fold, fold and thrust belt, footwall, hanging wall, hinge line, left-lateral fault, limbs, mountain belt, normal fault, orogeny, plunging fold, reverse fault, right-lateral fault, shear stress, strain, stress, strike, strike-slip fault, syncline, tensional stress, thrust fault, uplift

Questions:

What is the difference between brittle and ductile deformation? Which structures are brittle structures? Which are ductile?

How are stress and strain different?

Compare the motion of normal, reverse, and strike-slip faults.

Desscribe the differences between an anticline and a syncline.

Discuss the processes by which mountain belts are formed in convergent margins, in continental collisions, and in continental rifts.

Is Central New York located on the cratonic shield or the cratonic platform?

What are the three orogenies that togther created the Appalachian Mountains? What happened during each orogeny and what order did they occur in?

Field trip review:  

First stop: Tully, exit 14, behind the Best Western Motel.
What was the rock we looked at: sedimentary, igneous or meatamorphic?  How did we know?
What did the fine grain size and dark color tell us about the environment this rocks formed in?

Second stop: Gravel quarry near Burger King.
What mineral was the new conglomerate cemented together with?
Where did the boulders and pebbles come from?
How did they get transported and deposited where we found them? Remember this is a complex history, not a simple one step thing.

Lunch at BK

Third stop: along Tully Farms Valley Road, across from the vacant lot.
Why was the house abandoned?  What types of mass movement occurred? What time of year did it happen?  
Why is that season particularly susceptible to mass movements?

Fourth stop: Fayetteville
What kind of rock was cropping out of the hillside? Sedimentary, igneous or metamrophic?
How did we know? What was the clear, white mineral? and how does it form?
What is the name of the environment the rock formed in?

Fifth stop: Clark Reservation State Park
What is a plunge pool and how does it form?

Where did the large volumes of water come from?

That's it!

Useful links:

Syllabus Fall 2008

Physical Geology web page