Text: Marshak, S., 2009. Essentials of Geology 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.)

The test will be based on both lecture notes and on the textbook.

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

The final will be cummulative, so go over your past study guides and your past exams.

This study guide covers the material that we have done in class since the last exam.

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

Pages: 249-271 (1st ed.);
248-272 (2nd ed.);
240-265 (3rd 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.)
9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 9.8, 9.11, 9.16, 9.18, 9.19 (3d ed.)

Terms: accreted terrane, anticline, brittle deformation, compressive stress, continental rifting, 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

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 at convergent plate boundaries: in subduction zones and in continental collisions.

What structures would you expect to form in a mountain belt that forms at a convergent plate boundary?

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

Chap 14: Streams and floods: The geology of running water

Pages: 376-405 (1st ed.)

391-417 (2nd ed.)
378-403 (3rd ed.)

Figures: 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 14.11, 14.12, 14.13, 14.16, 14.18, 14.19, 14.23, 14.24, 14.25, 14.26, 14.30, 14.33 (1st ed.)
14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.10, 14.11, 14.12, 14.13, 14.20, 14.21, 14.22, 14.23, 14.26, 14.30, 14.33, 14.34 (2nd ed.)
14.2, 14.5, 14.6, 14.8, 14.9,14.10, 14.15, 14.16, 14.17, 14.17 (3rd ed.)

Terms: abrasion, alluvial fan, bed load, bird's foot delta, braided stream, capacity, competence, cut bank, delta, discharge, dissolved load, drainage basin, drainage divide, flash flood, flood, flood plain, flood stage, gaining stream,  losing stream, meander, meandering stream, natural levee, oxbow lake, point bar, residence time, saltation, scouring, sand bar, solution, stream channel, stream gradient, stream velocity, suspended load, traction, tributary, flooding, ten-year flood, 100-year flood, hydrograph

Review Questions:

How is the velocity of a stream related to its discharge, and its cross-sectional area? to its gradient?

How does a braided stream differ from a meandering stream?

Describe how meanders form, develop, are cut off, and then abandoned.  Be sure you know ALL the terms associated with meandering streams.

How is the velocity of a stream related to: its ability to erode, and its ability to transport sediment?

Explain the difference between a flashflood and a lowland flood.  Draw two hydrographs, one for a flash flood and one for a lowland flood (aka floodplain flood).

In the Northeastern U.S., when are floods most likely to occur?

What is the probability, each year, of a 2-year flood? of a 10-yr flood, etc? What are the weaknesses of such statistical forecasts?

Draw two hydrographs for one river at two different times. One time before urbanization and one after urbanization.

Chap 16: A Hidden reserve: Groundwater

Figures: 16.2, 16.4, 16.5, 16.6, 16.7, 16.9, 16.10, 16.11, 16.13, 16.14, 16.15, 16.20, 16.21, 16.22 (1st ed.)
16.2, 16.3, 16.4, 16.5, 16.6, 16.8, 16.9, 16.11, 16.12, 16.13, 16.17, 16.18, 16.19 (2nd ed.)
16.2, 16.3, 16.4, 16.5, 16.6, 16.7, 16.8, 16.11, 16.12, 16.14, 16.15 (3rd ed.)

Terms: aquifer, aquitard, artesian well, cone of accension, cone of depression, confined aquifer, contaminant plume, Darcy's law, flow lines, groundwater, hydraulic head, hydraulic conductivity, hydraulic gradient, infiltration, karst topography, porosity, permeability, potentiometric surface, gaining stream, losing stream, recharge, residence time, saturated zone, spring, well, unconfined aquifer, water table, zone of aeration (unsaturated zone)

Review Questions: 

In a region with temperate climate, like Central New York, how does topography affect the shape of the water table?

 What geologic materials make the best aquifers? the best aquitards? What are aquifers and aquitards?

Describe how a sinkhole forms.

Chap 15: Restless Realm: Oceans and Coasts 

Pages: 406-410, 416-433 (1st ed.)
418-449 (2nd ed.)
404- 429 (3rd ed.)

Figures: 15.2, 15.4, 15.5, 15.14, 15.15, 15.16, 15.21, 15.22, 15.23, 15.24, 15.25, 15.26, 15.28, 15.29, 15.32, 15.33, 15.34, 15.36, 15.37 (1st ed.)
15.2, 15.4, 15.5, 15.13, 15.14, 15.15, 15.16, 15.18, 15.21, 15.22, 15.23, 15.25, 15.26, 15.29, 15.30, 15.31, 15.34, 15.35 (2nd ed.)
15.2, 15.3, 15.8, 15.9, 15.10, 15.11, 15.14, 15.15, 15.16, 15.17, 15.18, 15.20 (3rd ed.)

Terms: active margin, breakwater, continental shelf, estuary, fetch, fjord, groin, headlands, jetty, longshore current, longshore drift, mid-ocean ridge, passive margin, pocket beach, sand spit, sea arch, sea stack, seawall, waves, wave base, wave-cut bench, wave-cut notch, wave-cut terrace, wave refraction

Review Questions:

How does the continental shelf of an active continental margin differ from that of a passive margin?

Know the characteristics of passive margins and active margins. Name geographic locations of each one.

How do longshore currents originate?

How does beach sand migrate as a result of longshore currents?

How do plate tectonics, sea-level changes, and sediment supply affect the shape of a coastline?

How does human interference wtih longshore drift cause problems?

What three factors control ocean wave size?

What three structures do humans build to try to stop or control longshore drift?

What is the pattern of sand deposition and erosion around these structures in relation to the longshore current direction? Hint this can be answered with a diagram.

Chap 19: Global Change in the Earth System 

Pages: 530-542 (1st ed.)
516-523,529-542 (2nd ed.)
491-497, 504-516 (3rd ed.)

Figures: 18.37, 18.42, 19.6, 19.17, 19.18, 19.20 (2nd ed.)
18.23, 18.24, 18.27, 19.5, 19.6, 19.13,19.14, 19.15 (3rd ed.)

Terms: carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon-isotopes (C12, C13, C14), climate, global climate change, global warming, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, ice cores, methane (CH₄), oxygen-isotope (O16, O17, O18), paleoclimate, sunspot cycle, water vapor, weather

Review Questions:

How does climate differ from weather?

How do we use oxygen isotopes in glacial ice to figure out past temperatures? That is, when the ice has a high amount of ¹⁸O compared to ¹⁶O, was the atmospheric temperature at the time the ice formed warmer or cooler than usual?

How do ice cores tell us the composition of the earth's atmosphere in the past?

What is the Greenhouse Effect? A well-labeled diagram will help.

List the three greenhouse gasses that play the bigest role in greenhouse warming?

Describe how Richard Alley used the Carbon isotope data to demonstrate that the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is from our burning fossil fuels.

Describe how Climate models demonstrate that the increase in human-made carbon dioxide is responsible for the increase in atmopheric temperatures over the last century.

That is it!

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