Exam 3 Flashcards
How is the geologic time scale broken up into [Earth’s Calendar]
Eons(greatest Expanse of time) Eras Periods Epochs (smallest expanse of time)
What are the two major divisions in the geologic time scale?
———–present——- Phanerozoic Eon (eon of visible life) (15% of earth’s history) ———-543 million years ago——- precambrian (85% of earths history) ———4.6 billion years ago——-
What are the tree eras of Phanerozoic Eon
Cenozoic Era (recent life) [includes the present], age of mammals (starts 65m.y.a w/ K/T extinction) Mezozoic Era “Middle life” [Age of dinos] (starts 252 m.y.a. w/ permian extinction) Paleozoic Era “Ancient life”(begins 543m.y.a.) [explosion of life]
Moon was closer to earth when?
early precambrian (EON)
The moon formed in the
The Precambrian (Eon)
The most efficient organism that dominated in early paleozoic Era
Trilobite 500 different genera
Life on land is
recent in geologic sense
Greatest mass extinction
it was the Permian Extinction (almost complete annihilation) 95% of life were extinct
group of animals that dominated earth for 200 million years
Dinosaurs
What extinction event wiped out the dinosaurs?
K/T extinction event 70% of all life died
How many mass extinction events are in the phanerozoic (Eon)
five (sixth is going on today by humans)
two largest mass extinction events in Phanerozoic
K/T extinction Permian extinction
Two people who found evidence for the cause of K/T extinction?
Walter (son) and Luis Alverez They Found a thin layer of clay
What did they find the clay contained?
- Iridium (high concentration) [orginal found by the Alvers] 2. Micro-tektites (Small glass spheres) 3. Shocked- Quartz 4.Soot (from global wildfires)
Where is the impact crater for K/T extinction
Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula
Scenario of events from K/T impact meteor
Tsunami Heat Wave (forest bursting in flames) Blackout (dust and smoke blocked out the sun’s energy) Deep Freeze (slowly filtered out) Acid Rain and global warming (this is prolonged)
opposing hypothesis for the K/T extinction
The massive eruption of lava occurred in India Deccan flood basalt province
Deccan flood basalt province resulted in
- SO2 emissions- contributed to cooling and acid rain 2. CO2- increase in the green house effect 3. CI - depletes the world’s ozone layer
Antipodal Hypothesis is
The chicxulub impact may have generated a shock wave that travel through the earth and cracked the lithosphere and produced outpouring of basalt lava.
What is the prevailing idea for the Permian Extinction?
Plate tectonics and Siberian Flood basalts (occured roughly 252 MYA) (making the climate change)
Types of bodies that are possible to hit earth
Comets Stony meteorites Iron Meterorites
What are in complex craters?
central uplift impact melt (between uplift and rim) Ejecta blanket (has tektites, broken rock, and shocked quartz)
Simple crater contain
May not have impact melt, smaller in diameter no central uplift has ejecta blanket
events for impact crater formation
Meteorite impact then compressional wave with heat blow material out central upwave created by rebound leaves a fractured blanket
Meteor Crater, Arizona
youngest and best preserve crater (about 50000 years old) Recognized as impact crater by Gene Shoemaker
Tunguska Event (1908)
meteorite impact in Russia First expedition to check it out was in 1921 (FAILED) Second expedition was in 1927 No crater found b/c it was a stony Meteorite
program to catalog objects with orbits that cross earth’s orbit
Spacewatch Program (Still in operation @ Uof A)
What did it take to get the Spacewatch program to be funded?
The Shoemaker-levy Comet crashing into Jupiter
WHat are they two belts of comets
Oort Cloud Kuiper Belt (Both are beyond neptune)
Surface of Mercury Venus Saturn’s icy moon (enceladus) Mars Moon
Mercury-very heavy with impact craters Venus-numerous impact crater Enceladus-Dynamic body (resurfaces its body) Frozen water Mars-it has craters Moon- lots of craters
What is the magma chamber
reservoir of molten rock beneath volcano(feeds the volcanic eruption)
what happens when magma cools in the magma chamber or on the surface?
it produces into intrusive igneous rock (crystallizes) or feeds an eruption where it cools on surface and becomes extrusive igneous rock
Intrusive igneous rock
cools inside the magma chamber (large crystals) [more time to cool] course-grained crystalline structure (magma)
Extrusive igneous rock
cools more rapidly and produces a fine grain igneous rock (lava)
Differenced between magma and lava
magma is interior of earth lava is not lava is degassed rock (less pressure) soda example
Glassy texture
rock with no crystals from rapid cooling or quenching of lava ex. obsidian (entering water)
Vesicular texture is
rock with open spaces (gas bubbles that are trapped within the rock) example of this is pumice
Pyroclastic texture is
texture that is fragmented by explosive eruptions (associated with more explosive eruption)