GEO WEEK 1-13 Flashcards
What is the closet star to our planet
the sun
Estimated age of earth
13-14 b years old
What is the element produced after Big Bang
Hydrogen (then came helium)
What are the important components of the star
colour and brightness
What is the most studied nebula
Crab nebula
When was the sun formed
4.56 B years ago
Age of earth is the same age of sun because solar system and matter was made at the same time
2 components of planets
terrestrial (rocky) & gaseous
What are the rocky planets
Mercury, Venus, Earth Mars are rocky planets
What are gaseous planets
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are gaseous planets
Why did the Dinosaurs go extinct
Because of the ENVIRONMENTAL factors of the asteroid
What is the Dino era called
Mesozoic
What is the mammal era called
Cenozoic
Meteorites
Universal asteroids (debris, objects from asteroids)
- only the biggest ones cause craters to earth
- most get disintegrated by earth’s atmosphere
(Iron and metallic)
What is the hottest planet?
Venus
What changed human life?
Agriculture revolution
Zircons
minerals present in meteorites
(Patterson found the age of earth from them)
What is Planetary accretion?
How planet earth was formed : intense heat melting of material
What are the 3 earthquake regions?
- Mid Atlantic ridge
-Alpide Belt -
-Circum pacific belt : 80% of the earthquakes happen here
this is where the Tectonic plates meet
What are the 2 types of body waves
Primary & Secondary
- P moves longtitudal and S moves transversal
What does P pass through?
Solids, liquids and gas
What is the most common sediment
Granite
Basalt
extrusive igneous rock
Granite
intrusive igneous rock
Limestone
carbonate sedimentary rock
Sandstone
Sedimentary rock (Basalt cuts the sandstone)
Mudstone
Sendimentary rock
Glacial till
unsalted material
What is the most common rock for oceanic crust
Basalt
What is the most common rock in continental crust
Granite
What is the sequence in which minerals crystallize
Bowen reaction series
What is Pluton?
formed solidification magma deep within the earth and crystalline throughout
what is mafic high in concentration of?
Magnesium and Iron
Native Minerals
gold, copper, sulphur, and graphite
Feldspar
silicate materials, most abundant mineral
igneous rocks
formed from solidification of molten rock material
metamorphic rock
modified by heat pressure and chemical process deep below earth’s process
Sedimentary
formed by accumulation of sediments
orthoclase
Feldspar mineral with KALSI308. abundant mineral in continential crust
What does volcanism produce?
igneous rock
What is pluton a result of?
Some upward moving magma that reaches the surface, which results in volcanic eruptions
Lacolith
Sill that has pushed up the overlying rock
What is volcanic activity the result of?
melting of the mantle that rises upward because of thinning of stretched crust and upper mantle
Magma
- comes from athensphere
composed of melted silicate rocks and dissolved gases
What is the primary constitute of magma?
Silica
Three major types of magma
Basaltic,(less silica) andesitc, rhyiolitic
Viscosity
Measure of a fluid’s resistance to flow
- greater amount of silica make it more difficult for magma to flow
Volatile content
increases with silica content
Stratovolcanoes
conical shapes
-fuji
-St.Helens
-Rainier
-Baker
- high viscosity, don’t travel far but rather pile up (giving it their steep shapes)
- 80% of volcanic eruption
-most of the deaths recorded throughout history are strata
What is the most voluminous volcano in Northern California?
Mt. Shasta
What are strata volcanoes composed of?
Series of layered pyroclastic debris
What are the largest volcanoes in the world?
Shield Volcanoes
-from basaltic lava
-broad arc with gentle slopes
What is the largest Shield volcano?
-Mauna Loa in Hawaii
-Because of the low viscosity of the lava, when a shield volcano erupts the lava can flow great distances away from the vent down the flanks of the volcano.
An accumulation of thousands of thin basaltic lava flows over a large region gives these volcanoes their gentle slopes.
What are the primary effects?
Lava flows, pyroclastic activity such as ash fall, pyroclastic flows and lateral blasts, and release of volcanic gases
What are the secondary effects?
debris flows, mudflows, landslides or debris avalanches, floods, fires, and tsunamis.
Lava Flow
- Familiar products of volcanic activity
- Lava flows result when magma reaches the surface and overflows the central crater or erupts from a volcanic vent along the flank of the volcano.
What are the three types of lavas?
- basaltic
-andesitic
-rhyolitic
Basaltic Lava
lower viscosity and higher eruptive temperatures, are the fastest and can move 15–35 km per hour near the vent
Pyroclastic activity
explosive volcanism in which magma and the rocks that compose the volcano are physically blasted from a volcanic vent into the atmosphere forming pyroclastic debris
Tephra ejected from an erupting volcano is responsible for numerous hazards related to volcanic eruptions.
What is pyroclastic debris known as?
Tephra
-range from fine dust to sand- sized ash less than 2 mm, to small gravel-sized lapilli 2 to 64 mm, to large angular blocks and smooth-surfaced bombs greater than 64 mm.
Volcanic Gases
Several gases, including water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), are emitted during volcanic activity
Landscape of the Lower Mainland
mountains, Ice Age uplands, and modern lowlands.
- these are three physiographic elements or domains
what does the mountain domain include?
Coast and Cascade Mountains,
-rugged areas of steep slopes
-snow- and glacier-clad peaks, and deep valleys
What are small outliers of mountain domain rise up above low-lying areas in the Fraser Lowland?
Burnaby Mountain, Capitol Hill, Sentinel Hill and Sumas Mountain
How old are our mountains?
200 million years old
What is upland domain’s elevation
10 to 200 m above sea level and underlain mostly by sediments that date to the Ice Age, 2 million to 10,000 years ago
what is the thinnest sentiment?
Clay
When are the oldest rocks in metro Vancouver?
200 million years old
What era was the oldest rock in metro Vancouver
Jurassic
What era was the oldest rock- ice age sediment?
Pleistocene
What era was the oldest rock-sedimentary
Pleistocene - Pliocene
Sediment
sedis = Latin, which means seat, deposition
deposited, that which has been deposited or that which is capable of being deposited.
Mechanical transport
sediment as solid matter already begins to exist during transport
Chemical transport
Solid matter is only formed through the precipitation of ions.
Silt
too small for our eyes to see
smooth to fingers and gritty in mouth
Clay
Fine
- even smooth in your mouth
Modern sediments
Holencene
Land fill
Anthropocene
- no agreement on this so holencene is also right
Granules
Gravel size
Transportation
key principles of sedimentary geology : ability of a moving medium (air or water) to move sedimentary particles—and keep them moving—is dependent on the velocity and the density of flow
Bed load
of rivers consists of sand and gravel particles
-makes up less than 10 percent of the total load.
What is suspend load mostly consisted of?
silt and clay particles
-carried above the streambed by the flowing water.
- responsible 90 percent of the total load and makes rivers look muddy, especially during a flood.
what happens sedimentary deposits last long enough to get covered with other sediments
may eventually form into rocks ranging from fine mudstone to coarse breccia and conglomerate.
Lithification
term for number of different processes that take place within a deposit of sediment to turn it into solid rock.
What does lithification do?
Turns sediment into rock
What is the cycle of lithification?
-Clasts are dropped or settled out (deposition)
More sediments accumulate above so clasts are forced together to be closer (compaction)
Ground water moves between the grains and leaves behind mineral deposits bonding grains to each other (cementation)
Cementation
chemical precipitation of minerals from ions in solution in pore water. In this respect, it occurs in conjunction with dissolution processes, through which the ionic concentration of the water is gradually increased.
How does ocean basins and uplift of mountains occur?
from the movement of tectonic plates
Where are ocean basins and uplifts most active in?
along boundaries of lithospheric plates.
- this is where faulting occurs
Where do earthquakes happen the most?
-fault
plane of weakness in earths crust
What is a fault?
fracture or fracture system where rocks have been displaced; that is, Earth’s crust on one side of the fracture or fracture system has moved relative to the other side
What is strain or deformation?
Result of lithospheric plate moving past another is slowed by friction along the fault plane that separates the plates. This “braking action” stresses the rocks along the fault, and as a result, these rocks undergo
Dip Slip fault
offsets rocks in a vertical motion due to compressional or tensional stresses.
strike-slip fault
offsets blocks of crust in a horizontal direction due to shearing stress.
reverse fault
identified by an upward relative movement of the hanging wall due to compression, which results in shortening and thickening of Earth’s crust typical of convergent plate boundaries.
normal dip- slip fault
in which the hanging wall on the right side of the fault has dropped down
reverse dip-slip fault
which the hanging wall above the fault has moved up
Strike-slip fault
horizontal displacement along the fault plane. This particular example shows left-lateral displacement.
blind faults
faults that do not extend to the surface
epicentre
place on the surface of Earth above where the ruptured rocks broke to produce the earthquake.
what is the point of initial breaking or rupturing within the Earth is known as?
focus or hypo centre (directly below epicentre)
what causes the ground shaking?
seismic wave
(sudden rupture of the rocks produces)
Tectonic creep
Some active faults exhibit these
-gradual movement along a fault that is not accompanied by perceptible earthquakes.
Cascadia subduction zone beneath southwestern British Columbia and the state of Washington
-a tectonic creep
- slow earthquakes, which are not felt and only recently have been detected.
Richter Scale
1935 by the famous seismologist Charles Richter
determined by measuring the maximum amount of ground shaking.
seismograph/ seismometer
Ground motion, in either a vertical or horizontal direction
Moment Magnitude
measurement of the actual energy released during the earthquake.
-1970s, for absolute size of earthquake
-quant way
What is the qualitative way of studying earthquakes?
Modified Mercalli Intensity
Place where earthquakes start
Focus
-deeper the focus of earthquake, less shaking that will occur at the surface
Attenuation
seismic waves losing much of their energy before they reach the surface when the earthquake is relatively deep
What is cascade mountain?
volcanic
what is coast mountain?
plutonic
Moment Magnitudes
provides a quantitative way of comparing earthquakes. In contrast, earthquake intensity is often indicated with the qualitative
Orthoclase formula
KALSI308
Anorthic formula
CaA12si208
Albite formula
NaAIsi308
what do seismic waves move through more
consolidated drock
