Earth and Life through time
Winter 2003
Exam III - Study questions

Updated: 13 March 2003

The final exam will include, and be largely limited to the following study questions. Note, however, that material from lecture notes from entire term may be considered.

Chapter 14 - The Mesozoic Era (and related lectures)
What was Pangea?  When did it form?
What are the three tectonic collision events that marked the evolution of eastern North America (notes)?
How do the geologic underpinnings differ between Albany, New York city, and Hartford?
What is the difference between a reverse fault and a normal fault (sketch)?
What marked the end of Pangea? What is the evidence on the East Coast
How and when did the N. Atlantic open? S. Atlantic?
What are the Newark and the Hartford Basins?  How to they related to the opening of the Atlantic?
What is the Pallisades sill?

Why do rift basins typically have evaporites?
Why was Sea level so high in the middle Cretaceous?
What was the "Cretaceous Seaway"?  Why did it form?

What is the California Triad (as below in next three)?  What does it represent?
What is the Franciscan complex? What unusual rocks does this unit have? (i.e. Accretionary prism)
What is the Great Valley Group?  Where were the sediments derived from that fill this basin? (i.e. Forearc)
When did the Sierran Granites form and why? (i.e. this was the ARC)
Please sketch the relationship between all three. (cross section).
What is blueschist?  Why is it unusual?
What is mélange?  Where does it occur?

What would a cross section look like across CA to CO at about 100 MA in terms of basins and structures?
What is the tectonic event represented by the Pierre Shale? The Arapahoe Fm? (Loveland)
What does a clastic wedge look like for the Sevier Orogeny?
What is “flat slab” subduction, how might it be related to Laramide?
How does a foreland basin develop?

What went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous? (What is the fossil evidence)
What were the extinction patterns? Did all forms go extinct exactly at the KT boundary?
What did W. Alverez discover and what was he trying to do?

What is present at Gubbio Italy?
What othere characteristics/features to the "boundary clays" have?
What are competing hypotheses for the KT extinction?  What is evidence in support and against each?

Chapter 15- The Cenozoic Era
What is the Laramide Orogeny?
What is the evidence of the Laramide orogeny in Loveland Colorado?
How is the Laramide different than the Sevier Orogeny (see p. 405+)
How did the San Andreas fault develop and change with time? How did the Mendacino triple junction migrate and why?
How did Basin and Range Extension develop through time? What would it look like in cross section?
What is a listric normal fault
How is the evolution of the Basin and Range related to the development of the San Andreas fault?

What is the Hawaiian hot spot?  What geologic record has it left behind?
Why did the Columbia River Basalts form?
What is the setting of the Cascade arc? What would it look like in cross section?
What caused the collision of the Himalya?  When did this occur?

How has Cenozoic climate changed?
How is this indicated by changes in d¹⁸O (Delta O 18)
How has this climate change been figured out?
How does modern “global Warming” fit into the overall “global cooling” in the CZ?
What is a Greenhouse gas? Why do they cause warming?

What is Adaptive explosion?

Chapter 16 - Pleistocene Glaciation and Humanity
When did the ice age start?
What is "drift" (or glacial till) and where/when did this name come from?
What is the Laurentide ice sheet?
How many glacial advances have there been?
What caused glaciations? (at least two hypotheses)
What is the Milankovitch cycle?

What are three types of Glacial lakes that formed in the Pleistocene? Give a single example of each type.
In general, how has sea level changed during the ice age?
How has sea level changed in the last 22 ka?
How do oxygen isotopes indicate climate change?
What is the relationship between Long Island and Cape Cod to the last ice advance?
What is the depositional age of Long Island?

When did humans appear?  What is the fossil record of this event?
Who is "Lucy"?
What is the Little Ice Age? When did it occur?
How is the emergence from the Little Ice age related to the Irish Potato Famine?
What is the age of Australopithicus? H. Erectus? H. Sapiens?
When does evidence suggest that humans arrived in North America?

Cracking the Ice Age - Nova (see also “Cenozoic Climate” p. 482-487)
(see also Cenozoic tectonics of Eurasia” p. 474-480)
This film is on reserve in the Library if you need to view it).

When did the last global cooling start?
How much did sea level drop at peak glaciation?
When did the Collision between India and Asia occur? What was the result?
In the BLAG model, if sea floor speeds up, then what happens to CO₂ and average global temperature?
How does erosion in the Himalaya, affect CO₂ in the atmosphere?

⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr steadily increases from 35 Ma to the present. What is an explanation of this change?
How does silicate weathering increased, result in CO₂ drawdown?
Globally, what is the effect of CO₂ drawdown?

According to the premise of the “Cracking the ice age”
1) Why has the Earth gotten so much colder?
2) What role did the Himalya play in this cooling?
3) What role did the Uplift of Tibet play in this climate change? Why?
4) When did these changes occur.