Download Earth Surface Processes Assessment Instrument Geos 255 Spring

“2. Graduates will understand Earth surface processes and how
humans affect and are affected by the processes. (Examples,
sedimentary systems, interaction of earth surface with oceans and
atmosphere, geomorphological processes, climate and climate
change, environmental geology.)” Assessment tools are in the
form of quiz/exam questions, listed below:
1) What can we look for in a sandstone to tell us whether it was deposited in a
coastal/beach environment or a desert/dune environment?
2) In a transgressive sequence (rising sea level), would you expect to see
sandstone on top of shale and limestone, or limestone and shale on top of
sandstone? Explain.
3) A sequence is a group of rocks that represents one cycle of sea level change.
What feature would you expect to see between rock sequences, that marks
the transition from high sea level to a drop in sea level? (hint: NOT what rock
type, but what geologic feature that represents a change from transgression
to regression).
4) Below is a cross-section of the Grand Canyon stratigraphy and its
corresponding geologic time. Would you expect to find more fossils in the
Unkar Group or the Tonto group and why? Immediately after the erosion
event that created the great unconformity (angular unconformity between
Unkar Group and Tonto group), was there a transgression or regression of
the ocean, and how do you know?
5) When Earth first formed it did not have an atmosphere. Where did the gasses in the
earliest atmosphere come from? How was the Archean atmosphere different from
Earth’s atmosphere today?
6) How would a fluvial (river channel) deposit be different from a delta deposit?
(Discuss grain size, shape, sorting, and lithology).