Download Road Cut Geology Web Quest Name - JBHA-Science-tri2

Road Cut Geology Web Quest
Name _______________________________
Background Information:
Read the summary and answer the #1-4 summary
questions as cornell notes here.
1. Why are roadcuts a geologist’s
best friend?
2. What are natural outcrops?
3. Why is geology difficult to
study without roadcuts and
natural outcrops?
4. What is the reason we learned
so much more about geology
with the industrial revolution?
Summary:
Roadcuts are the geologist's best friend. This tilted slate in figure 1 near
Lake Isabella, California, is exposed in detail in the roadcut whereas only a few stone
spikes crop out of the hillside above it. The widespread development of modern roads has
been great for students of geology. Without roadcuts, things are much tougher because
they would be covered with vegetation.
Natural outcrops include stream beds, cliffs of various kinds, caverns and heavily
eroded terrain. Soil and vegetation cover most of the rock structures, especially the
softer rocks. Natural outcrops are usually weathered, making it difficult to see the true
character. Rock exposures in mines and quarries are useful, but these are scattered and
few.
There's a reason why geology arose along with industrial technology. William Smith
could create his geologic map of 1815, (See Figure 2) the world's first, only because his
business was digging canals everywhere in Great Britain. The rise of railroads and paved
roads cut open the landscape like a knife, making mapping much easier. When you can study
one perfect roadside exposure, you can recognize the rock elsewhere even when only bits
and pieces stick above the soil.
Part 2. For each numbered photo, identify if it is showing mainly metamorphic,
igneous or sedimentary rock features. (Print out and write these on the handout)
Part 3. Answer the Concluding Questions at the end of the webquest. (Write on the
handout)
Figure 1.
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4.
Dikes are shown in Figure 4.
Figure 5.
Folded rock layers are shown in Figure 5.
Figure 6.
Figure 6. Shows a dike
Figure 7. shows limestone in layers called strata
Figure 8.
Sometimes ripple marks can be found in limestone like these in Figure 8.
Figure 9 shows folded rocks. The top curving part of a fold is called an anticline and
the bottom curving part of the fold is called a syncline.
anticline
syncline
Figure 10.
Figure 10 shows a bed of conglomerate
Figure 11. shows folds. Try to label the anticlines and synclines?
Figure 12. shows dinosaur footprints and ripple marks
In Figure 12 Dinosaur footprints, fossilized plants, and delicate ripple marks of a
prehistoric pool are preserved in stone at this reservation near the west bank of the
Connecticut River.
Figure 13.
Figure 13 shows a bed of gneiss. See the different color wavy bands of minerals.
Figure 14.
Figure 14 shows foliated rock
Figure 15 shows intrusions
Figure 16.
shows a lava flow that has solidified.
Concluding Questions:
1. How do intrusive rock features form?
2. How does a rock feature such as a lava flow form?
3. What is conglomerate and how does it form?
4. What causes foliation?
5. What kind of crystals would you find in intrusive rock features?
_____________________
6. What kind of crystals would you find in extrusive volcanic features?
______________________
7. If you saw a road cut composed of straight horizontal layers of rock, why would
you guess that it was sedimentary rock, instead of igneous or metamorphic rock?
8. Why do you think that igneous and metamorphic rock features often occur
together?