Download fundamentals of earth history

Geology G109
Syllabus
FUNDAMENTALS OF
EARTH HISTORY
Dr. Joseph F. Pachut
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Oncourse:
Science Building, SL 132
274-7785
274-7484 (SL 118)
[email protected]
www.geology.iupui.edu/academics/
CLASSES/G109/G109JOE.htm
oncourse.iu.edu/
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I. Introduction
A. Geology as a Science
B. Geology & Society
II. The Rock Record
A. Atomic Structure
B. Minerals
C. Rocks
1. igneous
2. metamorphic
3. sedimentary
III. Basic Geologic Concepts
A. Organizing the Rock Record
B. Stratigraphic Principles
1. horizontality
2. superposition
3. lateral continuity
4. cross-cutting relationships
C. Interpreting the Rock Record
1. formations
2. present as a key to the past = uniformitarianism
3. facies & Walther’s Law
4. Unconformities
D. The Geologic Time Scale
1. Precambrian
2. Phanerozoic Eon & its Periods
3. Radiometric Age Dating
a. isotopes
b. the decay process
c. methods
IV. Sedimentary Processes & Sedimentary Rocks
A. Weathering
1. Physical
2. Chemical
B. Major Depositional Environments
1. Streams
a. erosion
b. transportation
c. deposition
d. base level
2. Waves
3. Wind
4. Ice
C. Classification of Sedimentary Rocks
1. Clastic vs. Non-clastic
2. Characteristics of Sediments
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a. grain size
b. texture
c. color
3. Facies
4. Formation
5. Changing Shorelines
a. transgression
b. regression
6. Features of Sedimentary Rocks
V. Organizing the Rock Record
A. Stratigraphic Units
1. Rock (Lithologic)
2. Time-Stratigraphic (Time-Rock)
3. Time (Geochronologic)
4. Biostratigraphic
B. Biostratigraphy
1. Paleoecology
2. Biogeographic Provinces
3. Fossils & Time
C. Correlation by Physical Events
1. Sedimentary
2. Magnetic
VI. Planetary Beginnings - Origins
A. Earth’s Setting in Space
1. Solar System Model
2. Stars & Galaxies
3. Origin of the Universe
B. Origin of Our Solar System
1. Theories on Its Formation
2. Accumulation of Planets
3. Formation of the Moon
VII. Earth’s Interior - Differentiation of the Earth
A. Internal Layering
1. Basic Structure
2. Seismic Information
3. Extraterrestrial Clues
4. Theories - Origin of Layers
B. Evolution of Oceans & Atmosphere
1. Original Atmosphere
2. Current Atmosphere
3. Ocean-Atmosphere Connection
VIII. Plate Tectonics
A. Definitions & Basics
1. Tectonics
2. Lithosphere
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3. Asthenosphere
B. Evidence for the Existence of Plates
1. Jigsaw-Puzzle Fit
2. Paleomagnetism
3. Ocean-Floor Features
a. guyots
b. mountain ranges = Ridge-Rise System
c. seafloor magnetism - seafloor spreading
C. Confirmation of Plate Motions
1. Maps of Earthquake Locations
2. Plate Boundaries
a. divergent
b. convergent
c. transcurrent
3. Absolute Motions - Measurements
D. Ancient Plate Motions
1. “Reverse” Motions - Over the Last 150-200 MY
2. Plates & Squeezed Rocks = Geosynclines & Mountain Belts
a. original concept ± mio- & eugeosynclines
b. plate tectonic explanation
3. Ancient Convergent Plate Boundaries - Collision Points
a. ophiolites
b. blue-schists
IX. Physical Evolution of north America: Precambrian
A. Ancient Rocks = 85% of earth history
B. Regions & Geography
1. Cratons
2. Mobile Belts
C. Precambrian History
1. Time Divisions
a. Archean
b. Proterozoic
2. Rock Categories
a. Greenstone belts
b. Archean granites
3. The First Continents
a. protocontinent formation
b. platform sequences
c. geosynclinal sequences
D. Precambrian Environments
1. Banded Iron Formations
2. Stromatolites
3. Tillites
X. Physical Evolution of North America: Paleozoic
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A. Cratonic Sequences - Phanerozoic Transgressions &
Regressions
1. Unconformities
2. Sequences of Depositions = Sequences
a. Sauk & Tippecanoe - Early Paleozoic
b. Kaskaskia - Late Paleozoic
c. Absaroka - extends into Mesozoic
B. Cambrian to Devonian Time - Beginnings of Pangea
1. Shallow Epicontinental Seas
2. Continental Positions
3. Mobile (Mountain) Belts - Protoatlantic closes
a. Taconic Orogeny - Ordovician (Queenston Delta)
b. Caledonian Orogeny - Late Silurian
c. Acadian Orogeny - Middle & Late Devonian (Old Red
Sandstone & Catskill Delta)
4. Early Paleozoic Sediments
a. Reefs
b. Evaporites
c. Deltas
C. Mississippian to Triassic Time
1. Assembly of Pangea is Completed
a. Laurasia - 8 or More Pieces
b. Gondwana - Unit since Precambrian
2. Mobile Belts
a. Marathon, Ouachita, Appalachian, Hercynian Orogenies Pennsylvanian - U.S. Collides with Venezuela
b. Final Assembly - Permian/Triassic in E. Europe & Asia
3. Environments & Sediments
a. Shallow Seas - Mississippian
b. Continental Sediments - Pennsylvanian & Permian
1) stream deposits
2) coal & cyclothems
3) deserts & evaporites
4) tillites
XI. The Breakup of Pangea - Jurassic to Pliocene
A. Triassic to Present
B. Fragmentation
1. Triassic - rift valleys
2. Jurassic - Indian & north Atlantic Oceans enlarge
3. Cretaceous - nearly modern geography
4. Cenozoic - Antarctica & Australia separate
C. Hot Spots
D. Aulacogens
E. Alterations of Climate
F. Changing Landscapes - Jurassic to Pliocene
1. Shallow Seas - Jurassic & Cretaceous
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2. Mountain Building
a. Alps-Himalayas Chain
1) nappe structures in Alps
2) collision between India & Asia
b. Cordilleran Chain
1) Mesocordilleran Highland - Late Triassic
2) Nevadan Orogeny - L. Jurassic & E. Cretaceous
3) Sevier Orogeny - E. Cretaceous
4) Laramide or Cordilleran Orogeny -L. Cret./Cenozoic
5) Cascadian/Pasadenian Orogenies - Miocene
3. Sediment Patterns
a. Flysch - turbidites
b. Molasse - basin-fill
c. Barrier Island
d. Delta
e. Cyclothems
f. Chalks
XII. The Pleistocene Epoch
A. Climate Alterations
B. Glaciers
1. Development
2. Effects
3. Advances & Retreats
4. Causes of Glaciation
XIII. Organic Evolution
A. Theory
1. Buffon
2. Erasmus Darwin
3. Lamarck
4. Charles Darwin
B. Heredity - Genes
1. Recombination
2. Mutation
C. Natural Selection
D. Classification
E. Speciation
1. Gradualism
2. Punctuated Equilibrium
F. Evolutionary Patterns
1. Adaptive Radiation
2. Adaptive Convergence
3. Haeckel’s Biogenetic Law - recapitulation
4. Orthogenesis
XIV. The Fossil Record
A. Beginnings of Life
1. Early Environments
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2. Requirements for Life
a. Amino acids
b. Proteins
c. Nucleic acids
B. Precambrian Fossil Record
1. Oldest Rocks
2. Oldest Fossils
a. Fig Tree Chert
b. Bulawayan Group
c. Gunflint Chert
3. Oxygen
4. Cell Types
a. Procaryotes
b. Eucaryotes
5. Origin of Sex
C. Origin of “Higher” Animals
1. Metazoans
2. Body Cavity = Coelom
3. Fossil Evidence
a. Buckingham Sandstone
b. Ediacara Hills
D. Evolution of Skeletons
1. Sudden Appearance
2. Advantages
XV. Marine Life - Early Paleozoic
A. Burgess Shale = “Window” into Cambrian Life
1. Middle Cambrian - British Columbia
2. Variety of “Soft-Bodied” animals
B. Food Resources
1. Unstable in Cambrian - sediment feeders
2. Stabilized in Ordovician - filterers
3. Ways of Life in Sea Explored - Ordovician
C. Diversity Gradient
1. Equator = High
2. Poles = Low
D. Effect of Plate Tectonics
1. Late Precambrian - Supercontinent; Seasonal Effects
2. Cambrian - Initial Breakup; Less Seasonal
3. Ordovician - Extensive Fragmentation; Least Seasonal
4. Silurian & Devonian - Protoatlantic Closes; More Seasonal
5. Carboniferous & Permian - Pangea Completed; Very Seasonal
& Massive Extinctions
E. Origin of Vertebrates (Animals With Backbones)
1. Are Chordates - Have a Notochord
2. Earliest Evidence - Cambrian
3. Ostracoderms - Agnatha (Jawless)
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4. Evolution of Jaws- Late Silurian
5. Types of Fish
a. Acanthodians
b. Placoderms
1) arthrodires
2) antiarchs
c. Cartilagenous Fish
d. Bony Fish
1) Actinopterygii ± ray-fined
2) Crossopterygii ± lobe-fined
3) Dipnoi ± ling fish
XVI. Amphibians
A. Problems Faced - Out of Water
B. Solutions
C. Reproduction
D. Fossil Record - Upper Devonian
E. Evolution
XVII. Origin of Reptiles
A. Amniote Egg
B. Selection Pressures
C. First Reptiles - Romeriids (Early Pennsylvanian)
D. Major Groups
1. In Sea
a. Mesosaurs
b. Ichthyosaurs
c. Plesiosaurs
d. Turtles
2. On Land
a. Eosuchians - lizards & snakes
b. Thecodonts - ancestor of dinosaurs & crocodiles
c. Pelycosaurs - led to thecodonts
d. Therapsids - mammal-like
XVIII. Dinosaurs
A. Changing Domination on Land - Permian to Triassic
1. Climate Change
2. Body Structure
B. Dinosaur Groups - Different Hip Structures
1. Saurischians
2. Ornithischians
C. Saurischians - 2 Groups
1. Theropods - Rapid Runners; Mostly Predators
2. Sauropods - Medium to Very Large Plant Eaters
D. Ornithischians - More Variety
1. Ornithopods ± Deer-like
2. Stegosaurs ± Spinal Plates
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3. Ankylosaurs ± Walking Rockpiles
4. Pachycephalosaurs ± Head-Butters
5. Ceratopsians ± Horned
E. Dinosaur Biology
A. Feeding Relationships
B. Habitats
1. Old Ideas
2. New Ideas
C. Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs?
XIX. Evolution of Flight
A. First Fliers = Insects; Carboniferous
B. Flying Vertebrates ± Icarosaurus - Triassic
C. Pterodactyls
1. Descended From Thecodonts
2. Albatross-Like
D. Feathered Fliers
1. Archaeopteryx ± Late Jurassic; Germany
2. Relationship To Later Birds
E. Bats - Eocene Epoch
XX. Mammals
A. Mammals vs. Reptiles
B. Ancestor of Earliest Mammals = Cynodonts (Reptile); Triassic
C. Patterns of Life in the Mesozoic
1. Triassic - seasonal climates; deposit feeders dominate
2. Jurassic & Early Cretaceous - more stable climates; more
suspension feeders
3. Middle Cretaceous - most stable climates; diverse suspension &
other types of feeders
a. ammonites - cephalopods (squid with a shell)
b. marine reptiles
4. Cretaceous Extinctions - eliminated
a. ammonites
b. large marine reptiles
c. large land reptiles = dinosaurs
5. Plant Evolution Similar
a. Mesozoic Plants - descended from Carboniferous plants
b. Early Domination by Gymnosperms - conifers
c. Early Cretaceous - Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)
6. End Cretaceous Extinctions
D. Cenozoic Mammals
1. Mammals Fill Niches Vacated by Dinosaurs
2. Example = Ungulates
a. Paleocene Epoch - Phenacodus
b. Eocene - Large Uintatheres, Titanotheres, & Rhinos
3. Carnivores
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a. Basic Design
b. Creodonts = Late Cretaceous Example
4. Evolution of the Horse
5. Exchange of Mammals Between North & South America
XXI. Primate Evolution
A. Early Evidence
B. Monkeys
C. Apes
1. Aegyptopithecus - Oligocene
2. Dryopithecines & Ramapithecines - Miocene
3. Australopithecines = More Human-Like
a. Australopithecus afarensis ± “Lucy”; 4 - 2.8 MYA
b. Australopithecus africanus ± 3 - 1.6 MYA
c. Australopithecus robustus ± 2.3 - 1.3 MYA
D. Our Genus ± Homo
1. Homo erectus ± 1, 600,000 - 400,000 yrs. ago
a. Examples = Peking & Java
b. Related to Australopithecus
2. Neanderthals ± 100,000 - 35,000 yrs. ago
3. Homo sapiens ± Modern Humans
a. Appeared Approximately 35,000 yrs. ago
b. Cro-Magnon = Early Example From Europe
1) may have replaced Neanderthals
2) were skilled artisans (cave paintings) & tool makers
c. North American H. sapiens - approx. 11,000 yrs. ago