GEOL 101 Exam 2 Review

Rock that forms by cementing together of fragments, broken off, pre-existing rock, or by the precipitation of mineral crystals out of water solutions at or near the earth surface.

Can be the broken down bits of a rock. Can be a mineral that wasn’t created but it was eroded out, broken out, or weathered out and now its loose clast.

Chemical reactions of minerals in rocks to air or water.

consists of mineral grains, rock fragments, and cementing material.

the diameter of individual grains of sediment or lithified particles in clastic rocks.

produced by inorganic precipitation of dissolved compounds (example:through oversaturation or evaporation).

a planar fabric that cuts through the rock due to alignment of platy minerals and can lead to alternating light/dark bands.

are those that have undergone solid-state diffusion of pre-existing rocks.

pre-existing rocks that are altered during metamorphism.

a measure of the intensity of temperature and pressure conditions that lead to alteration.

Low pressure, high temperature metamorphic setting.

stress that is greater in ONE direction.

the study of fossils.

types of preservation and how preservation takes place.

the gradual change of physical traits of organisms through time.

global, abrupt decreases in biodiversity.

Precambrian → Paleozoic → Mesozoic → Cenozoic → Anthropocene

processes observed today are the same as what has occurred through Earth’s history.

Gaps in the rock record from nondeposition or erosion.

Underlying layers are tilted.

Underlying layers are igneous or metamorphic rocks, not tilted.

Underlying layers are sedimentary, not tilted.

Determines specific age using parent isotopes decaying to daughter isotopes.

Elements with varying neutrons.

Time for half of unstable nuclei to decay.

Depict strata in a region, representing different rock types.

Younger features cutting across older features.

Areas draining into a river or lake.

Lowest point a stream can erode, local (lake) or ultimate (sea level).

Total sediment a stream can carry, dissolved, suspended, and bed loads.

Choked channels with high stream capacity, meandering streams with looping channels.

Probability of an event happening in a given year.

Study of groundwater, filling pore spaces in rock.

Total volume of open space in rock.

Degree of material allowing fluid flow.

Rock holding and transferring water, confined or unconfined.

Top of groundwater reservoir, separating saturated and unsaturated zones.

Analog of water table for confined aquifer.

Contamination, cone of depression, groundwater mining.