Geology test 1

In the Colorado National Monument, a major uncomformity exists between the precambrian rocks and the triassic chinle formations. The hiatus represented by this gap is

1,200 million years

The oldest rocks in Colorado are approximately __________ old

2.7 billion years

Igneous rock type that is created by partial melting of oceanic crust in a subduction zone

Andesite

What is not a physiographic province of Colorado?

Cascade mountains

Which of the following academic disciplines are major components of Geology?

Chemistry, Physics, and Biology

Grand Junction is located in the ______ physiographic province

Colorado Plateau

The last time the are now known as Colorado was flooded by ocean water

Cretaceous period (phase 4)

Numerous paleogeographic maps were shown during Prof. Cole's lectures. The geologist-artist who constructed these maps is

Dr. Ran Blakey, recently retired from Northern Arizona University

What isn't a basic type of heat transfer?

Gravity

Denver is located on the western edge of the _____ physiographic province

Great plains

Which of the following statements pertains to the concept of superposition?

In a stack of undeformed sedimentary rocks, the oldest layer will be at the bottom

If we could use a time machine to visit Grand Junction area during late phase 3 (jurassic) when the wingate sandstone was being deposited, we would see

Large migrating sand dunes

Term used to define a period of mountain building in the geologic past

Orogeny

When did glaciation significantly impact Colorado?

Phase 6

The rocks in nearby road cut by the Eisenhower tunnel

Precambrian metamorphic and igneous rocks

The giant phase 6 "crack" (divergent plate boundary) in Colorado is called

Rio Grande Rift

This orogeny took place in Utah, Arizona, and Nevada

Sevier

What statement summarizes the occurrence of silurian sedimentary rocks?

Silurian sedimentary rocks are only found in a diatremes of north central colorado

The largest physiographic province in Colorado is

Southern Rocky Mountains

Regarding quantitative (numerical) age dates for precambrian igneous rocks in colorado, what statement is correct

The dates are between 1.8 and 1.0 billion years ago

Uniformitarianism

The present is the key to the past

Which of the following statements best summarizes Colorado's history during Phase 2 (cambrian-mississippian periods)?

The seas came in and the seas went out

What statement is false?

There are 3 types of strain (deformation): elastic, plastic, splastic

Which statement describes the velocity at which tectonic plates move?

They move at about the same rate that your finger nails grow (inches per year)

When an igneous rock is dated by the uranium-lead or other radiometric method, the number (date) that is obtained indicates

When the magma cooled and solidified into rock

"Sag shaped

a syncline

If sedimentary rocks are deformed into an "arch" shaped fold (cross sectional view) the structure is called

an anticline

This partially molten layer of igneous rock underlies the lithosphere

asthenosphere

The assigned video was produced by geologists and graphic artists

at the University of Colorado Boulder

From the surface of the earth downward to the center, the earths internal zones are

crust, mantle, outer core, inner core

The energy that drives the "tectonic engine" (plate movement) comes from

heat from radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium, plus heat left over from the earths formation

The earths core is composed of what

iron and nickel

By definition, the rocks below a non-conformity consists of

metamorphic and/or igneous rocks

A spectacular fold called a __________ can be seen in the sedimentary rocks along the front of Colorado National Monument

monocline

The plate tectonic formation of the super-continent called _______ was the trigger for creation of the ancestral rocky mountains

pangaea

Argon-40 is the radioactive parent atoms to decay product (daughter) of ______

potassium -40

New oceanic crust is created here

spreading ridges at divergent plate boundaries

These 2 sedimentary rock units are precambrian in age

the Uinta Mountain and Uncompahgre groups

A normal fault is defined by

the foot wall block moving up with respect to the hanging wall block

The time required for one-half of the radioactive parent atoms to decay to their stable daughter atoms is called

the half life

A reverse fault is defined by

the hanging wall block moving up with respect to the foot wall block

If an igneous dike cross cuts a sandstone bed, the dike is _______ the sandstone

younger than