Geology 101 Earth & Environment - Fall 2016
Study Questions 1
Progress in completing these questions will be checked periodically.
Typically each class period will relate to about 6-10 questions.
Part 1 - Scientific Method; Environmental Geology; Origin and differentiation of the Earth
1. What types of study and goals are part of environmental geology? Outline the key concerns related to the interactions between people and our environment that are part of environmental geology.
2. What are the fundamental differences between hazard and risk? What are some key components and examples of each? When trying to reduce the impacts of "natural disasters," why is it important to recognize the difference between hazards and risks?
3. What are the implications of ongoing population growth and ongoing industrialization of less-developed nations for our demand for natural resources?
4. How do current economic systems fail to connect environmental and health costs with the activity that results in those costs? Include at least one example. How does this disconnect affect decisions about resource use, pollution, etc.?
5. What do earth scientists do? Where do earth scientists work?
6.What is science? What are scientific explanations based on, and in what ways are they tested?
7. Is an explanation scientific if it can't ever be tested? How is this related to the use of natural processes in scientific explanations?
8. Why must scientists consider and evaluate both evidence for an idea as well as any potential evidence against it? Does a good scientist get to simply ignore any evidence that they don't like?
9. How can making and testing predictions help increase confidence in scientific explanations? How does the agreement between multiple lines of evidence help increase confidence in scientific explanations?
10. Does the scientific process of retesting and reexamination ever end? Is anything in science ever exempt from further questioning?
11. What are the key differences between a theory and a hypothesis? How does the every-day use of the work "theory" (e.g. on the nightly news) differ from how scientists use the same word?
12. How might new scientific ideas be resisted? What tactics are commonly used? What are some of the possible motivations for resistance to new scientific ideas and their implications?
13. How can quality scientific work and explanations be distinguished from scams, junk science, pseudoscience, and intentional misinformation? What can you look for to help determine if a given source is accurate, trustworthy, and unbiased?
14. How do we deal with uncertainty or incomplete information when decisions need to be made?
15. What are the key ways in which the terrestrial and jovian planets differ? To which group does the Earth belong?
16. Describe how the nebular theory (hypothesis) explains the formation of the solar system. Include the basic principles, forces, and processes involved in this explanation. What are some of the reasons why this is thought to be a reliable explanation?
17. How and why did the Earth differentiate? What about the Earth changed during differentiation? How is density important? Where did the heat come from?
18. What are the three most abundant elements in the Earth as a whole, and how abundant are they (in %)? What are the three most abundant elements in the Earth’s crust and how abundant are they (in %)? Why are these elements concentrated in the crust? What elements are concentrated in the earth's core? Why are these elements concentrated there?
Part 2 - Geologic Time
1. How fast do geologic processes operate? Do they all work at the same rate? How do the rates of geologic processes compare to the extent of written human history and the rate at which people modify their environment? Include some examples.
2. What is uniformitarianism? How is it different from catastrophism? How is uniformitarianism important to the modern science of geology?
3. What is relative dating? What principles are used for relative dating, and how are they used? Be prepared to label a diagram and then apply these principles to put a sequence of events in order.
4. What is an unconformity? How do unconformities form? As an example, describe the steps needed to make an angular unconformity. Be prepared to recognize the different types of unconformities.
5. Why is it important to recognize unconformities when studying earth history?
6. What span of time is recorded by rocks of the Grand Canyon? Which represents more time, the rock layers or the unconformities?
7. What is numerical dating? Briefly summarize at least four different methods used for numerical dating.
8. Compare protons, neutrons, and electrons. What mass does each have? What charge does each have? Where in an atom is each found?
9. What is atomic number? What is atomic weight? How are these used to define the elements and different isotopes of those elements?
10. What are the three main isotopes of hydrogen? What is the atomic number and atomic weight of each? (Be prepared to distinguish elements and isotopes on the exam.)
11. What does it mean for an isotope to be radioactive?
12. What is radiometric dating? Explain how radiometric dating works making sure to include the following:
•What is meant by parent and daughter isotopes and how are the two related? Describe the changes that occur in the abundances of the parent and daughter isotopes as time progresses.
•What is meant by the half life of an isotope? What are the half lives of some key isotopes used for radiometric dating?
•Relate the time frame for which a radioactive isotope is useful for dating to the length of it's half life. For what time frame is carbon-14 (radiocarbon) useful for dating?
•How do can we know what the relative abundance of parent & daughter isotopes were when a rock, crystal, or piece of wood was formed?
•How is carbon-14 formed in the earth's atmosphere, and what is it made from? What kind of process is this (chemical or nuclear reaction)?
•Be able to calculate a radiometric age when given the half life in years and the remaining amount of parent isotope as a percent. - i.e. 50% corresponds with 1 half life (50 is half of 100), 25% corresponds with two half lives (25 is half of 50 and is 1/4 of 100).
•Can all rocks be directly dated by radiometric methods?
13. What is a fossil? Why are some organisms more easily preserved as fossils than others?
14. How are fossils important for understanding the history of the Earth? What characteristics make index fossils particularly useful?
15. Describe how the diversity of life has varied over time. From what earlier type of organisms did amphibians evolve? From what earlier type of organisms did dinosaurs evolve? From what earlier type of organisms did birds evolve?
16. What are some of the major milestones in the history of life on earth (first organisms with bones/shells, first trilobites, last trilobites, first fish, first land plants, first flowering plants, last dinosaurs, first mammals, etc.)?
17. What does it mean for an organism to go extinct? What is a mass extinction? Do organisms only go extinct during mass extinctions? Are extinctions happening today?
18. When did the biggest extinction in the history of the Earth happen? How was life on Earth affected?
19. When during Earth history did the dinosaurs go extinct? What are the two major causes that have been proposed to explain this mass extinction? What is some of the evidence, and where is it found?
20. How old is the Earth interpreted to be? What materials and what dating methods were used to find out?
21. How old are the oldest preserved Earth surface rocks? Why are the oldest rocks not as old as the origin of the Earth itself?
22. What is the Geologic Time Scale? How many years does it include? What divisions/parts does it have? What is the difference between an eon, era, and period? What kinds of information and techniques have been used to develop the time scale?
Part 3 - The Anthropocene and Sustainability
1. What is meant by the Anthropocene? What are some of the reasons for defining it? What does this say about humanity's impact on our planet?
2. What is sustainability?
3. Explain the difference between linear and exponential growth. Which of these patterns is exhibited by human population growth?
4. Is the assumption of endless economic growth realistic in a world of finite resources?
5. How do population growth and the desire for increased living standards affect resource consumption?
6. What are some of the side effects of current rates of resource consumption and use? How does our economic system commonly fail to factor in the real costs of these side effects?
7. Are our current patterns of resource use, industrialization, and population growth sustainable?
8. How can we make our way of life and our economic system more sustainable? What can you as an individual do to help? Include several examples.
9. What are the implications for future generations if we do not make our society more sustainable?
10. What is the phenomenon of shifting baselines? How does it mask the true magnitude of humanity's effects on our planet? How does this make it more difficult to achieve sustainability?