Name______class______

Sedimentary Environments Google Earth Exercise

For each part of this exercise, there will be a location, labeled with a letter. Click on that letter, and read the description. Then check out the accompanying photos, which will usually include a ground photo and a photo of a rock. Click on each photo and read the description.

  1. Merced River
  2. The riverbed is full of boulders and cobbles. Why is sand, silt and clay rarely found in the riverbed?
  1. What kind of rock can be formed by deposits in a riverbed?______
  2. Would you expect the sediment to be well rounded?______
  3. Merced River runs through Yosemite Valley. What kind of rock is being weathered into boulders and cobbles?______
  4. Look at the set of rocks. Which rock sample would be formed by sediment deposited in a fast mountain stream like Merced River? Sample #______
  1. Santa Monica Beach
  2. What is the size of sediment at the beach______
  3. What kind of minerals would be present in the beach sediment______
  4. Many of the rivers in the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains contain debris basins that protect houses from flash floods. As these debris basins collect sediment, how will that affect the beaches in places like Santa Monica?
  1. Find the rock sample made of sediment from a beach like that at Santa Monica #______
  1. Malibu Lagoon
  2. As the Malibu Creek slows down, what kind of sediments does it deposit?
  1. The sand bar separating the lagoon from the ocean did not come from the Malibu Creek, where do you think it came from?
  1. What evidence do you have that Malibu Creek has a small discharge (volume of water per unit of time)?
  1. Why is the water in the lagoon so green?
  1. Why would the mud in a lagoon be black?
  1. Find the rock sample made from mud in a lagoon #______
  1. Shallow Marine Environment
  2. What is the depth of the water? (negative elevation shown at the bottom of the screen)______ft.
  3. Would you expect the sediments in a shallow marine environment to be well sorted?____
  4. Would you expect to find fish scales in Modelo shale?______
  5. Find the sample of Modelo shale (hint: is it light in color) #______
  6. Monterey Submarine Canyon
  7. The Monterey Submarine Canyon is one of the largest submarine canyons in California. Find a smaller submarine canyon that is closer to Los Angeles. Name of canyon______
  8. What do you call the underwater landslide that forms greywacke?______
  9. How does greywacke differ from normal sandstone?
  10. Find the sample of greywacke_#______
  11. Alluvial Fan Death Valley
  12. If the rocks in an alluvial fan are carried by water, why are they not well rounded?
  1. Why does the water drop the sediment at the base of the mountain?
  1. Breccia is composed of angular clasts (broken pieces of rock) cemented together. The clasts can be make of any kind of rock, granite, limestone, chert, even volcanic tuff (hence the term volcanic breccia). If the clasts had been rounded, what would be the name of the rock______
  2. Find the sample of breccia #______
  1. Dry Lake (playa) of Badwater
  2. Rock salt is one evaporate mineral. Name another that you might find in a playa.
  1. Most sediment is dropped in the alluvial fan. What size could be carried all the way to the center of the basin ______
  2. What happens to water that enters Death Valley?
  1. Find the sample of rock salt #______
  1. Sand Dunes
  2. What mineral makes up the sand in the Death Valley sand dunes______
  3. What kind of bedding is formed when sand flows down the side of a sand dune?
  1. Would you expect sand dune sediments to be well sorted?______Mature?______
  1. Everglades
  2. Why doesn’t the plant material decompose completely the way it would in a forest?
  3. Find the rock formed from buried sediment in a swampy environment #_____
  4. The element composing the rock is carbon. What gas is formed when this rock is burned?
  1. Bahamas- tropical island
  2. Why are the seas around the Bahamas so light blue?
  3. What is coquina made of?______
  4. Would you expect coquina to react to acid?______
  5. What is limestone made of?______
  6. Find the sample of coquina #______
  7. Find the sample of micrite, a small-grained form of limestone that has a smooth texture #______
  8. Delta
  9. What is a delta?
  1. What sediment size is common at a delta?
  2. Why do deltas make such good farmland?
  1. Delta Oil Formation
  2. What are the necessary conditions for the formation of oil?
  1. Which layer, sandstone or shale, acts as a reservoir of the oil?
  1. White Cliffs of Dover
  2. Are the White Cliffs of Dover composed of terrestrial or marine sediments?
  3. Find the sample of chalk #______
  4. Chalk and kaolinite look and feel exactly alike. What test could you do to distinguish chalk from kaolinite?
  5. Deep Ocean
  6. Diatoms and foraminifera are both microscopic organisms. How do their shells differ?
  1. Chert can look very much like limestone. How could you tell the two rocks apart?
  2. What is black chert?______
  3. Find the sample of chert #______
  1. Big Bear Lake
  2. What size sediment would you expect to find in the center of the lake?
  3. What rock would form from this sediment? ______
  4. Glacial Moraine
  5. If moraine sediment contains pebbles and cobbles, how could you distinguish it from a conglomerate deposited by a river?
  6. What rock would be formed?______
  7. Mississippi Sand Bars
  8. Why are the deposits of the Mississippi River different from the deposits of the Merced River in Yosemite ?
  1. What rock would form from the sand bar deposits? ______
  1. Mississippi Flood Plain
  2. What rock would form from the flood plain deposits?______
  1. Yellowstone
  2. What kind of rock forms from precipitated calcite?______
  3. What evidence do you have that the rock that was used to build the Getty Museum must have formed on land instead of the ocean?
  4. Find the sample of travertine #______

Quiz locations

Google Earth will take you to 6 more locations, similar to the locations that you have already visited. You may have to zoom in and out to get a better idea of what kind of environment you are visiting. Name one rock that would form at each quiz location

1.______

2.______

3. ______

4. ______

5______

6. ______