Siccar Point Virtual Field Trip
Name______
On this trip you will meet two major rock formations:
· Silurian greywackes laid down in a deep sea environment about 425 million years ago.
· Devonian sandstones deposited on a broad coastal plain periodically flooded by the sea about 345 million years ago.
Take the excursion and then answer the set of questions listed below. Upload your answers to the Assignments page on Blackboard by the due date announced in class.
1. The time interval available for folding and erosion of the Silurian strata before deposition of the Old Red Sandstone strata was 80 million years.
True: False: [Introduction]
2. Siccar Point is located east of Edinburgh.
True: False: [Location]
3. Siccar Point is on the Berwickshire coast.
True: False: [Climate]
4. Among the first two items on your shopping list of field clothing would be fingerless gloves.
True: False: [Clothing]
5. The best item for writing in a field notebook is a HB pencil.
True: False: [Equipment]
6. There is no danger in standing on the rocks adjacent to the sea when there are waves breaking.
True: False: [Safety]
7. The ocean that separated Scotland from England 480 million years ago is known as Tethys.
True: False: [Plate Setting]
8. 425 million years ago the site that is now Siccar Point was occupied by a deep trench.
True: False: [Palaeogeography]
9. Prior to 400 million years ago Scotland was part of Laurentia.
True: False: [Palaeogeography]
10. 425 million years ago a subduction zone plunged south-east beneath England.
True: False: [Trench Section]
11. The Silurian strata at Siccar Point were deposited by river currents.
True: False: [Tilting]
12. The rocks near the foot of the cliff at Siccar Point are red Silurian sandstones.
True: False: [Siccar Point]
13. When you sketch Hutton’s unconformity you need to pick out the bedding planes in only the horizontal strata.
True: False: [Closer]
14. The best place to sketch the unconformity is with a view direction parallel to the Silurian strata.
True: False: [And closer]
15. At the unconformity contact the Silurian strata are reddened.
True: False: [And closer still]
16. The Silurian strata at Siccar Point display worm burrows.
True: False: [Sedimentary structures]
17. The Old Red Sandstone breccia was deposited as a wadi deposit.
True: False: [The Old Red Sandstones]
18. The pebbles in the Old Red Sandstone breccia were imbricated by fast flowingcurrents.
True: False: [The breccia]
19. The pebbles in the breccia include some samples of igneous rocks.
True: False: [Pebble varieties]
20. The sandstone component of the Old Red Sandstone displays cross stratification.
True: False: [Sandstone]