1
Q
What did James Ussher
A
- used the Bible to predict the beginning of Earth
- said Earth had a beginning date at 9 am on 4004 BC
- to the Christian imagination, the Earth was 6000 BC
- > mountains were made on the third day
- > the same that that the polar zones are frozen and the tropics were warmed
2
Q
Who is Thomas Burnet
A
- did not think biblical explanations accounted for the creation of the World
- > did not believe the Great Flood of the Bible accounted for the creation of the World
- sets forth his theory of the Mundane Egg
- > immediately after creation, the Earth was unblemished without hills
- > it was flawless in appearance and uniform in texture
- > it had a complicated inner structure, the fiery core(yolk)
- > the white of the egg is the water filled abyss onto which the shell floated
- for Burnett, the action of the Sun cracked out the Earth’s crust, letting water come out of the crust
- > the water ripped out onto the world and caused massive floods
-his book was the The sacred theory of the Earth
3
Q
What did Georges Buffon estimate the Earth to be
A
- 75,000 years ago
- > but even he said that was conservative
- he turned each of the seven Biblical days of creation into an epoch of indefinite length
- > created the space and time necessary for geologists to begin their work of exposing a deep history for the Earth
- > all the while staying within the bounds of Biblical scripture
4
Q
What was the two schools of thinking for geologists at the beginning of the eighteen hundredths
A
Catastrophism
- > history of the Earth was dominated by major geological revolutions
- > eg; ice, fire, comets, earthquakes
- > drastic tidal waves, global tsunamis, severe earthquakes and volcanos, the passing of comets shaped the earth surface into its present disruption
Uniformitarianism
- > the Earth has not had a global catostrophy
- > earthquakes yes, volcanoes yes
- > the change was there but the change was slow
- > did not happy over night
- > these phenomena like earthquakes and volcanoes rearranged the Earth within their own vicinity
- > “the present is the key to the past”
5
Q
What was the Grand Tour and who was the chaperone for it
A
- it was one of the earliest forms of modern tourism from the 17 th and 18 th century
- > it was a rite of passage for many young English and European elites to polish off their formal education by exposing themselves to continental architecture and to geography, history and culture
- > the tour required a crossing of the European Alps
-Burnet was the chaperone for the Grand Tour
6
Q
What the biblical key to the Earth’s appearance
A
- it was the Great Flood
- > a biblical story of a flood so great that it destroyed civilization
- > but where on Earth could all that water come from
- Burnet concluded that it would take 8 oceans of water
- > a mere 40 days of rain, as it says in the Genesis, could hardly provide enough water to even lap at the feet of most mountains
7
Q
Who wrote the Principles of Geology
A
- Charles Lyell did
- >he was a Scottish geologist
8
Q
What is so special about the Burgess Shale
A
- this is the site of the world’s first protected complex marine ecosystem
- > it is part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site
- > remnants of an ancient sea floor can still be found among the highest peaks
- most fossil deposits in the world preserve hard parts of animals like shells and bones and teeth
- > the Burgess Shale preserves the soft tissues of organisms
9
Q
What was Wegener’s contributions to the theory of mountains
A
- he said continents move
- he also believed that the continents were all part of one continent, named Pangaea at one point in time
- for proof, Wegener said that the continents fit together like a jigsaw puzzle
- > he also had proof of comparative fossil specimens and climactic evidence
10
Q
When was Wegener’s theory of continental drift recognized
A
- in the 1950’s
- >with advances in the study of Earth’s magnetic field
11
Q
What is the basis of plate tectonics on Eath
A
- that the Earth’s surface is broken up into several rigid plates
- > these plates are made up of the Earth’s crust and the upper part of the mantle layer underneath
12
Q
What is the litrosphere
A
- the crust and the upper mantle are called the litrosphere
- plates gilde on the more ductile asthenosphere
13
Q
What are the two kinds of crust are the litrospheric plates comprised of
A
-they are comprised of either continental or oceanic crust or both
14
Q
How do ocean plates compare to continental plates
A
- ocean plates are thinner
- > often less than 100 km thick
- > but they are denser than continental plates
-continental plates are roughly 150 km to 200 km thick
15
Q
At what rate do plates move
A
- each plate moves in various direction at rates of one to ten centimeters per year
- > the driving force behind the slow, relentless movement is the convection in the mantle
- > hot material near the Earth’s core rises and cold mantle rock sinks
- where the plates pull apart, new volcanic materials fill the void
- > hot magma wells up at these divergent plate boundaries, forming new crust and further shoving the plates apart
16
Q
What is the largest and best known undersea mountain range
A
- it is the Mid Atlantic Ridge
- > which extends north/south for several thousand kilometers
- > this is roughly parallel to the coastlines of Europe, Africa and the Americas
17
Q
What is an example of an active continental rift zone
A
- it is the East African Rift
- > here the African plate is actually in the process of splitting in two
- > as extension continues, litrospheric rupture will soon occur
18
Q
What happens when an ocean plate collides with a continental plate
A
- the denser ocean plate is pushed or subducted beneath the more buoyant continental plate
- > then the ocean plate is absorbed back into the hot inner earth
- > through this process, erupting and building volcanoes can arise along the plate margins
- note much of the Pacific Ocean boundary is surrounded by long stretches of volcanoes caused by tectonic collision
- > this particular boundary is known collectively as the Pacific Ring of Fire
19
Q
What happens if you have two continental plates collide and it’s not as easy for one plate to subduct beneath another
A
- in this case, the resulting collision can form the largest of mountain ranges
- > a great example of this is the Himalaya
- > here the Indian subcontinent is moving north into the Eurasian Plate
20
Q
What is a transform margin
A
- these margins mark the slip sliding plates
- > such as the San Andreas Fault
- > where the North American and Pacific plates grind past each other in a mostly horizontal motion
- although the forces aren’t as great here, these boundaries can still give rise to mountains on occasion
- > such as the San Gabriel Mountains
21
Q
What are the four types of mountains
A
1) Volcanic Mountains
2) Convergent Mountains
3) Fault-block mountains
4) Dome Mountains
22
Q
How are volcanic mountains formed
A
- they are formed when gas-rich molten rock or magma from deep within the Earth move forcefully to the surface, erupts and accumulates
- > these rocks cool in various sizes and forms
23
Q
What is magma
A
-lava that breaks through the Earth’s crust
24
Q
What are the three basic tectonic regions that volcanoes are associated with
A
- they are associated with rift-valley spreading centers(Iceland)
- > or Mount Kilimanjaro on the east Africa rift system
- also associated with convergent boundaries
- > where one plate is subducting beneath another
- > like Mount Fuji
- volcanoes can also be found above intraplate hotspots
- > where plumes of solid, yet mobile mantle rock, rise to the surface
25
Why is hotspot volcanism unique
- it occurs within tectonic plates
- >and is generally not related to plate boundaries
- >the plume that feeds the hotspot volcanos remains stationary relative to the mantle and the crust
- >but above is always in motion
- >a chain of regressively older volcanoes is created on the overlying plate
26
Does Hawaii overlie a hotspot
- yes
| - >Hawaiian Islands are hotspot tracks
27
Is convergent mountain the most common type of mountain
- yes
- >in fact the world's largest mountain ranges are all convergent
- >eg; Himalaya, Andes and European Alps
- >these mountains are active origins, as the processes that built them are still ongoing
- >in contrast, the Rocky Mountains of western North America and their eastern continental cousins, Appalachians are no longer active
28
What happens when the plates and the continents riding on them collide
- the continental crust is too buoyant to be subducted
- >it ends up being shortened instead
- >the accumulated layers of rocks crumple, fold and fault causing extaordinary uplift
29
Where does much of the folding occur
- it occurs underground
| - >where the rock is hot enough to become more flexible
30
What is a syncline
- it is a fold
- >where a younger rock is in the middle
- >between layers of older rock that have been uplifted on either side
31
What are anticlines
-folds where older rock have been brought up the middle are called anticlines
32
What does the term recumbent mean
-syncline and anticline lying on its side is said to be recumbent
33
What is a thrust fault
- a gently sloping fault
| - >where originally lower older rock have been pushed over younger higher rocks
34
What does it mean to say that thrust faults are imbricate
- they have stacked slabs of rock
| - >like overlapping shingles
35
When did the crust in the Appalachians begin deforming. Also describing the events leading up to Pangea
- around 419 million years ago
- >when an ancient ocean that lay to the east began to close due to the plate tectonic process of subduction
- subduction continued until a second continent(roughly equivalent to Europe) collided with ancient North America
- >this happened about 430 million years ago
- >about a hundred years later, a third enormous continent, Gondwana, collided with North America
- >by this point most of Earth's continental crust formed a single super continent Pangea which had huge range of mountains
36
When did plate tectonics tear Pangea apart? How did this affect the Appalachain mountains
- plate tectonics eventually tore Pangea apart starting in the Jurassic period(118 million years ago)
- >part of the mountain range got left behind in North America as the Appalachians
- >other pieces got left in Scotland, Norway and Greenland
37
What are fault-block mountains
- they form when the faults in the Earth's crust allow portions of the surface to drop
- >other portions rise as opposed to Earth folding over and bending under pressure and heat
- >eg; The Teton Range in the American Rocky Mountains
38
Describe the formation of the Teton Range
- less than 10 million years ago
- >the Earth's crust cracked or faulted
- >west of the fault line, a block of rock about 40 km long tilted upwards to form the Teton Range
- >east of the fault line, a block fell to form the valley called Jackson Hole
- >with one swinging up, the other swung down
-note this fault was caused by a swelling of the Earth's crust, not far below
39
What are dome mountains
- dome mountains are the result of a great amount of magma pushing itself up under the Earth's crust
- >without actually erupting onto the surface,the molten rock pushes out the overlaying rock layers
- the rock layers over the hardened magma are warped upwards to form the dome
- >while the rock layers of the surrounding area remain flat
- >in some cases, over long periods of time, erosion can wipe away the outer layers of the mountain
- >exposing the dome shaped cool magma now hard rock
40
Give an example of a dome mountain
- near the Alberta- Montana Border
- >the formation of West Butte in the Sweetgrass Hills
- >it formed around 48 million years ago when molten rock welled up deep within the Earth
- >molten rock uplifted the surface sedmientary layers
- >but solidified before reaching the surface
Mountains
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