ERTH 2401 MIDTERM GUIDE WITH
COMPLETE SOLUTION
Hoodoo - Sandstone pillar resting on a thick base of shale, capped by a
large stone
Lush vegetation - During the Cretaceous period, the Alberta Badlands
were full of ____ __________, but now it is desert
Equator - What was North America close to during the Triassic period?
Early Jurassic - When did Gondwana and Laurasia come together?
Gondwana - Land mass of all southern continents plus India
Laurasia - Land mass made up of North America and Eurasia
Late Jurassic (150 MYA) - When did Gondwana and Laurasia separate by
the Tethyan Sea?
Early Cretaceous - When did the Western Interior Sea in North America
begin forming?
Late Cretaceous - When did warm and cold waters from the north and
south meet in western North America?
Solid - Inner core: solid or liquid?
Liquid - Outer core: solid or liquid?
Mesosphere - Rigid layer outside of the outer core
Asthenosphere - Plastic layer outside of the mesosphere
,Lithosphere - Rigid layer made up of the uppermost part of the mantle
and the crust
Zones of seismicity - What are the major lithospheric plates defined by?
African, Antarctic, Eurasian, Indo-Australian, North American, Pacific, South
American - The 7 major lithospheric plates
Diverging, converging, translational - 3 types of plate boundaries
Rift valley - What forms between two diverging continental crusts?
Passive continental margins - Transition between oceanic and continental
lithosphere that is not an active plate margin
Mid-Atlantic Ridge - An example of a passive continental margin
Older, therefore denser, plate - Which plate subducts when two oceanic
plates are converging?
Island arc - What forms when two oceanic plates converge?
Oceanic plate - Which plate subducts when an oceanic plate and a
continental plate converge?
Mountain belt - What forms when two continental plates converge?
Unconformities - At times of sea level fall, continents experience higher
rates of erosion, leaving ___________
Tejas, Zuni, Absaroka, Kaskaskia, Tippecanoe, Sauk - 6 cratonic sequences
of North America
Absaroka - Which cratonic sequence had dinosaurs?
Transgression - - rising sea level or subsiding land
, - "highstand"
- shoreline moves landward
Regression - - sea moves off the land
- "lowstand"
- shoreline moves seaward
Stillstand - Intermediate pause between sea rise and fall
Unconformity - Large time or depositional gaps in stratigraphy
Half - How much of total continental surface lies within a few hundred
metres of sea level?
Eustatic - - volume change of the amount of water in all oceans
- volume change of ocean basins
Glacial-eustasy - Sea level change from fluctuating continental glaciers
Tectono-eustasy - Sea level change from the growth of ocean ridges
Regression - Shallowing of the relative sea level
Transgression - Deepening of the relative sea level
Transgressive facies - Pattern results from a relative rise of
sea level
Regressive facies - Pattern results from a relative fall of sea
level, or rise of land
Flora and fauna, sediments, glacial indicators, geochemical evidence in soils,
COMPLETE SOLUTION
Hoodoo - Sandstone pillar resting on a thick base of shale, capped by a
large stone
Lush vegetation - During the Cretaceous period, the Alberta Badlands
were full of ____ __________, but now it is desert
Equator - What was North America close to during the Triassic period?
Early Jurassic - When did Gondwana and Laurasia come together?
Gondwana - Land mass of all southern continents plus India
Laurasia - Land mass made up of North America and Eurasia
Late Jurassic (150 MYA) - When did Gondwana and Laurasia separate by
the Tethyan Sea?
Early Cretaceous - When did the Western Interior Sea in North America
begin forming?
Late Cretaceous - When did warm and cold waters from the north and
south meet in western North America?
Solid - Inner core: solid or liquid?
Liquid - Outer core: solid or liquid?
Mesosphere - Rigid layer outside of the outer core
Asthenosphere - Plastic layer outside of the mesosphere
,Lithosphere - Rigid layer made up of the uppermost part of the mantle
and the crust
Zones of seismicity - What are the major lithospheric plates defined by?
African, Antarctic, Eurasian, Indo-Australian, North American, Pacific, South
American - The 7 major lithospheric plates
Diverging, converging, translational - 3 types of plate boundaries
Rift valley - What forms between two diverging continental crusts?
Passive continental margins - Transition between oceanic and continental
lithosphere that is not an active plate margin
Mid-Atlantic Ridge - An example of a passive continental margin
Older, therefore denser, plate - Which plate subducts when two oceanic
plates are converging?
Island arc - What forms when two oceanic plates converge?
Oceanic plate - Which plate subducts when an oceanic plate and a
continental plate converge?
Mountain belt - What forms when two continental plates converge?
Unconformities - At times of sea level fall, continents experience higher
rates of erosion, leaving ___________
Tejas, Zuni, Absaroka, Kaskaskia, Tippecanoe, Sauk - 6 cratonic sequences
of North America
Absaroka - Which cratonic sequence had dinosaurs?
Transgression - - rising sea level or subsiding land
, - "highstand"
- shoreline moves landward
Regression - - sea moves off the land
- "lowstand"
- shoreline moves seaward
Stillstand - Intermediate pause between sea rise and fall
Unconformity - Large time or depositional gaps in stratigraphy
Half - How much of total continental surface lies within a few hundred
metres of sea level?
Eustatic - - volume change of the amount of water in all oceans
- volume change of ocean basins
Glacial-eustasy - Sea level change from fluctuating continental glaciers
Tectono-eustasy - Sea level change from the growth of ocean ridges
Regression - Shallowing of the relative sea level
Transgression - Deepening of the relative sea level
Transgressive facies - Pattern results from a relative rise of
sea level
Regressive facies - Pattern results from a relative fall of sea
level, or rise of land
Flora and fauna, sediments, glacial indicators, geochemical evidence in soils,
