CA Geology Exam 1 S.G. Questions with Correct Answers

CA Geology Exam 1 S.G. Questions with Correct Answers Define the term Geomorphic - Correct Answer Shape because of geology Name at least two famous valleys in the Basin and Range province of California - Correct Answer Owens Valley and Death Valley Explain why the Basin and Range so arid? - Correct Answer Rain Shadow-Orographic Effect What is the general Geologic structure of the Sierra Nevada (due to the many intrusive plutonic bodies)? - Correct Answer plutonic What is a Batholith? - Correct Answer Deep stone What is the approximate thickness of sedimentary rocks beneath the central Great Valley, and what was the source of the sediments? - Correct Answer Over 30,000 feet of sediment. The source was the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges What two major factors may have played a role in the 1980 Mammoth Lakes earthquake swarm? - Correct Answer Volcanic activity or movement on the Sierra Nevada fault What are horst and grabens? What are normal faults? What type of stress is associated with normal faults? - Correct Answer Grabens are downfalls of rocks like the Owens Valley. A normal fault is a range front fault What are Pleistocene lakes? What two lines of evidence support high water stands in the basins of the Basin and Range? - Correct Answer Tufa Towers (only form underwater) and strandlines. What is the general age and rock type found in the Cascade Range and the Modoc Plateau, and why are the landforms in these provinces so different? - Correct Answer Young volcanic rocks and volcanoes. Modoc Plateau is very flat, but there are high volcanoes. The Cascades are made of andesites which are typical of stratovolcanoes. Basalts are more typical of the more fluid or effusive rock. This tends to make flat shield volcanoes. Again the difference is the type of lava and the chemistry of the lava.