Below are questions related to pictures that are available on my web page. Some of the questions have simple answers; some do not. You may have to think and speculate to answer some of them.

Some questions may be anwered in a sentence or two. Others require longer answers. You decide how long the answers need to be to adequately answer the questions. I want complete and well thought out answers. When in doubt, write more!

For some of these questions, I am not sure what answer I would give. I would talk to my classmates and think and discuss. That's what you should do. You can use any resources and talk to any students you wish.

If your writing is not neat, be sure to type your answers! Neatness and verbs and nouns count! Don't be sloppy. Clear, good, answers written in good english are required.

In the pictures you can see two places showing lots of gravel; a desert and a streamside. Different geological processes produced these two scenes. 1. Why is there so much gravel in each of these places? (Why not coarser or finer material?) 2. What mineral(s) or rock fragments do you think the individual pieces of gravel are made of in the desert? In the sand bar? Why?
In this photo, you can see a valley with a playa (shallow and often dry) lake. 3. What minerals (name several) do you suppose can be found in that dried up lake bottom? Why?
Here is a picture of granite in a desert area.  4. Why are granites more likely to be seen in desert areas than shale? 5. What minerals make up a granite? Why these particular minerals and not others?
These pictures show an Aleution Island volcano and Haleakala Volcano in Hawaii. The Aleutian volcano is small with steep sides, the Hawaiian volcano is huge and does not have steep slopes. 6. What name(s) are given to these two types of volcanos? Why do they have the shapes they do?
Here are some pictures of cave formations. 7. What do you call the formations in A? 8. What do you call the formations in B? 9. What mineral(s) are these formations made of? Why?	A.          B.
This is Yosemite Valley in California. The rocks shown are part of the Sierra Nevada Batholith. 10. What is a batholith? Specifically, what kind of rock (give name(s)) generally compose batholiths? Why? 11. How did this valley develop and why does it have the shape it does?
Here is a modern view of the Earth's interior. 12. How do geologists know this is what it looks like?
This is a map of world seismicity. Red dots are earthquake epicenters. 13. Why are Earthquakes concentrated in the places shown? Why not in other places?
14. I know you can't read the labels on the image here. But, the yellow areas are mountain belts. Rockies in the west, Ozarks in the center, and Appalachians in the east. Most of the United States has pretty flat topography, except in these mountain belts. Why? Why are the mountains only in distinct belts where they are? 15. The US has mountains in the east and the west. In South America, there is only one mountain belt, the Andes in the west. Some other continents have only one major mountain belt too. Name one. Why do different continents have different numbers of mountain belts? 16. Most moutain belts are at continental margins. Yet, the Ural Mountains are in the middle of Russia, far from a continental margin. Why?
Check out this meandering river. And note the oxbow lake. 17. How did the oxbow lake form? Why? 18. Some rivers meander, others do not. Why? What general characteristics and history separate meandering rivers from un-meandering rivers?
This is a subduction zone. 19. Geologists know that this is the process taking place at some plate margins? How do they know this? 20. A volcano is shown. What type of volcano is it? (Give a name.) What kind of igneous rock is likely found there (give name(s))? 21. Note that the oceanic plate is coming from the east and subducting under a continental block in the west. Name a place in the world where this is happening.
Here's a granite. 22. What minerals is granite made of? 23. Why are the crystals in granite relatively coarse compared to some other kinds of igneous rocks?
This is Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. 24. What tectonic forces are responsible for the Himalayas being where they are? What is going on there? 25. The rocks on top of Mt. Everest are sedimentary rocks (note the strata in the photo). Yet, most major mountains in the world are topped by igneous or metamorphic rocks. Why?
26. This photo shows one type of oil trap. What do you call this type of trap? What are some of the other important types? Describe them in one or two sentences. 27. There are several thing necessary to have a good oil trap. And, even if you have a trap, it might not be a good place to try and produce oil. Explain what is needed to have a good trap, and what is needed to have a good oil field.
This is a photo of a pegmatite. The large black mineral is tourmaline, a boron bearing mineral. The lighter minerals are quartz and feldspar. 28. Why do rare elements such as boron concentrate in pegmatites? 29. Why are pegmatite cyrstals so large?
Here are some confused students looking at folded rocks. 30. Were these folds caused by compression or extension?
Here is a map showing the ages of the ocean floor. 31. What kind of rock (give name) is found on most of the ocean floor. Why? 32. Where are the youngest rocks found on the ocean floor? Where are the oldest rock found? 33. On the last exam, I told you that the oldest rocks in the Atlantic Ocean floor are about 75 million years old. Well, your book has a different age - it says the some of the ocean floor is 145 million years old. Let's accept that age and assume the Atlantic Ocean did not exist 145 million years ago (because we have found no ocean floor material there that is older than that). And, let's assume it started opening then and continued to open until today. How wide is the Atlantic Ocean? (You may have to look this up somewhere, or estimate by looking at a map, or whatever - be resourceful!) How far, more or less, is it from the Mid Ocean Ridge to the edges of the continents? Now, divide MOR-continent distance by 145 million and you will get the average rate at which the ocean has opened up. How does your calculation compare with values given on page 459 in the textbook? Explain any discrepancies.
Here is a picture of folded limestone in the Swiss Alps. 34. If you pick up a piece of limestone and try to fold it, it will break instead of folding. Yet, here we see that nature had no problem folding the rocks. Explain. How could nature do what you can't do?
Here is a Hawaiian basalt flow. These dudes seem to be quite close and unafraid of this volcanic rock. 35. Why is basalt less violent and threatening than other types of igneous rocks such as those that erupted at Mt. St. Helens?
Here is a photo of a very fine grained sedimentary rock.  36. What is this rock called? What are the individual mineral grains in this rock made of (what minerals)? This kind of rock is most often gray; why is this rock reddish? 37. The surface of this rock is not flat. The features shown on the surface developed at the time the sediments was deposited. What are those features called? What do they indicate about the environment of deposition at the time of deposition? 38. In general, in what sort of depositional environments do rocks of this sort form? 39. The Grand Canyon - remember that? - has some rocks that look quite similar to the one depicted here. Which formations?
This is the Sioux Quartzite from near New Ulm, Minnesota. 40. Although it is called a quartzite, it is not really a quartzite by most geologist's definition. What's a quartzite? What kind of rock is this, really? What is it made of? 41. In what sort of environment do you suppose the sediment that made this rock was deposited? Why?
42. Earthquakes - way cool things unless you live where they occur. Some very violent earthquakes cause little damage. Some not so violent earthquakes cause lots of damage. Explain. Where have the most devastating earthquakes occurred? Why?
43. Here are pictures of two geological features. They generally occur together. What are they called? What sorts of forces cause these features to develop? Name one place in the United States where they are prominent and tell me why they are so well developd there.