GEOS 315

• Why is quartz more abundant than feldspar in sedimentary rocks?
• What are sedimentary structures and how do they form?
• What is sediment texture?
• What are modes of sediment transport?
• What are the horizons of a typical soil profile and what are some of the characteristics of each horizon?
• What are the processes involved in the creation of sediments and sedimentary rocks?
• What are the processes that turn pre-existing rocks into sediments, and where are these processes most active?
• What are the factors that determine the types of soils found in a particular area?
• What is a paleosol, how do we recognize them, and why has it been difficult to recognize these features in the past?
• What type of soil occurs in the Red River Valley, and how can you explain this geologically?
• What factors are important to the transport of sediment?
• What is the difference between Newtonian and non-newtonian fluids?
• What is the difference between laminar and turbulent flow, and which is most important for fluid transport? Why?
• What are the important factors for the transport of a sediment grain, and what are the forces involved?
• What are the types of sediment loads?
• What factors influence the texture of sediments?
• Why do sedimentary rocks occur as strata or beds?
• What are the main criteria for sandstone classification?
• Explain compositional and textural maturity. What does the maturity of a rock tell you?
• What is bioturbation and what can it tell you?
• What type of sandstone is composed of a framework of rock fragments, and what does this tell you about the origin of the rock?
• What is the significance of a supermature quartz arenite?
• What is the environmental significance of finding mudcracks in a rock?
• Besides the obvious difference in scale, what are the differences between ripples and dune forms in terms of how and why they form?
• What types of sedimentary bedding and structures indicate mixed hydraulic conditions like the conditions one would encounter on a tidal flat?
• What is HCS and under what conditions does it form?
• Why can’t ripples be used as the main criteria to interpret the environment of a sedimentary rock?
• Grains in carbonate rocks can be a variety of minerals and chemical combinations, what are the varieties, and does this have any influence on the types of changes that occur during diagenesis?
• What is the significance of the ratio of framework grains to matrix in carbonates?
• What are the sources of carbonate mud (micrite)?
• What is spar and what can it tell you about the diagenesis of a limestone?
• How are the Dunham and Folk classifications of carbonates different?

check back again as I will be adding questions until .........Wed. Oct. 5th
e-mail me leonardk@mnstate.edu if you have any problems or questions

Exam 2- Tuesday Nov. 22

Format:

5 essay questions

10-15 short answer questions

Topics:

• Other Chemical Sedimentary Rocks
• Depositional Environments
• Fluvial Environments
• Lacustrine Environments
• Deltaic Environments
• Marine Shelf Environments
• Stratigraphy

Review Questions:

• In what part of the ocean basin do neritic environments occur?
• How are the chemical/biochemical sedimentary rocks distinguished from siliciclastics?
• What are the models for dolomitization and what problem must all of these models deal with?
• What are the varieties of chert?
• What general characteristics distinguish continental facies from marine deposits?
• What are some of the general characteristics of marginal marine environments?
• Both siliciclastic and carbonate rocks can have clastic textures, but what are some of the major differences in how they form?
• What are the major factors that determine where carbonate sediments accumulate?
• What are the limits on sedimentary accumulation of deep-water carbonates?
• Why are there so many models to explain early or primary dolomitization?
• What are some of the major differences between siliciclastic and carbonate diagenesis?
• What is pressure solution and what does it produce?
• Why are most ancient evaporite deposits anhydrite and not gypsum? Also, what is the evaporation sequence?
• What are the major differences between bedded and nodular chert?
• What characteristics of sedimentary strata do we examine to make environmental interpretations?
• What is a sedimentary facies?
• What causes waves, how do they move, and what happens when they near shore?
• What marine processes are responsible for distributing sediment around the shelf?
• When does the most sediment get transported on a wave dominated shelf?
• What is an alluvial fan and what sorts of things would we look for to recognize one in the rock record?
• What are the differences between modern braided and meandering streams, and how would you distinguish the two types in the rock record?
• Why would seasonal high flow result in the greatest amount of erosion and deposition in a meandering fluvial system?
• What are some of the characteristics that could be used to distinguish lake deposits from marine rocks?
• What is the difference between an open and closed lake system?
• What are the differences in mechanisms that produce a vertical cyclic repetition of facies, in lake, delta, and marine shelf environments?
• How does a delta form and in what settings are they best developed?
• What processes determine the overall shape and depositional properties of a delta?
• How do environments change as you go across the delta plain?
• What are the vertical facies trends in a delta deposit?
• What is stratigraphy and why is it important?
• What are the different mechanisms that produce cycles in the rock record? Which of theses mechanisms are long-term, and which are short term?
• What is a formation?
• What are the major types of unconformities?
• What is the difference between allocyclic and autocyclic mechanisms that produce cycles in vertical successions of rock?
• Why is it possible to predict vertical and lateral facies patterns in intervals of marine sedimentary rocks?
• Why are time and rock units separated in the North American Stratigraphic Code?
• Why do we use marker beds (like the C1, C2, and X in the Duperow)?
• Do you think the Duperow Cycles are allocyclic or autocyclic? Explain your answer.
• How dow the Duperow Cycles change as you trace thme from western North Dakota into the deeper/more open parts of the basin?

check back again as I will be adding questions until .........Wed. Dec. 2nd
e-mail me leonardk@mnstate.edu if you have any problems or questions

Final Exam - December 16th, 3 pm

• The final for GEOS 315 is comprehensive
• You should study the old exams plus the review questions above
• In addition to the comprehensive material, you should also review the following:

Format:

10 essay questions

Topics: (in addition to the topics above)

• Stratigraphy
• Sequence Stratigraphy

Review Questions: (in addition to the ones above)

• What is the difference between litho- and biocorrelation?
• What is correlation and why is it done?
• What properties should a fossil have to be useful for biocorrelation?
• How do we keep track of stratigraphic position when doing lithocorrelation?
• What are allostratigraphic units, and what does the name imply about the mechanisms that result in these units?
• How do you determine the stratigraphic significance of unit-bounding surfaces at the outcrop scale?
• What is a sequence and what are the differences in how a sequence is recognized at the seismic-scale versus the outcrop-scale?
• What controls changes in accommodation space?
• What is a parasequence and how are the bounding surfaces recognized?
• How does the vertical stacking pattern of parasequences allow for the recognition of systems tracts?

check back again as I will be adding questions until ......... DEC. 11th
e-mail me leonardk@mnstate.edu if you have any problems or questions