Axia College Material
Appendix J
Week Five Lab Report: Relative and Absolute Geologic Time
Answer the lab questions for this week and summarize the lab experience using this form.
Full Name
Date
Carefully read pages 89-104 of Geoscience Laboratory.
Complete this week’s lab by filling in your responses to the questions from Geoscience
Laboratory. Select answers are provided for you in red font to assist you with your lab work.
Although you are only required to respond to the questions in this worksheet, you are encouraged
to answer others from the text on your own.
Lab Questions
5.1.
A. Apart from the composition of the rock itself, what climate do you imagine is more
conducive to physical weathering?
A wet and windy climate.
B. How about chemical weathering? Hint: Clues are evident in Figure 5.2.
Warm and wet climates are the most conducive to chemical weathering.
5.2.
A. Based on your life experiences, what’s your guess as to which of the four rocks listed
in Figure 5.3 most resembles concrete?
Answer: conglomerate
B. How about pottery?
Answer: claystone
5.3.
Imagine that the gasoline that you are burning in your car this week was refined from
petroleum that was produced from Jurassic-age rocks in Arkansas. Question: What is the
primary source of the energy that has been reclaimed to power your car? Explain. Hint:
What is the ‘heat engine’ that drives the origin of coal?
The heat energy released is the stored energy that was present when the plant and animal
material was buried.
5.4.
Progressive growth (upward from the seafloor) of the barrier sand bars in Figure 5.5A
should be recorded in lagoonal sediments by which vertical succession: (a) salt on top of
gypsum, or (b) gypsum on top of salt? Hint: Which succession reflects increasing salinity
produced by the growing barrier effect of the sand bars (see the caption to Figure 5.5A)?
Salt on top of gypsum
5.6.
Drawing on the first paragraph on the previous page 96, what kind of rock appears to
underlie the sandstones that cap the hills in Figure 5.8?
Answer: shale
5.7.
Judging from the orientation of the fin-like ridges in Figure 5.8, what is the approximate
orientation of the joints that bound them—north-south or east-west?
North-south
5.10.
Figure 5.12 shows the distribution of district councils controlled by two unlabeled parties.
One party is the Labour Party—the party of labor unions and big government. The other
party is the Conservative Party—the party of private ownership and minimal government
intervention.
A. Which party’s domain do you suppose is labeled Party X in Figure 5.12?
Labour Party
B. Which party’s domain do you suppose is labeled Party Y? Hint: Key terms are labor
unions, big government, private ownership, minimal government intervention.
Conservative Party
Lab Summary
Address the following questions in a 100- to 200-word summary:
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Summarize the general principles and purpose of the lab.
Explain how this lab helped you better understand the topics and concepts addressed this
week.
Describe what you found challenging about this lab.
Describe what you found interesting about this lab.
Write your summary here: