Earth History
January to April 2015
Labs Tue, Wed, Thu

Contact information
• David McMullin
• HSH 305
• 585-1276
• david.mcmullin@acadiau.ca
• Office hours:
• 11:30 – 1:00 Tu & Th (or appt.).

• Schedule
– posted on ACORN
• Assistants
– Tuesday: Jon Shute
– Wednesday: Max Turner
– Thursday: Celine Porter

• On lab website http://socrates.acadiau.ca/courses/geol/1023/labs/
• Link to website also on ACORN

• Grading
– 11 labs worth 25%
– 2 tests worth 15%
• GEOL 1023 more about getting to understand how information garnered in
GEOL 1013 is used and integrated (i.e., grammar instead of vocabulary).

• Work in pencil
• Coloured pencils (for structure and correlations)
• Ruler
• Protractor
• Other (calculator, sometimes)

Lab # 1
Plate Tectonics

Plates and boundary exercise
• Map of earthquake epicentres
– vast majority of earthquakes occur in narrow zones, which commonly have a surface expression (fault)
– clearly demonstrate the margins of major plates
• Use the map in textbook to do the exercise (p. 17, p. 16 in 6e)
• Purpose of the exercise is to familiarize you with the major plates and boundaries

Polar wander paths exercise
• Draw the apparent polar wander path (APWP) for N.
America using the information given
– i.e., the pole for N. Am. at a given time is the distance given at the bottom of the page from the head of the arrow, and in the direction indicated by that arrow.
• Trace N. America and its APWP
• Overlay the traced N. Am. APWP on the Europe
APWP.
– Part will look the same = time during which N. Am. and
Europe behaved as one (i.e., they were joined)
– Part of the traces will be different = time during which N.
Am. and Europe behaved differently (i.e., they became two separate continents)

Plate divergence (spreading) exercise
• Figure 3 shows three stages in divergence of two continental fragments
• Questions are intuitive
• Q 3 (b) Note that the two positions marked C have reached their present position in 10 Ma. That is, distance C-C happened in 10 Ma.
• Pay attention to units and unit conversion (i.e.,
100,000 cm per km and 1,000,000 years per Ma)

Magnetic profile caused by “stripes” of basalt of alternating polarity

Correspondence between magnetic profile (as measured across the ocean floor) and the magnetic time scale

• The “profiles” show the magnetization across the ridge
• Correlate changes from positive to negative
• Colour up according to your legend