Historical Geology-Geos 255
Lecture exam 3, April 16, 2012
Name:
1. Fill in Eons, Periods (from oldest to youngest) and age at Eons boundaries (16 pts.).
Periods of the Cenozoic (2):
----Ma
Periods of the Mesozoic (3):
----Ma
Periods of the Paleozoic (6):
----Ma
Eons of the Precambrian (2):
2. Match the item, organism, concept or idea on the left with the time, event,
definition to the right.
(2 pts. each - 14 total)
Snowball Earth
a. Cambo-Ordovician organism
Trilobite
Laramide
Appalachian
Mesozoic
Cyclothem
Coal Swamps
b. associated wtih flat-slab-subduction
c. thin-skinned deformation
d. Acadian orogeny
e. Sevier orogeny
f. Age of the reptiles
g. change upsection from continental
deposits to deeper water deposits
h. Carboniferous
i. Jurassic
j. Neoproterozoic
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3. Briefly describe or define the following terms (1 pts. each - 11 total):
a. Wilson Cycle
b. craton
c. Rodinia
d. Pangea
e. ungulates
f. PETM
g. Milankovitch cycles
h. BIF
i. Ammonoids
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j. angiosperm
k. erratic boulder
4. Multiple choice answers; circle one (3 pts. each - 15 total):
4.1. Which one is a major orogenic event in the Proterozoic:
a. Sevier orogeny
b. Grenville orogeny
c. Allegheny orogeny
d. Laramide orogeny
4.2. The Paleozoic to mid-Mesozoic landmass that included South America, the Falkland
Islands, Africa, Madagascar, India, Australia, and Antarctica.
a. Lawrentia
b. Pangea
c. Gondwana
d. Rodinia
4.3. When do you expect to find trilobites?
a. Archean
b. Paleozoic
c. Mesozoic
d. Cenozoic
4.4 Which was the proto-Atlantic ocean?
a. Tethys
b. Mediterranean
c. Iapetus
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d. Red Sea
4.5. Where do you expect to find ophiolites?
a. rift systems
b. passive margin
c. suture zone
d. aulacogen
5. Longer answers; use sketches when possible (4 pts. each - 20 total).
A. Give two sources for earth's water and explain how fresh water becomes salt water.
B. Explain the difference between autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms.
C. What is the earliest evidence, and when, that organisms started crawling on land?
D. What are some of the problems associated with a transition from marine to land?
E. How extensive was the Permian extinction and what are some possible causes of that
extinction?
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6. Discuss the timing, sequence of events and the main features depicted in each
paleogeographic reconstruction (3 pts each; 12 pts.).
6. a
6.b
6.c
6.d
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7. Why did Antarctica become covered by massive ice sheets 34 million years ago, whereas
the Arctic Ocean acquired its ice cap only about 3 million year ago (7pts)?
8. Explain the main climatic events, and associated tectonic events, you can derive
from the Zachos curve below (5pts.).
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