Possible specimens to learn!!!
Individual minerals
Quartz
Haematite
Halite
Calcite
Galena
Pyrite
Minerals within rocks:
Feldspar
Mica
Augite
Hornblende
Chalcopyrite
Igneous rocks
Gabbro
Dolerite
Basalt
Granite
Andesite
Rhyolite
Sedimentary rocks
Breccia
Conglomerate
Sandstone
Shale
Limestone (inc oolitic or chalk)
Coal
Metamorphic rocks:
Slate
Schist
Hornfels
Mineral tests: Hardness, relative density, streak, cleavage and reaction with HCL acid.
Colour, lustre, fracture and habit
Rock identification: Colour, texture, grain size and shape, reaction with dilute hcl acid,
structure and mineralogy.
Fossils:
Ammonoids
Bivalves
Corals
Brachiopods
Trilobites
Dinosaurs
Graptolites
Plants
Formanifera
Identification of preservation:
Hardly altered hard parts (bones and teeth)
Carbonisation of organic material (Graptolites and plants)
Replacement of mineral matter (Pyrite)
Moulds and casts (bivalves)
Trace Fossils (Tracks, trails and burrows)
Mapwork:
a) Principles of historical geology:
The principle of uniformitarianism
(the present is the key to the past)
The concepts of original horizontality, continuity and superposition of strata.
The relative dating of rocks:
Fossil content
Included fragments
Cross-cutting structures
Unconformities
Folding, faulting and metamorphism.
Decay of radioactive materials provides a method for calculating the absolute age of
rocks. (parent – daughter ratio, unstable parent, stable daughter)
The difference between relative and absolute dating.
b) Geological mapwork:
A geological map and a cross-section
Recognise and describe: Horizontal beds, Dipping beds, strike and dip,
Folds (symmetrical, asymmetrical, non-plunging anticlines and synclines, axial
plane trace)
Faults (normal, reverse, thrust, wrench or tear, throw)
Intrusive and extrusive features (dyke, sill, batholiths, lava flow)
Metamorphic aureole
Mineral veins,
Superficial deposits (river, glacial till)
Unconformity with angular discordance, formation and significance for dating
earth movements.
DEPOSITION, (Possible folding and faulting) UPLIFT AND EROSION.