GEOG 3251 SUMMER 2010, TERM B
MID-TERM REVIEW
Topics to review:
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Importance of the mountains
o Why do we care about mountains?
Historical attitudes toward mountains (pre-historic to modern)
Definitions of mountains
o Be prepared to list criteria for defining mountains (general) vs high mountains
(alpine) environments
Sacred mountains:
o What makes some mountains sacred
o Ways to worship in different cultures
o Examples of some sacred mountains
o Be prepared to link the sacredness of the mountains to plate tectonics, volcanism
and earthquakes in various places discussed later in class
Plate tectonics:
o Be able to describe the theory of plate tectonics, starting with the structure of the
Earth; provide clues for this theory; continental drift theory.
o Compare and contrast oceanic vs. continental crust in terms of chemical
composition (felsic/basaltic vs mafic/andesitic), thickness, etc..
o Be able to explain why we find fossils on Mt. Everest
o Know names and location of the plates discussed in class (N. American, S
American, Juan de Fuca, Faralon, Eurasian, Indian, Nazca) and know which
mountain orogenies they are involved in
o Be able to define mountain orogeny in general
o Define subduction zone and be able to draw a generic mountain formed at the
subduction zone (incl. the crusts)
o Define magma, subduction, trenches
o Be able to summarize the Laramide orogeny
o Know the types of plate boundaries, and the landforms associated with each (eg.
cordillera mountains, hot spot volcanoes, volcanic arcs, complex mountains etc..)
o Explain what a hot spot is
o Examples of each landform associated with each type of plate boundary
o 4 Major processes involved in mountain formation
o Define/identify faults (different types – normal, low angle, high angle reverse,
transform), folds; mountain ranges associated with each of these
Rocks:
o Know the three main rock categories, and most typical rocks discussed in class
o Know what rock formations we find in the Flatirons
Volcanoes
o Two types of volcanoes (shield vs composite), their composition and eruption,
examples of each;
o Know why hot spot volcanoes differ in composition than volcanic arcs
o Be able to label elements of a composite volcano
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Earthquakes
o Where they occur, and why
o Know the three types of waves associated with earthquakes
o Why earthquakes are destructive
Mass movement types
o Rock slides
o Creep
o Lahars
o Landslides
Huascaran disaster: be able to explain the 1970 Huascaran disaster using plate
tectonics, glaciers, earthquake, landslide, human elements
Human sacrifice in the Andes:
o What was human sacrifice and why it was performed
o How were high altitudes sites chosen
o Who were the Incas?
o Be able to relate Inca activity in the mountains with plate tectonics, volcanism and
earthquakes