GEOL 110 Final Exam Review Material
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Silicate Mineral Classes – be able to identify the classes of silicate minerals and give
examples of major minerals in each.
Optics – You should be up on all of the light paths and diagnostic tools associated
with petrographic microscopy
Specific Mineral Groups – we have spent a lot of time on specific mineral groups
(feldspars for instance). You should know these well – for example the feldspars can
be divided into 2 series that differ in K, Na, Ca compositions – If I give you a ternary
plot you could fill it in for this group and tell me the end-members. Though I do not
expect you to memorize (for example) the 6 mineral phases of the plagioclase
feldspar series, you should know they trend between Albite and Anorthite as a
function of Na and Ca content, are framework silicates and know the alkali feldspars
can have exsolution lamellae that indicate cooler conditions or re-equilibration.
Expect several questions covering some detail on the minerals we have discussed –
interpret their structure, chemistry and interpret what conditions their presence
indicates.
Minerals / Mineral groups to know:
o Feldspars (plagioclase and alkali feldspars), feldspathoids, pyroxenes,
amphiboles, olivines, clays, micas, quartzes, calcite group, sulfates, halides,
serpentines, zeolites, garnets, sulfides, oxides, chlorite, staurolite,
aluminosilicates
o Should have a sense of their structure, chemistry, diagnostic features, and
depositional/formational environment (example – what does the presence of
gypsum then halite tell you?)
Bowen’s reaction series and explanation for how magma becomes rock (partial, or
fractional, crystallization)
Igneous rocks – know the vocabulary and how to use different plots to assign rock
type – assigned by texture, composition,
Equilibrium – we have talked about energy of minerals and how that is affected by
the conditions they are put in (solution/melt composition, P/T conditions, etc.) – you
should know how to read a phase diagram and use it to figure out a mineral
composition from a melt and what a miscibility gap is responsible for.
Weathering  be able to describe physical and chemical weathering in detail.
Different ways to physically weather something, what controls chemical weathering
(solubility, different kinds of reactions – dissolution, hydrolysis, acid/base, oxidation)
Sedimentary rocks – put together weathering, transport, lithification, diagenesis and
ID major types of sedimentary rocks.
Ore deposits – a sense of concentrating metals by some chemical mechanism (trap)
and definition of some of the major types of ore deposits (Cu-porpyry, SEDEX,
Epithermal, MVT, etc.)
Also a sense of mineral importance in environmental problems such as acid mine
drainage
Metamorphism – Agents of change – P, T, fluids, stress/strain; types of
metamorphism and the tectonic environments associated with these changes (P/T,
fluids, etc.)
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Metamorphic reactions – know the major types of metamorphic reactions – solidsolid phase transformation, solid-solid, dehydration/ hydration,
volatization/devolatization (esp. carbonation/decarbonation)
Thermodynamics and phase diagrams  you should be able to read a phase diagram
and use it to figure out P/T conditions given a set of minerals coexisting in a rock
Metamorphic facies  you should know these and have a sense of the predominant
minerals indicative of those facies/grades
Microorganisms and the different roles they play in mineral weathering and
precipitation, metabolisms and how reduced and oxidized forms are combined for
energy, different kinds of major organisms affecting iron and sulfur.
Meteorite impact minerals – minerals indicative of a meteorite impact and why
Mantle composition – should have some idea of the composition of the earth’s mantle
and core!  Important mantle phases  olive, pyroxene, spinel, perovskite,
magneso-wustite (minor stishovite)