7:31 PM learning.hccs.edu GEOLOGY 1403 FINAL EXAM.docx iPad * 49%- MyEagle 2003

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7:31 PM learning.hccs.edu GEOLOGY 1403 FINAL EXAM.docx iPad * 49%- MyEagle 2003 BMW Z4 2.5i For Sale In Housto... GEOLOGY 1403 FINAL EXAM FALL SEMESTER 2017 1. Please describe the geological history of James Hutton's angular unconformity at Siccar Point, Scotland. What is the geological significance of this work? 2. Please complete the topographic map with 10 ft counter intervals 1/4 Mile 110 110 110 100 90 100 96 110 100 90 100 93 .88 100 90 .88 100 86 100 90 90 .90 100 84 100 90 87 90 .82 90 80 85

Explanation / Answer

James Hutton, an early pioneer of geology, was puzzled by two different groups of rocks in Scotland. Around Edinburgh the rocks were nearly horizontal, although slightly folded and disturbed. Further south the rocks were intensely disturbed. He wondered what their relationship was. One day in 1788, he and some friends rented a boat and sailed along the coast, discovering the rocks here at Siccar Point. The younger sandstones are resting atop vertical beds of older rock. The older rocks must have been deposited horizontally, tilted, eroded, then buried by the younger rocks.

The vertical rocks are now known to be about 425 million years old and were deposited during the Silurian Period. They were tilted during a mountain-building event caused by the collision of North America and Europe. In North America the collision created the northern Appalachians. In Europe it is called the Caledonian Orogeny (Caledonia is the old Latin name for Scotland.) The mountains were eroded flat and the younger rocks were deposited during the Devonian Period about 345 million years ago, about 80 million years later.

Geologists seek out locations where rocks can bee seen in direct contact because those localities, called contacts, are places where the historical relationships of the rocks can be directly observed. The contact at Siccar Point is called an angular unconformity, a place where an interval of geologic time is not preserved, and where the lower rocks have been tilted so they form a sharp angle with the overlying rocks. Hutton's Unconformity at Siccar Point is one of the most spectacular examples in the world as well as being of great importance in the history of geology.

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