Problem
A. Considering that smaller pieces of space dust melted to form the earth, which rock type should be predominant in the beginning of the Earth's history?
B. Research on "Canadian Shield." What is its history? (Are you sitting on it?)
C. According to GIS, what is the most common rock type of the "Canadian Shield"? How did these metamorphic rocks form, based on your knowledge of the geological history of the Canadian shield?
Click Modify Map.
A. Click an Igneous plutonic (intrusive) area of the map. What is the cause of different crystal size and colour?
B. Click an Igneous volcanic (extrusive) area of the map to see several of the rocks formed from lava. How does your answer in (d) extrapolate to explain the characteristics of obsidian and pumice? What accounts for the difference between obsidian and pumice?
C. Banff is a famous tourist town in the Canadian Rockies. Find two pictures about the rocky mountains around Banff. Which types of rocks do you expect to see around Banff, according to GIS? Do ur pictures agree? (It is fine if they do not - though please look up some explanations online.)
Click the Contents button. Turn off the NA Rock Types layer, and look at the ruggedness of North America.
• Compared to the Canadian shield, is the Canadian Rockies older or younger? Explain why.
Turn on the Sedimentary Rocks layer.
Use the bookmarks to zoom in and out, investigating how sedimentary rocks are formed.
A. In what different ways can sedimentary rocks form?
B. Summarize which weathered rocks you could find if you went from the base of the mountains (where they first broke off) to the sea (where their sediments came to a final resting place).
C. Use your answers in (i) to make sense of the current terrain around the Canadian Shield and the Canadian Rockies. What different types of sedimentary rocks can we find around them?
D. Research on the geological history of the oil sands in Alberta. Summarize when and how the fossil fuels formed in the sedimentary rock there.