1. Examine the Laboratory Manual.
a. Which type of ripple marks would you expect to see on the bed of a river? Why?
b. Which type would you expect to find on the floor of a standing body of water? Why?
c. Suggest a rule for using mud cracks to determine "which way is up" in a sequence of strata.
d. How might you determine "which way is up" in a bed deposited by a turbidity current?
2. Imagine that you just found the rock of the Laboratory Manual. Such a rock might be found in the Cretaceous rocks of Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta.
a. Suggest a paleoenvironment that the sample represents, and explain your reasoning.
b. What evidence would you look for to support your hypothesis?
3. List the environments in which shale accumulates. What does each of these environments have in common with the others?
4. Complete the Laboratory Manual.
5. Consider the weathering and erosion of a granite.
a. Describe the physical and chemical changes that occur to produce a detrital sediment from a freshly exposed granite.
b. Describe the sediment that forms
i. very close to the granitic source rock.
ii. at an intermediate distance from the source and within a fluvial bed.
iii. at the mouth of a river at some distance from the source.
iv. on a beach.
Be sure to discuss the composition, size, shape, and sorting of the grains.
What happens to the clay-sized material?
6. Based on your reasoning in the previous question, describe the origin of the sediments that formed the rocks shown in the following illustrations from the Laboratory Manual:
7. Why is olivine a rare mineral in sandstone?
8. a. What is the range in grain size. How would you classify this rock, based on grain size?
b. What is the dominant grain composition? Give a rock name based on the discussion in Section 4 of Unit 4 in the Study Guide.
c. Describe the sorting and rounding of grains in this sample. Describe the source and origin of the sediment that makes up this rock.