GEOL1201 – Dynamic Earth – Dr. M.

Kerr - Assignment #1

Assignment 1 – Total marks = 38 (10% of Final Grade)

Geological structures and Geological Time

Instructions:
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Assessments  Assignments  Assignment 2
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Due date:
A-section (Mon+Wed): Monday, February 5th by 6:00pm
B-section (Tues+Thurs): Tuesday, February 6th by 6:00pm

Note: Do not plagiarize lecture slides or textbook word for word. Use your own words! Please be
cognizant of your spelling. Pay attention to what the questions are marked out of and be sure to
provide sufficiently detailed answers!

1. What is the difference between stress and strain?

Stress is the actual forces themselves, such as pressure, which act upon a rock.
Strain is defromation, its changes in a rocks shape or volume as a result of
stress.

What structures will be observed if a sequence of rock strains:

(a) in a brittle fashion under differential compressive stress?
Reverse Faults and/or Joints
(b) in a ductile fashion under differential compressive stress?
Folding
(c) in a brittle fashion under tensional stress?
Normal Faults
(d) in a brittle fashion under shear stress?
Strike-Slip Faults
(6 marks)

2. Draw and label the architecture of a syncline (fold axis, axial plane, limb). Would
exposed strata at the axis of the fold be older or younger than the strata exposed
in the limbs? Show this in your figure. Explain how you would measure the trend
of the fold axis. (4 marks)
The trend would be measured by following the line of the axis (created by
following the equivalent points along a hinge, in this case the crests) and
measuring its compass direction.
GEOL1201 – Dynamic Earth – Dr. M. Kerr - Assignment #1

3. Investigate the figure on the next page (Figure 1) and insert the following: (8
marks)
a. For dip-slip faults, label the hanging wall (HW) and footwall (FW) on each
side of the fault line.
b. Using arrows, indicated the sense of motion on each side of the fault line.
c. Indicate the specific type of fault for each one (e.g., normal dip-slip fault,
right-lateral strike-slip fault, etc.)
d. Label and horst and graben blocks where applicable
GEOL1201 – Dynamic Earth – Dr. M. Kerr - Assignment #1

Figure 1
GEOL1201 – Dynamic Earth – Dr. M. Kerr - Assignment #1

4. What is the strike and dip of the inclined beds below (Figure 2)? Write the proper
notation and draw the map symbol in the box provided. Remember: North is
UP in the page (2 marks)
Strike and dip notation

Strike and dip symbol

Figure 2

5. What does it mean to say that a strata of rock has been boudinaged? How does
boudinage structure form? Why may some strata/layers in a sequence of rocks
be boudinaged, and others simply deform in a ductile fashion? (5 marks)

Boudinage structure forms when pressure is applied to strata where some layers
are made of competent rocks while others are incompetent. Competent rocks
(usually igneous or metamorphic) will behave brittlely, while incompetent rocks
(usually sedimentary) will behave in a ductile fashion. This creates a linear
structure where the competent rocks break into sections (called boudins) and the
incompetent rocks bend to fill the gaps in between.

The reason some rocks are brittle while others are ductile comes down to their
mineral composition; some minerals have one or more preferred plains of
cleavage, while others will simply break (or on larger scales, bend) depending on
the pressure applied. Most sedimentary rocks are composed largely or quartz,
which possesses no preferred planes of cleavage, whereas most igneous rocks
are composed of phyllosilicates, pyroxenes, and amphiboles; providing them with
more chances to break into sections.

6. Investigate Figure 3 below and answer the following questions. See the figure
caption for details:
GEOL1201 – Dynamic Earth – Dr. M. Kerr - Assignment #1

a. What type of structure does feature “L” represent and briefly describe how
it formed? What terminology is used for feature “L” when between:

L is an unconformity, which form when the bedding of a specific area is

erodes away and then a new section is layered on top, this implies a gap
of time missing from the record.

i. Unit K and Units H,J,A (1 mark)

Angular Unconformity

ii. Unit K and Unit G (1 mark)

Nonconformity

b. What is feature “M”? Be as specific as possible. (1 mark)

M is a normal dip-slip fault.

c. Assuming none of the sedimentary units have been overturned, what type
of broad-scale structure is observed in Units H,J,A,C,F,D? Be as specific
as possible. (1 mark)

H, J, A, C, F, and D have formed an anticline fold.

d. What features might you search for in the sedimentary rock Units
H,J,A,C,F,D that would indicate a younging direction (i.e. Up direction)?
Name and describe 2 of these. (3 marks)

You could look for wave ripples which would have a distinct crest and
trough, the crests would point upwards. You could also look for graded
beds which would occur when sediment settled as the sedimentary beds
were layering. As it settled the larger bits of sediment would collect near
the bottom and the smaller ones would lay on top creating a graded
appearance; the larger sediments would be on the bottom.

e. How could we determine the absolute age of the intrusion (Unit G)? Briefly
describe how this could be done. (3 marks)

First you would break a chunk off of the batholith. Ideally this intrusion
would contain zircon crystals that could be separated from the rest of the
rock, these crystals will be used for uranium/lead dating. Zircon
specifically is very important for this because no lead forms within it during
its initial cooling, meaning any lead found when it is later dated will have to
be daughter isotope from the decay of the uranium.

After the zircon crystals are isolated, you can use radiometric dating to
determine their age. This is done by measuring the amount of both
uranium (called the parent isotope) and lead (the daughter) in the crystal
and plugging both those numbers into the formula (along with the initial
daughter, which in this case is zero, and the half-life constant).
GEOL1201 – Dynamic Earth – Dr. M. Kerr - Assignment #1

f. Place all the Unit and Features in order from earliest to latest (i.e., oldest
to youngest). (3 marks)
1) Beds D, F, C, A, J, H are deposited.
2) Beds D, F, C, A, J, H are folded (anticline).
3) Batholith G intrudes.
4) M faults.
5) The top of everything is eroded, causing unconformity L.
6) Beds K, E are deposited.
7) Dyke N intrudes.
8) Dyke P intrudes.

Figure 3: Units E,K,H,J,A,C,F,D are sedimentary rocks. Unit G is an igneous

intrusion. Units N,P represent igneous dykes. Features L,M represent geological
features/structure.