Spring 2008 Geology 110: Natural Disasters Final Review Sheet
The final covers materials from Chapters 5,6,10,11 plus the added information related to these topics that I presented in the lectures. I expect you to review your lecture notes, and also to review mine. The format for this exam will be multiple choice and true/false (blue scantron only). No bluebook is needed as there will be no essay!
What follows is a list of topics that I expect you to know something about. I will construct the exam based on these topics:
Chapter 5:
What is the controlling force in mass wasting (answer: gravity).
What does water do to help cause mass wasting (answer: several things).
What time of the year might you expect landslides to occur?
What is the angle of repose?
How is the strength of bedrock revealed through hillside slopes (consider Yosemite Valley versus Sonoma County)?
Are landslides a major concern for Sonoma and Marin Counties? (recall slide maps)
Why do some areas experience slides whereas others experience flows (depends how strongly rock is lithified (glued together))?
Review the different types of slides and flows; I may ask you to identify some in pictures. What evidence can you suggest to look for in order to determine if soil creep is occurring somewhere?
Case studies: La Conchita- what are the problems that have contributed to the landslide problems at La Conchita? – Fault displacement, rapid uplift, weak materials, periodic rainfall;
Mt. Rainier, Washington: What is the major concern for debris flows (lahars) around the volcano? When might these occur?
Chapter 6: Subsidence
Water Table; porosity and permeability;
What causes subsidence in New Orleans, Louisiana?
How about Venice, Italy? How about the San Joaquin Valley of California?
How does Louisiana’s subsidence differ from subsidence in California’s Central Valley? What does the subsidence in the Central Valley indicate for California’s future as an agricultural state?
What are sinkholes, and why do they occur?
What time during the year are they most likely to form (recall that the water tale is dynamic- it changes throughout the year)?
What are karst towers?
What would you look for when evaluating a property for signs of expansive soils?
“Global” subsidence caused by sea-level rise due to glaciers melting and thermal expansion of the ocean waters (roughly 6 inch rise in sea level during the 20th Century).
Chapter 10: Wildfires
What are the stages of a wildfire?
How does wind affect the fire?
How is heat transported away from a fire? (recall convection, conduction and radiation).
ground, surface and crown fires- Which is most likely to spread over large areas?
Which one best sets up large-scale convection of air through the wildfire?
What are some of the consequences of wildfires to the geology? Recall soil erosion through loss of vegetation, hydrophobic soils.
How does El Niño play into the likelihood of wildfires in North America? How about Australia?
Chapter 11: Where do asteroids reside in the Solar System?
How about comets? Oort versus Kuiper belt comets- where are they found?
(Roughly) how fast do comets and asteroids travel relative to a high-speed rifle bullet? Why do they explode when they collide with Earth? How much kinetic energy do they contain?
How does kinetic energy increase with a doubling of velocity?
What evidence is there for an asteroid impact at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary?
Do other mass extinctions have similar evidence? If not, what occurs in association with mass extinctions (recall mantle plumes and flood basalts)?
Why does the surface of the Moon have so many more impact craters than does the Earth?
What was the most significant impact event during the past ~ 100 years? Review Tunguska (1908) for answer.
Energy Resources (lecture 25):
Fossils fuels are nature’s way of storing energy from the Sun.
How do fossil fuels accumulate in nature? Anoxic environments; Metal sulfides associated with them- why? What are the environmental consequences of burning “dirty” coal? Acid rain; sulfate reflecting sunlight. If we burn cleaner coal, what will happen to global warming?
Fossils Fuel groups: Coal, Natural gas, crude oil, methane hydrates.
What’s Coal “rank”
What’s the biggest environmental concern with burning coal?
How much coal does the US have?
Crude oil and natural gas geology: how does oil form? Factors affecting maturation process.
Geology that is needed: Source rock, Reservoir rock, “cap” or “seal” rock.
Structures needed- anticlines, fault planes.
Locations of oil and gas deposits of the world. Who has the goods?
Global reserves: 1 trillion barrels. Present usage: 27 billion barrels / year = 40 years of supply.
History of oil in California: 11 billion of barrels in undiscovered reserves in California, mostly in the coastal Monterey Formation. Present cost = $120/barrel. That's $1,325 Billion dollars!
By comparison, the gold mined during the gold rush has a present value of $100 Billion.
Documentary: When the Levees Broke (Spike Lee, 2006). I consider this to be a very important documentary to watch to fully grasp how you might be able to prepare for a natural disaster, what assistance you should expect from the government, and whether your average neighbor is going to be helpful or harmful to your ability to survive for several days (and perhaps a week). People in New Orleans weren't dumb; there was a lot that didn't go right. Consider what you'd do if there were a massive earthquake, and no one showed up to help you out. This is the most likely disaster to next hit our country.