Chapters Covered by Exam #1:

In Nesse, Introduction to Mineralogy
• No specific chapters, but you may wish to review the sedimentary minerals - particularly carbonates and evaporites (halides and sulfates).

In Blatt & Tracy, Petrology: Igneous, Sedimentary, Metamorphic
• This exam will cover Chapters 11-16 in Blatt & Tracy. Those of you who only have Tucker should at least glance through B&T - I'll make my copy available in the lab.
• What is the difference between weathering and erosion? What are the different processes by which weathering occurs? How is the effectiveness of weathering related to climate (temperature and precipitation)?
• What are the different types of sediment formed by weathering? How does sediment change during the weathering, erosion, and transport process? What are some means of transporting sediments? What factors determine weather sediment is susceptible to erosion, transport, or deposition?
• How do sediments change as they are weathered and eroded? (Particle size? Roundness/angularity? Sorting?) What are the classes of clastic sediment size?
• In terms of the rock cycle, what processes do rocks undergo in order to transform from an igneous or metamorphic rock into a sedimentary rock?
• How are clastic and chemical sediments formed? How do they become clastic and chemical sedimentary rocks?
• What is the origin of fissility (tendency of mudrocks to break along thinly spaced parallel planes) in a shale? How is fissility affected by silt sized quartz grains? What is the process of flocculation? How does it explain the fact that most shales are formed in the deep oceans, rather than in lakes or shallow seas?
• Identify transporting agents for sediments. Under what conditions are sediments eroded, transported, and deposited?
• What sequence of rocks would you expect to be deposited by a turbidity current? Explain the sequence in terms of the energy of the transporting medium. What other types of sedimentary rocks are deposited in a deep marine environment?
• Clastic vs. Chemical vs. Biochemical/Organic Sedimentary Rocks - What are the types of sedimentary rocks and what minerals and textures characterize them? In which depositional environments are each type of sedimentary rock formed?
• Recognize sedimentary structures and be familiar with the conditions that are necessary to form each.
• What environmental conditions are necessary to form thick deposits of relatively pure gypsum, anhydrite, and halite? What economic mineral resources (broadly construed) may be found in association with these types of deposits?
• Diagenesis - What is it and how does it work?