WVU/WVGES Geoscience Education
CATS Historical Geology Telecourse, Spring 2001:
Quizzes # 1 and #2

Quiz Instructions:

You may submit your quiz answers using one of the following four methods. (Regardless of the method you use, don't forget to include your name.)

• fax to Dr. Behling:

        fax number:  	304-293-6522
     

• regular mail to Dr. Behling postmarked no later than the quiz due date:

           address:  Department of Geology and Geography
                     West Virginia University
                     P.O. Box 6600
                     Morgantown, WV  26506-6600
     

• handing a hard copy to your facilitator:
• electronically:
  Please read and follow the instructions shown below to submit your answers electronically.
  • Compose your answers in a word processor such as WordPerfect or Word.
  • Save a copy of your answers.
  • Click on the quiz e-mail submission address, behling@geo.wvu.edu.
  • Cut and paste your answers from your word processor into the body of the e-mail box. You do not need to retype the questions. But, please number the answers to correspond to the question number.
  • Make sure that your e-mail address is clearly visible.
  • Send the e-mail.
  • Dr. Behling will confirm that your submission was successful with a short response.

QUIZ #1 - THE PRECAMBRIAN:

1. (+5) We have consistently referred to the basement rocks beneath West Virginia as rocks of Grenville age. What do the rocks generally reflect with respect to a major geologic event, and what is the approximate range of absolute age for the event?
2. (+5) A few deep wells in West Virginia and Ohio have reached the Grenville basement. In Ohio, there is one well from which more than 1000' of rock of Grenville age was recovered! As a generalization, we consistently referred to the rocks as being "crystalline rocks". What is your understanding of the term and what kind of rocks do you think you would find if you drilled to the basement at the site of your school?
3. (+5) Fossils are very important as we attempt to correlate rock units around the world. We can do this for rocks of Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic age. What is essentially the only method we have to correlate the Precambrian rocks of the Shield Areas?
4. (+5) Speaking of Precambrian Shields, what does the term mean? Why is the shield for North America usually referred to as the Canadian Shield?

QUIZ #2 - FOSSILS AND THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF LIFE:

5. (+5) The fossils of the Burgess shale in British Columbia are often the focus of the term "the explosion of life". What is their age? Are the critters of that time still around so many generations later? Why were the soft parts preserved in shale? Would you expect them to be similarly preserved in sandstone?
6. (+5) Can you suggest three separate and distinct events which could cause the extinction of a substantial variety of life forms?
7. (+5) Two extinction events are of special note: One is referred to as the "Great Dying"; the other focuses on the extinction of the Dinosaurs. When did each occur and what could have been the cause of each?
8. (+5) We have tried to stress "symmetry" as an important factor in the identification and classification of fossils. As always, we rely on the present as a key to the past (if there still are living relatives, of course!). Choose any three life forms and compare and contrast their hard part "symmetry". The state tree of West Virginia is the Sugar Maple. Does anything relating to a maple tree show symmetry?

Page last revised: November 9, 2005.