Deck 20: Paleozoic Earth History

Question 1

Name the four Paleozoic transgressive sequences in order from oldest to youngest.

Answer 1

Sauk,Tippecanoe,Kaskaskia,Absaroka

Question 2

What is the currently favored hypothesis for explaining cyclothems?

Answer 2

rise and fall of sea level that accompanied advance and retreat of Gondwana glaciers

Question 3

When and where did the Antler orogeny occur?

Answer 3

Devonian,Cordillera of North America

Question 4

Describe a clastic wedge.How can a clastic wedge be used as evidence for an orogeny?

Question 5

What were the six major Paleozoic continents?

Question 6

What are cyclothems?

Question 7

The early transgressing seas of both the Tippecanoe and Kaskaskia sequences are marked by deposition of what sedimentary rock type?

Question 8

What is the sedimentary sequence,from base to top,of an idealized cyclothem?

Question 9

What are believed to be the causes of global transgressive and regressive cycles?

Question 10

During the Cambrian,where were the major continents located?

Question 11

What is a cratonic sequence?

Question 12

What is the Tippecanoe sequence?

Question 13

What worldwide effect was caused by Gondwana moving over the South Pole during the Carboniferous Period?

Question 14

What role did microplates and terranes play in the formation of Pangaea? Give an example.

Question 15

What are mobile belts of a continent?

Question 16

What were three major mobile belts in North America in the Paleozoic?

Question 17

Describe how the first geologic map was created.

Question 18

When and where did the Acadian orogeny occur?

Question 19

What is the name of the first major transgression onto the North American craton,and when did it begin?

Question 20

How did the extensive layers of dolostones form?

Question 21

The Taconic orogeny occurred during the ____________________ of geologic time in the region of ____________________.

Question 22

The first major transgression onto the North American continent is recorded in rocks of the ____________________ sequence.

Question 23

The most abundant rock type deposited during the Kaskaskian sequence was ____________________.

Question 24

By the (Early/Middle/Late)____________________ Cambrian,most of North America was covered by epeiric seas with the exception of a highland known as the ____________________.

Question 25

In what two areas are there major exposures of the rocks formed in the Ouachita mobile belt?

Question 26

Most of the productive coal beds of Paleozoic age are found in rocks formed during the ____________________ period.

Question 27

The presumed causes for transgressions and regressions of shallow seas during the Paleozoic were ____________________ and ____________________.

Question 28

Erosion of the Taconic Highlands resulted in the development of a(n)____________________ called the ____________________.

Question 29

The assemblage of the Late Paleozoic supercontinent concluded during the ____________________ Period.

Question 30

The three orogenies of the Devonian were the ____________________,____________________,and ____________________.

Question 31

Prior to the transgression of epeiric seas in the Middle Cambrian,the North American craton had been undergoing ____________________ and ____________________.

Question 32

The ____________________ orogeny in Europe is a mirror of the Taconic and Acadian orogenies in North America.

Question 33

The ____________________ orogeny that occurred in the Cordilleran mobile belt was caused by ____________________.

Question 34

The ____________________ mobile belt of southern Europe corresponds to the ____________________ and ____________________ mobile belts of North America.Collectively,these mark the zone along which ____________________ collided with ____________________.

Question 35

During the Paleozoic,cratons were covered with large bodies of water called ____________________.

Question 36

The shield portion of the craton is underlain by ____ age rocks and was tectonically ____.

A) Archean, active
B) Precambrian, active
C) Precambrian, inactive
D) Phanerozoic, inactive
E) Phanerozoic, active

Question 37

Each of the major continents at the beginning of the Paleozoic had two major components.These were

A) a trough and a range
B) a craton and a mobile belt
C) an immobile belt and a rift margin
D) a craton and a ocean basin
E) a volcano and a desert

Question 38

How many of the six Paleozoic geological systems were described in William Smith's first geological map of England?

A) two
B) four
C) five
D) six

Question 39

The Absaroka sequence spans which periods of geologic time?

Question 40

The supercontinent that formed near the end of the Paleozoic from an assembling of all the continents was called ____________________.

Question 41

The Precambrian igneous rocks of the shield areas record evidence for ____.

A) continental growth by accretion
B) extensive Precambrian orogenic activity
C) extensive pre-Phanerozoic erosion
D) continental growth by accretion AND extensive Precambrian orogenic activity
E) all of these

Question 42

An idealized cyclothem is characterized by which of the following sequences from bottom to top?

A) coal beds, fluvial deltaic sediments, detrital shallow water marine, limestone
B) limestone, detrital shallow water marine, fluvial deltaic sediments, coal beds
C) limestone, detrital shallow water marine, coal beds, fluvial deltaic sediments
D) fluvial deltaic sediments, coal beds, detrital shallow water marine, limestone
E) detrital shallow water marine, fluvial deltaic sediments, limestone, coal beds

Question 43

A cratonic sequence is recognized by ____.

A) a transgressive phase followed by regressive phase
B) a regressive phase followed by a transgressive phase
C) a regressive phase only
D) a transgressive phase only
E) a lack of any sequence

Question 44

What did the Queenston Delta form in response to?

A) uplift of the Taconic Highlands
B) subduction of the Iapetus plate
C) uplift of the Caledonides
D) carbonate deposition
E) the Mississippi River

Question 45

Which of the following was not a mobile belt around the North American continent during the Paleozoic?

A) Franklin
B) Cordilleran
C) Hercynian
D) Ouachita
E) Appalachian

Question 46

What was the probable source for detrital sand in the basal Kaskaskia unit?

A) Ozark domes
B) the Appalachian mobile belt
C) the Canadian Shield
D) all of these
E) Ozark domes and the Appalachian mobile belt

Question 47

The Vishnu Schist in the Grand Canyon records a period of ____.

A) deep ocean sedimentation at a passive margin
B) nearshore sedimentation at a passive margin
C) dune building on land
D) carbonate precipitation at a passive margin
E) mountain building

Question 48

Uplift of the Ancestral Rockies occurred during ____.

A) the Late Kaskaskia
B) the Early Absaroka
C) the Late Absaroka
D) the Early Kaskaskia
E) the Middle Devonian

Question 49

What were the general climatic conditions on the Paleozoic supercontinent (Pangaea)?

A) arid
B) arid to semiarid
C) semiarid to subtropical
D) subtropical to humid
E) humid

Question 50

Why are organic reefs useful paleoecological indicators?

A) Organisms only form limestone reefs in cold, tropic waters.
B) Organisms only form limestone reefs where there is a great abundance of mineral matter in the water.
C) Organisms only form limestone reefs in warm, clear, shallow water.
D) Organisms in the modern world only form limestone reefs between 30 degrees north and south of the equator.
E) Modern organisms only form limestone reefs in warm, clear, shallow water, between 30 degrees north and south of the equator.

Question 51

When did the Ouachita system change sedimentation styles from those typical of a passive margin to an active margin?

A) Late Paleozoic
B) Early Pennsylvanian
C) Late Permian
D) late Devonian
E) Early Mississippian

Question 52

How long has the Colorado Plateau been uplifting?

A) 1 billion years
B) 300 million years
C) 30 million years
D) 3 million years
E) 300,000

Question 53

What characteristic feature of Pennsylvanian rocks distinguishes rocks of the Absaroka sequence from those of the Kaskaskia sequence as well as others of North America?

A) cyclothems
B) carbonates
C) coal
D) conodonts
E) chordates

Question 54

During the entire Paleozoic,the western margin of North America could be described as ____.

A) tectonically active with the development of numerous mobile belts
B) a passive margin with only localized mountain building events
C) a passive margin with no evidence of orogeny
D) an active margin with thick carbonate platforms
E) a zone of active volcanism

Question 55

Rocks of the shield are primarily ____.

A) igneous
B) metamorphic
C) sedimentary
D) igneous and metamorphic
E) igneous and sedimentary

Question 56

The clastic wedge that formed off of the uplifted Caledonian Highlands is known as what?

A) Old Caledonian Sandstone
B) Old Catskill Sandstone
C) Oriskany Sandstone
D) St. Peters Sandstone
E) Old Red Sandstone

Question 57

What do cyclothems represent?

A) transgressive and regressive sequences
B) transgression of marine sediments over nonmarine sediments
C) transgression of nonmarine sediments over marine sediments
D) regression of marine sediments
E) regionally extensive erosional surfaces

Question 58

Devonian black shale units are all but which of the following?

A) calcareous
B) carbonaceous
C) thinly bedded
D) conodont bearing
E) less than 10 meters in thickness

Question 59

The Michigan Basin is an important source for ____.

A) rock salt
B) gypsum
C) oil
D) gas
E) all of these

Question 60

The orogeny,which affected the northern Appalachians during the Late Silurian to the end of the Devonian,is known as the ____.

A) Acadian Orogeny
B) Caledonian Orogeny
C) Appalachian Orogeny
D) Hercynian Orogeny
E) Ouachita Orogeny

Question 61

Terranes and microplates were part of the formation of Pangaea.

Question 62

Polar ice caps existed through most of the Cambrian.

Question 63

In the Tippecanoe sequence,widespread carbonate deposition was related to the Taconic orogeny.

Question 64

After the Sauk Sea had regressed,the exposed surface of the North American continent was subjected to extensive glaciation.

Question 65

During the Sauk transgression,the Transcontinental Arch was a highland estimated to be tens of thousands of feet high.

Question 66

Mobile belts form when convergent plate margins develop.

Question 67

The Zechstein deposits of Europe form the caprock for large quantities of what?

A) lime
B) gas
C) aluminum
D) silica
E) iron

Question 68

Rise and fall of sea level in epeiric seas can be partly explained by continental glaciation events.

Question 69

Platform sedimentary rocks are entirely carbonate rocks.

Question 70

The Colorado River is no longer deepening the Grand Canyon.

Question 71

The Transcontinental Arch represents portions of the Canadian Shield not covered by seas in the Sauk transgression.

Question 72

The Appalachian and Ouachita mountains represent ancient mobile belts.

Question 73

The basal unit of the transgressive Kaskaskia sequence is marked by extensive black shale deposition.

Question 74

The boundary between the Tippecanoe and Sauk sequences is a vast unconformity with deep erosional relief.

Question 75

The basal unit of the Tippecanoe sequence is the St.Peter Sandstone.

Question 76

What desirable type of coal is mostly found in the Appalachian region?

A) anthracite
B) coke
C) bituminous
D) evaporite
E) none of these

Question 77

The Silurian Clinton Formation is an important source for ____.

A) rock salt
B) oil and gas
C) iron
D) silica
E) lime