CALIFORNIA

GEOLOGY Earth 109 Professor Busby INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER 1 Simplied geologic map of California, by the California Geological Survey - See inside book cover of your textbook:
California Geology, Deborah R. Harden, 2nd Edition

REQUIRED
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I have been researching and teaching about California geology ever since I was an undergraduate at Berkeley, a PhD student at Princeton, and for 28 years as a professor here at UCSB.

READ YOUR SYLLABUS CAREFULLY AND REFER TO IT OFTEN! HUGE range in the educational backgrounds of class members. To get everyone on the same page, the class will spend the first 6 weeks of the quarter studying the textbook. The last 4 weeks will go beyond the book, using pdfs of my powerpoints, to be posted on Gaucho Space. For each class meeting, you will prepare a neatly drawn 3-page maximum cheat sheet in pencil , and be prepared to go to the board and answer any given question. You will bring these cheat sheets on the field trip and to both exams. GRADING: First exam (including quality of cheat sheets): 45% of grade - Feb 15 IN CLASS. Second exam (including quality of cheat sheets): 45% of grade - March 13 IN CLASS. NO EXAM DURING FINALS WEEK. Participation (preparation for class answers, as well as field exercise participation): 10% of grade.

REQUIRED Field Exercise: 7:00 am Friday March 2 to 9:00 pm Monday March 5. You will be barced $150 lab fee for the trip. This is an elective class; do not take the class if you have conflict for those dates (be it personal or class conflict). The only excuse for missing the trip will be a doctors letter saying you were too ill to attend. Each stop on the field trip will have questions for you to answer, with sketches. You will turn in your field notes at the last stop of the field trip, and I will return them to you with comments at the next class meeting so you can revise them for the final. There is no limit to the length of your field exercise cheat sheet. WEEK 1: Review of Basic Geology. Reading: Chapters 1-4 GET STARTED TODAY! ANSWER WEEK 1 QUESTIONS BY WEDNESDAY. ANSWER WEEK 2 QUESTIONS BEFORE NEXT MONDAYS CLASS.
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WEEK 1: Review of Basic Geology Can you label the major plates? Do you know what these three symbols mean?

Similar to Figure 1-1 in your book

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QuesBon 1a - The Layered Earth: right side shows layering by COMPOSITION, gets denser inward. Iron-rich (metallic) core (9 - 16 X the density of water) Stony mantle (~ 6 - 3X the density of water) - more Fe and Mg, less Si than
crust.

Stony crust, less dense than mantle (~2.7 - 3.2X the density of water) Similar to Figure 1-2 of your book

Question 1b - left side shows layering by STRENGTH Inner core is solid, Outer core is liquid with convection currents, responsible for Earths magnetic eld. Mesosphere and asthenosphere are plastic. Lithosph,ere is brittle, and makes the tectonic plates. Similar to Figure 1-2 of your book

Question 1c - Similar to Figure 1-3 of your book:

Tectonic (or lithospheric) plate May include: continental crust (lightest, thicker), oceanic crust (denser, thinner), and the uppermost part of the mantle (densest). These oat on the plastic asthenosphere by a process called isostacy (see next slide).
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Oceanic crust is made of basalt, formed by seaoor spreading.

Isostasy (Question 1c)

Less dense materials oat higher than more dense materials, like an iceberg oating in the ocean. Continental crust oats highest, with a thick hidden root - the continent is the tip of the iceberg. Oceanic crust is denser and oats lower than the continents - that is what makes the ocean basins, which hold most of the water on earth.

A thicker continent sticks up higher.

Question 2a - Divergent plate boundary on the sea oor. Figure 1-5 of your book: Sea-oor spreading = injection of mantlederived melts into the crack created as two plates are pulled apart. The process repeats over and over. Sea oor is created by this process. How do we know this? MAGNETIC STRIPING OF THE SEA FLOOR.
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The asthenosphere is virtually at the surface at a mid-ocean ridge. Transform faults accommodate right or left steps along the mid-ocean ridge.

What is MAGNETIC STRIPING OF THE SEA FLOOR?

A Primer on Earths MagneBc Field

Earths magneBc eld acts like giant bar magnet, with north end near the North Pole and south end near the South Pole (caused by dynamo in liquid outer core). MagneBc polarity reverses Every several thousand to tens of millions of years, the orientaOon of magneOc eld switches from north (normal) polarity to south (reverse) polarity. InclinaOon of magneOc lines can also be used to infer what laBtude the rock formed at (determine paleolaOtudinal posiOons of the conOnents).

Question 2a continued.
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MagneBzaBon of Volcanic Rocks:

When lava cools to below 550oC (Curie point), atoms in iron-bearing minerals line up in direcOon of Earths magneOc eld, recording both polarity (normal vs. reversed) and inclinaBon (laOtude at which the lava cooled). A stack of lava ows may record several reversals, which can be dated radiometrically. By this method a magneOc polarity reversal Ome scale can be constructed.

Question 2a continued.
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MagneBzaBon PaXerns on the Seaoors

Ocean oor is striped by parallel bands of magneOzed rock with alternaOng polariOes Stripes are parallel to mid-ocean ridges, and paXern of stripes is symmetrical across mid-ocean ridges (paXern on one side of ridge has mirror opposite on other side) Varying widths of alternaOng polarity stripes match lengths of Ome between successive reversals of Earths magneOc eld

Question 2a continued.
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MagneBzaBon PaXerns on the Seaoors

Magma is injected into the ocean ridges to cool and form new rock imprinted with the Earths magneOc eld Seaoor is then pulled away from ocean ridge like two large conveyor belts going in opposite direcOons seaoor spreading
Cross sectional view

Question 2a, divergent plate boundary, continued.

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Question 2a, divergent plate boundary on the sea oor, continued: Ocean oor depths increase systemaOcally with seaoor age, moving away from mid-ocean ridges. WHY? The plate gets thicker, by slow cooling of oceanic crust and uppermost mantle, and becomes denser, therefore sinking a liXle lower into mantle asthenosphere. Sediment slowly piles up with Ome (thicker on older seaoor) and its weight on plate also cause it to sink a liXle into mantle

Well talk about divergent plate boundaries on continents later.

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Question 2b - CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARY with oceanic plate subducting under a continent. Figure 1-6 of your book: UPPER PLATE (overriding plate)

LOWER PLATE (going back down into the mantle)

The Benioff zone is defined by earthquakes where the lower (subducting) plate grinds under the upper plate.

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Question 2b - CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARY with oceanic plate subducting under a continent - Closest example: Figure 1-4 of your book: Juan de Fuca plate is subducting under Pacic Northwest. Below: red triangles = volcanic arc

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Question 2b - CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARY - what happens where light crust gets carried into the subduction zone? Ocean-continent convergence (top): oceanic plate is subducted, but when a piece of light continental crust gets brought in on the subducting slab, it cant subduct (too bouyant), and continental upheaval results.

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Question 2b - CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARY India moved 2,000 km north toward Asia by subduction of Indian Ocean plates. Pre-collision, Indian and Asian crusts were 35 km thick. Crust under Tibetan plateau is now 70 km thick, highest continental area on Earth. India is still shoving under Asia. Some much smaller parts of California were accreted in a similar way.
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Question 2c - TRANSFORM PLATE BOUNDARY Figure 1-7 of your book, illustrating right-lateral slip along the San Andreas fault and the Hayward fault. Below: map view.

This fault shows left-lateral slip.

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Question 2c - TRANSFORM PLATE BOUNDARY continued.

Strike-slip faults: horizontal movement When straddling a fault, if right-hand side moved towards you, it is a rightlateral fault When straddling a fault, if the left-hand side has moved towards you, it is a leftlateral fault Convention works in either direction
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Question 2 summary: Tectonic cycle (takes about 250 million years):

Melted asthenosphere ows upward as magma Cools to form new ocean oor (lithosphere) New oceanic lithosphere (slab) diverges from zone of formaOon atop asthenosphere (seaoor spreading) and cools as it is rabed away. When slab of oceanic lithosphere collides with another younger, warmer slab, the older, colder, denser slab subducts and is reabsorbed into the mantle

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Question 4 - Fixed hot spot rising up through the mantle under the Pacic
plate, which is moving toward the NW - so Hawaiian Islands are older toward north, and sink under their own weight.

Hot spot track records plate motion directions for the last 80 million years.

Figure 1-7 of your book

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Question 5 - FAULTS - not fully discussed in book but you need to know this. How is a fault different from a joint in a rock? Its a fracture in the Earth in which two sides move relative to each other.
Jointing: brittle rocks fracture and crack but a there is no offset across a joint.

Examples of bedding offset by faults.

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Question 5 continued - Three-dimensional view of a fault plane: Strike = intersection of the fault plane with the earths surface.

Above: the strike of the Alpine fault in New Zealand is about 10 degrees east of north. Below: the San Andreas fault here strikes about 30 degrees west of north (see north arrow); offset of a creek is right lateral.
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Question 5 - Three-dimensional view of a fault plane, continued: Dip = angle between the earths surface and the fault plane. Example shown on block diagram is about 45 degrees.

Above: these small faults dip steeply (about 80 degrees). Below: fault planes can be curved. This fault attens with depth: from a dip of about 45 degrees, to a dip of about 20 degrees.
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Question 5 continued - What is the difference between a

hypocenter and an epicenter?

Stress builds up until rupture starts at the weakest point along the fault plane -- this is called the hypocenter or focus The spot on the earth directly above the place of initial rupture is the epicenter Rupture then spreads out along the fault surface. The surface rupture will occur directly above the hypocenter ONLY if the fault plane is vertical. Sometimes faults dont rupture all the way to the surface, and then there is no ground breakage.
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Question 5 continued FAULTS THAT ARE NOT VERTICAL are referred to as dip slip faults, because they are dominated by vertical movement. Miners refer to the block beneath them as the footwall (block beneath the fault) because they stand on it, and the block above them as the hanging wall (block above the fault) because they hang their lantern on it (the roof).
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Question 5, continued. Figure 1-13 from your book, illustrating compression, extension, and transform motion. Its a little confusing because it shows the fault plane as being vertical in all three cases. What is much more common is that the fault plane is only vertical for transform motion, and is NOT vertical for compression and extension (see next slide).
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Question 5, continued. Figure 1-15 from your book: (a) reverse fault is a dip slip fault that forms by compression, (b) normal fault is a dip, slip fault that forms by extension, and (c) strike slip fault is a vertical fault that forms by transform motion
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Prettier drawings on following slides..

Question 5, continued.

Normal Fault : a dip slip fault formed due to PULLING APART = extensional. Hanging wall moves down relative to footwall.
Zone of omission - if you wanted to drill down into the stippled bed to get water or oil from it, you wouldnt nd it there.

Reverse Fault-a dip slip fault formed due to PUSHING TOGETHER = compressional. Hanging wall moves up relative to footwall.
Zone of omission - if you wanted to drill down into the stippled bed to get water or oil from it, you would hit it twice!
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Question 5, continued.

Figure 1-14 from your book illustrates how compression not only produces reverse faults but also may cause folding, especially in layered rocks.
Example of folding of rock layers: these sedimentary layers were deposited at and then they got crumpled up along the San Andreas fault. Photo along Highway 14 just south of Palmdale (San Andreas fault zone).

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Question 5, continued. Figure 1-15 from your book illustrates how extension not only produces normal faults, but can produce a graben (left) or downsag (right).

A graben will be seen at the surface as a basin or valley.

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Question 5, continued.

Steps or bends in Strike-Slip Faults: Earth does not rupture

along planes that are perfectly straight and continue forever. Instead, the faults bend or make steps to the left or right. Left bend in a right-lateral fault (or right step in left-lateral fault, not shown): THE TWO SIDES PUSH TOGETHER Compression, uplift, hills and mountains

TRANSPRESSION - see Figure 1-17 of your book.

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Question 5, continued.

Steps or bends in Strike-Slip Faults, continued:

Right bend in a rightlateral fault (or left bend in left-lateral fault, not shown):
Figure 3.14

THE TWO SIDES PULL APART Extension, downdropping, basins and valleys

TRANSTENSION - see Figure 1-17 of your book.

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Question 5, continued. Strike-Slip Faults, continued: A TRANSFORM FAULT is a strike-slip fault that forms a plate boundary.

Example shown here connects two spreading centers on the ocean oor.
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Question 5, continued. TRANSFORM FAULTS continued:

Example shown here (San Andreas fault) connects spreading centers in the Gulf of California with the subducting Juan de Fuca plate. It forms the plate boundary between the Pacic and North American plates.
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