Introduction Out of the United States, Alabama was rated sixteenth among the states because of their industrial minerals produced. The industrial minerals that were produced were limestone, lime, dolomite, crushed stone, marble, building stone, sand, gravel, chalk, clay, shale, kaolin, bauxite, bentonite, fuller’s earth, fireclay, recovered sulfur, salt, and mica. In 2007, Alabama’s value of industrial minerals was about two percent of the national mineral production. In 1998, Alabama was ranked second in the nation because of their production of lime and clays. The state proceeded on to be third in bentonite, fourth in kaolin and masonry cement, and eighth in salt production in the United States. However, with the development of an operation …show more content…
A single rock is made from either a single mineral or an aggregate of several minerals, with the rock only belonging to one of the three rock groups. The three rock groups consist of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The state of Alabama is diversely made up of many different mineral species. However, sedimentary rock covers most of the state, with vulnerability of igneous and metamorphic rocks which is only in the east central part of the state. Alabama’s rock forming minerals vary from clay, calcite, and quartz to the best such as gold. (“Minerals of …show more content…
The different color water is due to the presence of particulate material that has been suspended in the water column. The particulate material is known as sediment, which is made through the erosion and weathering of rocks that have been exposed far inland away from the coast. Sediments that are carried by rivers get transported into standing bodies of water. However, there are sediments that will reside in southern Alabama, which is the Gulf of Mexico. When sediment loads enter standing bodies of water from a river they get dropped and deposition occurs. Deposition then forms parallel layers that are known as strata. Within time the process of compaction and cementation, the sediment becomes lithified into sedimentary rock. (“Sedimentary Rocks”) Through out most of Alabama’s geologic past the state was mostly covered by swamps and ancient oceans. The sediment that was not carried away in these environments composed most of Alabama’s bedrock, which was limestone, sandstone, shale, and chalk. All of the deposits listed are very important to Alabama because the quarrying of limestone has become one of the largest nonfuel mineral industry’s in the state. (“Geologic Survey of
Marshak, S. (2009) Essentials of Geology, 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, ch. 11, p. 298-320.
Starved Rock State covers about 200 miles and some 470 million years, from Ordovician sandstones to Pleistocene glacial till. The Ordovician St. Peter Formation sandstone was deposited across the midcontinent during the second major marine transgression of the Paleozoic Era. The first transgression deposited Upper Cambrian to Lower Ordovician clastics and carbonates. The clastic to carbonate rock transition is consistent with gradual sea level rise over the North American craton. Sea level dropped late in the early Ordovician, exposing the carbonate strata to processes of cave development.
Yes this feature is the result of erosion and depositional processes however, it is not associated with the current water course. This feature may be the result of a Gilbert type delta that once occupied this area. Gilbert type deltas have three main components; topsets, foresets and bottomsets. Topsets are fluvial sediments (primarily sandur deposits) that were deposited on the subaerial delta surface. Erosive events occurring on the upper forslope can result in downslope channels and chutes. These features are then eroded by either strong currents or by debris flow resulting in these channels and chutes to become filled. Foresets are a combination of sand and gravel facies. The are deposited by gravitational processes on the delta foreslope and the grains tend to become finer and more angular downslope. Bottomsets consist of fine grained silts and clay and are deposited at the foot of the delta front.
The third alluvial deposition consists of sand, silt and minor inter-bedded gravel, and again indicates Brimbank Park’s changing geology over time. (Geological map of Victoria, 1973). These deposits, as well as a nearby fault suggest volcanic activity 5-1.6 million years ago, which explains the olivine basalt (fig. 2) deposits which date back to to the Silurian and Tertiary period.
The site visited on this day was informally known as the Bedrock Knob (NTS grid reference: 120 342). It is in an area where patches of limestone and exposed bedrock are common. The bedrock is part of the Preca...
...e morphed it into the quartzite that is seen surrounding the butte (4). Rocks that undergo this process are called metamorphic rock, which is the same as the rock seen years ago by dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. The quartzite rocks were formerly seafloor sediment that was forced upwards, and then surrounded by lava basalt flows. Once erupted through fissures and floods through out most of the area, lava flow eventually created enough basalt to form a thickness of about 1.8 kilometers (1). All of this basalt flow eventually led to the covering of most mountains, leaving the buttes uncovered. The igneous lava flows and loess is reasons that the Palouse consists of such sprawling hills, and rich soil for farming (2). In result of the lava flows, the Precambrian rock Quartzite was formed. And lastly covered by the glacial loess, which were carried by the wind.
The Long Point Fault is located in Harris County, which covers 83,450 square miles located with in Houston, Teaxas City Limits. Research specifies that there are three sections of the Long Point fault that appear to be active; some sections of the Long Point fault have averaged more than 2 cm per year of vertical offset over the last 20 years. Evidence of the faults concludes it is a natural fault. The reason for activity is not caused by man, even though man’s activities are not helping the issues, but clearly humans are not the initial cause, biological activity can be in fact an adiitional cause for its movement. A brief description of the type of fault and its relationship with the strata and the faults beneath the Houston area, are at depths of 1,000 to 4,000 m. They have been well-defined through the study of well logs and seismic lines. Studies have resuted in assumuptions that some of these subsurface faults penetrate younger sediments at shallower depths, and contain faults that have of set the present land surface to produce recognizable scarps. (Gabrysh)
Later after the sea finally retreated occurred volcanic activity. Mountains rose through laccoliths, which also resemble volcanoes. These laccoliths differ in that they do not erupt. They shifted layers of rock upward in the shape of a dome. This specific piece of geologic morphology occurred at the end of the Cretaceous time. This marked the beginning of the Laramide Orogeny, which was a well-known period of mountain formation in western North America.
Ehlen, Judy, and R.C. Whisonant. 2008. "Military geology of Antietam battlefield, Maryland, USA—geology, terrain, and casualties." Geology Today 20-27.
and Metamorphic rocks can be found. There are also a lot of crusted plates, and violent
Stephen .G,Malcolm.W, Guy H,(2014), GEOL20001 The Geology of Southeast Australia, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, pg. 23-25
Morton, J. W. (n.d.). Metamorphosed melange terrane in the eastern piedmont of north carolina. Retrieved from http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/content/14/7/551.abstract
United States Geologic Survey. USGS: Your Source for Science You Can Use. Ed. Marcia McNutt. The United States Department of the Interior, 2000. Web. 20 June 2010. .
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (2014). Burgess Shale Fossil Specimens. Retrieved May 2014, from http://paleobiology.si.edu/burgess/burgessSpecimens.html
Though it has had many negative impacts on the environment in the past, mining is a vital industry completely necessary to our economy and lives. Nearly every item we use or encounter in our day to day lives is mined or contains mined products. Without the excavation of such materials things like computers, televisions, large building structures, electricity, and cars would not be possible. Virtually every technological and medical advance uses minded materials, without which millions would suffer. Some examples of minerals in the home include the telephone which is made from as many as 42 different minerals, including aluminum, beryllium, coal, copper, gold, iron, silver, and talc. A television requires over 35 different minerals, and more than 30 minerals are needed to make a single personal computer. Without boron, copper, gold and quartz, your digital alarm clock would not work. Every American uses an average 47,000 pounds of newly mined materials each year, which is higher than all other countries with the exception of Japan, which is a staggering figure representative of our dependence and need for mined minerals. Coal makes up more than half of nation’s electricity, and will continue to be the largest electrical supplier into 2020 & accounting for some 95 percent of the nation's fossil energy reserves – nine of every ten short-tons of coal mined in the United States is used for electricity generation. As the population of the world grows more mineral resources must be exploited through mining in order to support the rising demand for such products. Though it may present a hazard to the environment and those physically located nears the mines, the materials extracted from mines...