a. Which type of ripple marks would you expect to see on the bed of a river? Why?
b. Which type would you expect to find on the floor of a standing body of water? Why?
c. Suggest a rule for using mud cracks to determine "which way is up" in a sequence of strata.
d. How might you determine "which way is up" in a bed deposited by a turbidity current?
2. Imagine that you just found the rock pictured in Figure 6.14B on page 130 of the Laboratory Manual. Such a rock might be found in the Cretaceous rocks of Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta.
a. Suggest a paleoenvironment that the sample represents, and explain your reasoning.
b. What evidence would you look for to support your hypothesis?
3. List the environments in which shale accumulates. What does each of these environments have in common with the others?
4. Complete question 10 on page 128 of the Laboratory Manual.
5. Consider the weathering and erosion of a granite.
a. Describe the physical and chemical changes that occur to produce a detrital sediment from a freshly exposed granite.
b. Describe the sediment that forms
i. very close to the granitic source rock.
ii. at an intermediate distance from the source and within a fluvial bed.
iii. at the mouth of a river at some distance from the source.
iv. on a beach.
Be sure to discuss the composition, size, shape, and sorting of the grains. What happens to the clay-sized material?