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1. What is the difference between saprolite and regolith? 2. What is the most ab

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Question

1. What is the difference between saprolite and regolith? 2. What is the most abundant sedimentary rock? 3. What is a Monadnock and what type of weathering formed it? 4. What is lithification? 5. What is the difference between Sinter and Travertine? 6. What is the difference between a Butte and a Mesa? 7. What type of weathering causes Mars to be called the “Red Planet”? 8. What type of weathering forms caves? 9. What is the Archaeopteryx? 10. What is the difference between stalactites and stalagmites? 11. What is the importance of sedimentary rocks? 12. What is the smallest size sediment? 13. What is the difference between chemical and mechanical weathering? 14. List three uses of sedimentary rocks. 1) ________________________________________________________________________ 2) ________________________________________________________________________ 3) ________________________________________________________________________ 15. Explain how sedimentary rocks can be used to interpret the past. 16. Explain the formation of turbidites. 17. While on a field trip with your geology class, you stop at an outcrop of sandstone. An examination with a hand lens shows that the sandstone is poorly sorted and rich in feldspar and quartz. Your instructor tells you that the sediment was derived from one of two sites in the area: Site #1: A nearby exposure of weathered basaltic lava flows. Site # 2: An outcrop of granite at the previous field trip stop up the road. Select the most likely site and explain your choice. What name is given to this type of sandstone?

Explanation / Answer

1. Saprolite is a chemically weathered rock. Saprolites form in the lower zones of soil profiles and represent deep weathering of the bedrock surface. In most outcrops its color comes from ferric compounds. Deeply weathered profiles are widespread on the continental landmasses between latitudes 35°N and 35°S whereas Regolith is a layer of loose, heterogeneous superficial material covering solid rock. It includes dust, soil, broken rock, and other related materials and is present on Earth, the Moon, Mars, some asteroids, and other terrestrial planets and moons.

2. Shale is the most abundant sedimentary rock.

3. Monadnock is a mountain or rocky mass that has resisted erosion and stands isolated inan essentially

level area. Generally fluvial and/or aeolian erosion and weatehering creates a monadnock.

4. Lithification is the process in which sediments compact under pressure, expel connate fluids, and gradually become solid rock. It is a process of porosity destruction through compaction and cementation.