- A local architect hires you for a summer
internship. Knowing that you know your regional geology, she
has you make a list of where to obtain a variety of stone
building materials. Among the materials she wants you to find
are: * tan or gray (marine) sandstone * red sandstone * granite
* slate * gneiss * limestone The architect has you rent a
truck to pick up a little bit of each kind of building stone.
For her official records, she has you write up a travel report,
in which you must answer the following questions: What route
would you follow? Where would you go?, and What is the geologic
context under which these rocks formed? The following is a
list of the contexts: (1) the Grenville passive margin (2)
the Taconic converge, (2a) interval (Silurian-Early Devonian)
between Taconic and Acadian (3) the Acadian convergence, (3a)
interval (Mississippian-Early Permian) between Acadian and
Alleghenian (4) the Alleghenian convergence, (4a) interval
(Early-mid Triassic) between Alleghanian and rifting (5) the
rifting apart of Pangea, and (5a) interval (mid-Jurassic-late
Jurassic) between rifting and creation of Coastal Plain (6)
the Coastal Plain passive margin and shaping by erosion of
many of current land-forms (7) Pleistocene glaciation and
Holocene post-glacial.
- Since it is difficult to imagine how a certain
kind of building stone will look in a building until the building
is built, the architect suggests you create a walking tour
of your town buildings showing people various kinds of building
stones. She asks you to create such a tour, with a written
report that she can follow. Go to an area of your town with
stone buildings. Make a list of buildings and stone materials.
Try to find out the history of the buildings and stones, and
place the building stones in the context of geological history.
- A local politician with no background in
geology suggests that your community depends too much on fossil
fuel from abroad, and that in fact all fossil fuel resources
should come from the Northeast region. The architect, being
an active voice against public misinformation, decides to
give you a different job for awhile - to write an article
summarizing the presence of fossil fuels in the northeast
U.S. and their origin. Write an editorial that explains (1)
why fossil fuels are largely restricted to the Inland Basin
area of the Northeast, (2) why coal is so abundant in Pennsylvania,
but not elsewhere in the Northeast, and (3) why we have reason
to believe that there is not substantially more natural gas
and oil in the Northeast than we have already discovered.
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