Geology 1202 Planet Earth Assignment - Turbidity Currents In Lecture Eight we learned that southern mainland Nova Scotia is underlain by a sequence of rocks called the Meguma Group. If you check the Nova Scotia Geology Map you will see that the Meguma Group is divided into the Halifax and Goldenville Formations. These formations consist of the metamorphic rocks slate (Halifax Fm.), and quartzite (Goldenville Fm.) But in this assignment we will not be investigating these metamorphic rocks, but rather their protoliths (the name we give to the original rock prior to metamorphism). As we also learned in Lecture Eight, the rocks of the Meguma Group were originally sandstones (Goldenville Fm.) and shales (Halifax Fm.) of Cambrian and Ordovician age. Meguma Group Halifax N 0 km 100 Most of the sandstone layers in the Meguma Group are believed to have been deposited by turbidity currents. The current-generated structures, such as ripple marks found in the sandstones, indicate that much of the sediment came from the south. Therefore, the sea-floor in the Cambrian Period must have sloped to the north. The sediment was transported from a continent, roughly in the location of the present Atlantic Ocean, into a continental rise area that occupied much of what is now southern Nova Scotia (Lecture Eleven). What do I do? The assignment is to write a short (a couple of paragraphs) report answering the following question. What was the source of the sediment for the turbidity current that formed the Meguma Group turbidites? [turbidite is the term for strata that formed from sediment deposited by a turbidity current] What should be in the report? Your report should only be a couple of paragraphs long, but should be in your own words. No cutting and pasting from the text of the lectures; you may borrow the graphics from the various lectures though. You should formulate a hypothesis and then provide supporting evidence (remember the scientific method?). First review the section on turbidity currents in Lecture Eleven. That, combined with some of the earlier lectures, should provide enough material to come up with a reasonable answer. What should not be in the report? It should not be a description of turbidity currents (unless you are using it in support of your hypothesis) that is not what was asked. This is the part of the course where you get to do some critical thinking, and pull together concepts from the different lectures. How should you format the report? It should be either a MS Word file of a pdf submitted to the Assignment dropbox. You should include at least one figure in your report. Paste figures directly into the document. Don’t forget - Spellcheck!!
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