VAGABONDS TRAMPING THROUGH GEOLOGY CHINA

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Senior University Georgetown Fall
2009
VAGABONDS TRAMPING THROUGH GEOLOGY - CHINA
Session 1 In the Beginning
Don Beaumont, Sandi Phillips, Rocky Romero
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Civilizations Time Lines Iron Age to the Present
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China
Equator
http//www.mapresources.com/zoomify/zoomify.asp?fo
lderGL-ASI-952818
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http//www.chinapage.com/map/map.html
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Topography of China
China
Four Geologic Processes that shaped Human
History
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Four Geologic Processes that shaped Human
History
Continental Drift
Plate Tectonics
Weathering
Erosion
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Four Geologic Processes that shaped Human
History
Continental Drift
The slow movement of the continents over
the face of the earth
Plate Tectonics
Weathering
Erosion
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Present Day
Continental Drift Last 250 million years
http//schools.techno.ru/sch518/koridor/geograf /d
etrab/Tektonika/litosfera2.htm
250 million years ago
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Continental Drift Creates the Hemispheres
Eastern Hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
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Continental Drift Shapes the Continents
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Significance of Position Shape
Northern Temperate Climate Zone Historically
ideal for major civilizations
Tropical Climate Zones
Historically unfavorable for major civilizations
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Four Geologic Processes that shaped Human
History
The deforming of earths crust when
continents collide
Continental Drift
Plate Tectonics
Weathering
Two important types of deformation 1. mountain
building 2. broad warping of the continental
crust
Erosion
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The Earths Rocky Crust (aka skin)
Oceanic Crust
Continental Crust
The earths skin, aka crust, is broken into many
plates, both large and small
http//pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/inside.html
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Crustal Plates Both Oceanic Continental
Indian plate under Asian plate mountain building
Combination
Oceanic
Combination
Combination
Combination
Plate boundaries are sites for earthquakes and
volcanoes
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Crustal Plate Boundaries Earthquakes
China
Two types of crust oceanic (under the deep
oceans) continental (the continents)
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Two types of Crust 1. Continental crust 2.
Oceanic crust
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Two types of Crust
Continental Crust 20 to 50 miles thick
Oceanic Crust 5 miles thick
Plate tectonics
deformation when two or more plates collide
The Earths Mantle
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Plate Tectonics aka mountain building.
Collision oceanic with continental crust
New Mountains
Oceanic Crust 5 miles thick
Continental Crust 20 to 50 miles thick
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Plate Tectonics aka mountain building
Collision of two continents
Africa
Europe
New Mountains
A real world example India China
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Plate Tectonics aka mountain building
Collision of two continents
India
Asia
Tethys Seaway
Himalaya Mountains
China
India
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Plate Tectonics aka mountain building
Collision oceanic with continental crust
Collision Mountains
North American continental plate over riding
the Pacific oceanic plate
Next Two continental plates collide
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Collision Mountains
Plate Tectonics Collision of two
continents
Plate Tectonics Uplift and rift
faulting over a sub-crustal hotspot
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Central Africa Up-lifted Faulted
Rift Valleys formed Volcanoes
Plate Tectonics Uplift and rift
faulting over a sub-crustal hotspot
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Block Diagram of a Rift Valley
Rift Valley
Central Africa Equatorial High elevation Rift
environments Volcanic
How thick is a continent?
Uplift
http//www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/h
utchinson/image_preview.html?image
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How thick is A continent?
4000 miles radius
8000 miles
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How thick is A continent?
2000 miles
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How thick is A continent?
1000 miles
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How thick is A continent?
500 miles
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How thick is A continent?
100 miles thick
500
1000
2000
4000
8000
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How thick is A continent?
100 miles thick
A continent is 25 to 50 miles thick!
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How far does Eurasia extend?
Equator
North Pole
Greenwich 0
East
West
Now the geological process weathering
Eurasian Continent
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Four Geologic Processes that shaped Human
History
Continental Drift
Weathering Natural destruction of the
rocky continental crust
Plate Tectonics
Weathering
Erosion
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Weathering Natural destruction of the rocky
continental crust
Causes sun rain plants wind
Products rock debris soils
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Weathering Agents Sun Radiation Daily
Heating Cooling Water (rain) Abrasion Acid
Rain
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WEATHERING Destroys Rocks Creates 1. soils
( decaying plants) 2. rock debris Produces
unique environments
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Rock Debris 1. quartz sand 2. muds
(clays) 3. calcium carbonate solutions
All three carried away by erosion
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Four Geologic Processes that shaped Human
History
Continental Drift
Erosion Natural process
of moving rock debris toward the oceans
Plate Tectonics
Weathering
Erosion
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Erosion Natural process of moving rock
debris to the oceans at the continental
margins
Products topographies river flood
plains geosynclines rock outcrops
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Erosion Moving the weathered rock debris to the
sea by 1. gravity!!! It all goes down hill 2.
water brooks streams rivers
Erosion 1. produces topography
2. creates river flood plains 3. created
geosynclines 4. exposes different rocks at the
earths surface
The erosional topography of China
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Erosional topography of China
China
Topography created by running water RIVERS
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Erosion Moving the weathered rock debris to the
sea by 1. gravity!!! It all goes down hill 2.
water brooks streams rivers
Erosion 1. produces topography
2. creates river flood plains
The rivers and flood plains of China
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The major rivers of China
The fertile flood plains of China
Mountains
Fertile River flood plains
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Erosion Natural process of moving rock
debris to the oceans at the continental
margins
Products topographies river flood
plains creates geosynclines
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The submerged continental shelf of China
Rock debris from Chinas rivers
Southeast Asian geosyncline
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Cross section Southeast Asian
geosyncline
land
ocean
Rocks of the Chinese continental crust
river debris
Southeast Asian geosyncline
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Erosion Moving the weathered rock debris to the
sea by 1. gravity!!! It all goes down hill 2.
water brooks streams rivers
Erosion 1. produces topography
2. creates river flood plains 3. Creates
geosynclines 4. exposes different rocks at the
earths surface
The surface rock outcrops of China
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Rocks of the earths crust exposed at the
surface by erosion
Each color represents a different rock at the
surface
River flood plains
Weathering erosion of each rock produces
unique 1. soils 2. topographies 3.
outcrops A. flint, obsidian, B. copper
tin, C. iron coal
Occurrence of natural resources that shaped
human history
USGS Geological Map China
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Now, five geologic events that shaped the
history of China
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Five Geologic Events that Shaped World
Chinese History
1. Eastern Western hemispheres
formed continents positioned, shaped, and
configured 155 to 35 million years ago
2. Central African rift valleys created
35 million years ago and humans evolve 2
million years ago
3.India welded into southern
Asia 10 million years
ago geologic provinces of China, India Iran
Iraq created
4. Continental glacier covered the northern
Northern Hemisphere 15,000
years ago
5. Todays soils, landscapes, natural
resources exposed at the surface by weathering
erosion
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Five Geologic Events that Shaped World
Chinese History
1. Eastern Western hemispheres
formed continents positioned, shaped, and
configured 155 to 35 million years ago
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Super Continent Pangaea
Break up begins 155 million years ago
http//schools.techno.ru/sch518/koridor/geograf/de
trab/Tektonika/litosfera2.htm
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Super Continent Pangaea
Separation of Africa from North America
http//schools.techno.ru/sch518/koridor/geograf/de
trab/Tektonika/litosfera2.htm
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Opening of the Atlantic Ocean
Separation of South America from Africa
Creation of the Tethys Seaway
http//schools.techno.ru/sch518/koridor/geograf/de
trab/Tektonika/litosfera2.htm
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Todays Western and Eastern Hemispheres
http//schools.techno.ru/sch518/koridor/geograf/de
trab/Tektonika/litosfera2.htm
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Five Geologic Events that Shaped World
Chinese History
Eastern western
hemispheres Continents positioned, shaped, and
configured 155 to 35 million
years ago
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Western Hemisphere continental shape

Continents elongated north south

Why is elongation important?

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Western Hemisphere

Plate Elongations
North-south elongation being in three or
more Climate Zones

Tropical Climate Zones

1. The commerce of human history moves
parallel to elongation and functions best
within a single climate zone.
2. Tropical climate zones are unfavorable to
large scale farming no early civilizations.
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Five Geologic Events that Shaped World
Chinese History
Eastern Western
hemispheres Continents positioned, shaped, and
configured 155 to 35 million
years ago
Configured mountains and rivers
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Western Hemisphere
Configuring the continents
Major rivers
Plate collision mountains
Tropical Climate Zones
Major rivers are potential sites for early
civilizations
And now Eurasia and Africa
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Eastern Hemisphere
Eurasia
Plate Elongation
Plate collision mountains
Africa
Tropical Climate Zones
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Eastern Hemisphere
Eurasia
Plate Elongation
Plate collision mountains
Africa
Tropical Climate Zones
Major rivers
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Five Geologic Events that Shaped World
Chinese History
1. Eastern Western hemispheres
formed continents positioned, shaped, and
configured 155 to 35 million years ago
2. Central African rift valleys created
35 million years ago and humans evolve 2
million years ago
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African Rift Valleys tropics high elevation
rift faults volcanic
African Rift Valleys Geologically unique
Earliest humans
Determined the time and place for the advent of
the human species
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Significance Unique geologic environments
Advent of human species
Earliest humans
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Into North America 80,000 years BCE
Human species continues to evolve in Africa
In the Rift Valleys?
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileHumanevolutionch
art.png
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Possible route of early humans out of
Africa
Earliest humans
Nile River
Earliest humans
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Nile River
Rift Valleys
Migration of Humans into Eurasia
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Human Species evolves in African Rift Valleys
and exits via the Nile River into Egypt
Then Human species spreads worldwide, first
into Europe and North Africa then into Asia
then into North America and last into South
America.
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Five Geologic Events that Shaped World
Chinese History
1. Eastern Western hemispheres
formed continents positioned, shaped, and
configured 155 to 35 million years ago
2. Central African rift valleys created
35 million years ago and humans evolve 2
million years ago
3.India Africa collide with Eurasia
India welded into Asia create
provinces of China, India Iran
Iraq Africa-India closing on EurasiaTethys Seaway
4. Continental glacier covered the northern
Northern Hemisphere 15,000
years ago
5. Todays soils, landscapes, natural
resources exposed at the surface by weathering
erosion
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Continental Drift History of India and Africa
Creation of Tethys Seaway
Tethys Seaway Bounded on the north by collision
mountains in Eurasia. Bounded on the south
by Africa and India
http//schools.techno.ru/sch518/koridor/geograf/de
trab/Tektonika/litosfera2.htm
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(No Transcript)
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Continental Drift History of India and Africa
Welding of India into Asia.
Collisions of Africa and Europe Creation of
Mountains from Spain to China
Collision Mountains
http//schools.techno.ru/sch518/koridor/geograf/de
trab/Tektonika/litosfera2.htm
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Africa bumps Europe several times
Bump mountains
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Indian plate collides with and is welded
into Asian Plate
Mountains caused by collision
China
Indian plate
Significance Collision mountains isolates China
from Asia isolates India from Asia
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Satellite view of mountains of southeast Asia
China
India
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Erosion created this amazing landscape
Warped basins ridges caused by Indian collision
Two great river flood plains
Chinese mountains on top of Indian plate
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Five Geologic Events that Shaped World
Chinese History
1. Eastern Western hemispheres
formed continents positioned, shaped, and
configured 155 to 35 million years ago
2. Central African rift valleys created
35 million years ago and humans evolve 2
million years ago
3. India Africa collide with Eurasia
India welded into Asia create provinces of
China, India Iran Iraq
4. Continental glacier covered the northern
Northern Hemisphere 15,000
years ago
5. Todays soils, landscapes, natural
resources exposed at the surface by weathering
erosion
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Northern Temperate Zone
The Recent Continental Glacier displaced
the ideal climate for humans south almost to
the top of Tropics
Northern Tropical Zone
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Hostile Environments
Glacier Ice
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The Worlds Six Major Rivers in the Temperate
Zone not affected by the continental glacier are
the site for the worlds earliest civilizations
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Five Geologic Events that Shaped World
Chinese History
1. Eastern Western hemispheres
formed continents positioned, shaped, and
configured 155 to 35 million years ago
2. Central African rift valleys created
35 million years ago and humans evolve 2
million years ago
3. India Africa collide with Eurasia
India welded into Asia create provinces of
China, India Iran Iraq
4. Continental glacier covered the northern
Northern Hemisphere 15,000
years ago
5. Todays soils, landscapes, natural
resources exposed at the surface by weathering
erosion
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Topography of China Created by Recent Erosion
China
What natural resources have shaped
human history?
Erosion is exposing the earths natural
resources at or near the surface
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Natural resources that have shaped Human
history
Iron, Coal, Petroleum, Uranium
Iron, Coal, and Oil
Iron and Coal
Fertile river flood plains
Copper, Tin, Arsenic, Zinc
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Geologic Division of Historic Time
Iron, Coal, Oil Uranium
Iron, Coal, Petroleum, Uranium Age 1950 to
Present Iron, Coal, Oil Age 1900 to
1950 AD Iron Coal Age 2 1830 to 1900 AD
Iron Coal
Iron Coal Age 1 (Industrial Age) 1700
to 1830 AD Renaissance
1450 to 1700 AD Middle Ages
470 to 1450 AD
What natural resources does China
have?
Iron Age 2 Rome
to 470 AD 750 BCE Iron Age 1
Greece 1400 to 750 BCE Bronze Age
3300 to 1400 BCE
Copper, tin, arsenic, zinc
Copper Age 3300 to 3000 BCE Stone
Age (end of Ice Age)10,000 to 3000 BCE
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Early Chinese civilizations had to import their
copper and tin
But, Chinas amazing iron and coal resources
provided unprecedented opportunities to move
into the Iron Age
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China Geology Iron and Coal
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China Iron and Coal Resources of Asia