Table
of Contents

Lesson 1

Planet Earth

Lesson 2

The Ground We Stand Upon

Lesson 3

The Earth’s Surface

Lesson 4

Erosion / Deposition

Lesson 5

Sediments / Fossilization

Lesson 6

Volcanism / Deformation of rocks / Continents

Lesson 7

Metamorphism / Radioisotope Decay

Lesson 8

Ways to date the Earth

Lesson 9

Great geologic events of the past

Lesson 10

Questions people ask

The Geology Book

The Geology Book
by Dr John D Morris

Lesson 3

The Earth’s Surface

Textbook:

The Geology Book

Text:

pp. 20-27

Scripture:

Genesis 8:4
Psalm 121

Vocabulary Words:

• Sediment
• Alluvial sediment
• Continental shield
• Canyon

Questions:

1. Give a brief description of the seven kinds of plains discussed in this chapter.
2. Three types of plateaus are mentioned. Write a short description of each type and give an example of each type.
3. Write a short description of how mountains are formed, and give an example of each type.
4. Name two erosional features, and write a brief description of each type.

Activity:

This “experiment” will take a few weeks. Erect a mound of dirt in your backyard (pile of dirt should be at least three feet high). Visit the mound each day and record the following information: height of mound, width of mound. You will notice that the mound will get shorter and the base wider. Determine what could have caused the difference in height and width. Was it the wind? Was it rain? Was it a dry-spell? Etc.

Footprints in the Ash, by John Morris and Steven A. Austin

Additional resources:

• Eroding ages
• Australia’s burning mountain
• Rapid erosion at Mount St Helens
• Experiments on stratification of heterogeneous sand mixtures (Technical)
• Footprints in the Ash (book)
• Mount St Helens (DVD)

Answers:

1. Low-lying: formed when moving water deposits sediment a few hundred feet above or below sea level; alluvial plain: sediments deposited when water slows down; coastal plain: flat areas upriver or uphill from an alluvial plain—may have been uplifted or sea level dropped since deposition; lake plains: deposits in a lake bed that are later exposed; glacial plains: sediments deposited by ice melt on flat areas eroded by ice; lava plains: hardened leveled lava; offshore deposits: sediments distributed offshore by strong currents
2. Fault: rock is broken and shoved up (Colorado Plateau); warped: regional squeezing or slow uplift (Appalachian mountains); lava: hardened lava plains that may have been uplifted or hardened at the current level (Columbia River basalts)
3. Folded: layers of sediments that have been crumpled by pressures from the side (Alps, Himalayas, Appalachians, Rocky Mountains); Domed: sediments pushed up from below (Black Hills of South Dakota); fault block: one area of sediments are pushed up (Grand Teton Mountains); volcanic: molten lavas pushed out to the surface of the earth (Hawaii’s volcanic islands, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, Mount Ararat)
4. Canyons: streams and rivers carve out areas in rocks; continental shield: the exposed granite core of continents due to glacial flow scraping off the overlying sedimentary rock