Astronomy/Geology 1070: Earth: Its Physical Environment

Written Homework 6, Due November 3, 2011
30 points

Please submit your work to me by the beginning of class.

Part 1: HTML (0 points)

Yet again, this is for your own good, not for a grade.

Read my third HTML tutorial.  It explains how to specify the formatting of your web page by controlling features such as margins, font, font size, text and background color, and alignment.  It also explains how to display graphics in a web page.

For practice, make an HTML file structured using styled text and a picture.  Since you my not have ready access Upload your file to the “Assignments” tool on Sakai so that I can see it.

Because you may not belong to Flickr (or a similar photo-sharing site), and because hot-linking to graphics on the web without permission is impolite, I have posted several photos to my web site that you are welcome to reference.  The page barransclass.com/shared_pix/shared_photos.html displays the photos along with their URL’s.  You may reference any of them in your file, or you may reference any graphics file for which you have permission.

Again, this is not for a grade, so you will not be penalized if you don’t do it or if I do not consider your HTML file to be perfect.  However, I will not give feedback for files I do not see!

• Here is the gateway to my HTML tutorials.
• Here is the third tutorial in the series.

Part 2: Geology (20 points)

These questions are for you to combine different ideas and apply them to situations not directly addressed in class or in the textbook.  Think about the situation, and about the science that applies to it.  See me for help if you are stuck.

Answer one, and only one, of the following:

1. Oil reserves.

It is often claimed that, since oil companies continue to find more oil-containing deposits, there is no forseeable prospect of an oil supply shortfall.  What is wrong with this logic?  What factors other than the frequency of new oil strikes affect the sufficiency of the oil supply?

It may be true that there will be no oil supply shortfall in the future; that’s not the point here.  The point is that the lone fact that new oil discoveries are occurring does not guarantee that a shortfall will not occur.  Explain why not.

2. Groundwater reserves.

Most of the liquid fresh water on the planet is in the form of groundwater.  Furthermore, groundwater can be found beneath the surface almost everywhere on land.  Why, then, can there be any concern that a groundwater reserve may be depleted?

3. Wyoming’s geologic past.

There are intrusive igneous and metamorphic rocks in Wyoming dating from 1500 million years old back to 3200 million years old, and rocks of all types 570 million years old and younger.  But no rocks of any type have been found in Wyoming that are between 570 million years old and 1500 million years old.

Since there is no rock record in Wyoming of the time from 1500 million years ago to 570 million years ago, we do not have much information about that time interval.  What can we conclude must have happened in Wyoming during that time?

Take your choice of these tasks.  Do not submit answers to more than one of them. Just choose one, and submit it.  Your answer should thoroughly address all points of the question. An adequate answer will be several paragraphs long.

I beseech you: If you turn in a hard copy answer, do not turn in paper that has ragged edges!  If you write your work in a spiral-bound notebook, trim the edge before submitting it.  Papers with ragged edges will be returned unmarked.

You may also submit your answer using the “Assignments” tool in WyoSakai.