GEOLOGY 101

CLASS 11
SPRING 2014
QUESTION OF THE DAY - DO OTTERS CONTRIBUTE
TO SEDIMENTARY ROCK FORMATION?
Fort Worth Basin
Eagle Ford Shale
Marcellus Shale
Jan 2013
12 rigs just west of Calumet, Canadian
Co.
Example
Horizontal
Shale Gas
Well
Target formation
Conventional Oil/Gas Well
Fracking well operation
Hydraulic Fracturing Stage
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/oil-boom-
north-dakota-is-the-next-hub-of-us-energy-9660512
Fracking or human pressurization of porous but
low permeability shales containing natural gas and crude
trapped in the pores greatly increases production.
One of the breakthroughs is injecting particles to
hold the crack open.
Fracking fluid contains:

Water, Palmtic Acid, Glycerin,
Tri-ethanolamine, Isopentane,
Glyceryl Oleate, Steric acid, Isobutane,
Sorbitol, Hydroethylcellulose, Propylene
glycol, Butyrospermum parkii, butter
extract, glycerol acetate/acrylic acid
copolymer, fragrance/Parfigum

List of ingredients in shaving cream:
Dont have a detailed list of what is in
fracking fluids
Frac Fluid Components
Water
Sand or other proppant
Additives
Friction reducer
Gel
Scale inhibitor
Biocide
HCl

Frac Job in the Barnett Shale
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
Jan-96 Jan-98 Jan-00 Jan-02 Jan-04 Jan-06 Jan-08 Jan-10 Jan-12 Jan-14
P
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o
d
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t
i
o
n

R
a
t
e
,

M
M
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c
f
d

Year
U.S. Gas Production by State 1997-2012
Texas
Wyoming
Oklahoma
Offshore
New Mexico
Louisiana
Rest of US
*

*
Colorado
Pennsylvania
Arkansas
Alaska
W. Virginia
Utah
Kansas


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Coal
Basins also often contain coal
Origin Land based plants
Location Swampy edges of basins
Buried in water, no oxygen
Buried deeper and deeper
Increased pressure and temp

Coal (2)
Burial drives off water, oxygen, hydrogen
Leaves partially decomposed plant matter
- peat
5400 Btu/lb

Large pores

Free cellulose

Fuel or mulch
75% Water
Coal (3)
Bury deeper
More pressure
More heat
More time
Soft brown coal
or lignite
7200-9900 Btu/ton
No free cellulose
Often low sulfur content

Coal (4)
Keep pressure on
Bituminous
coal

Real coal
No plant structure
12,000 Btu/ton
10% water
Often higher Sulfur
King Coal
Colliding continental plates drive swamp
sediments really deep
Eventually get ANTHRACITE King Coal
15,500 Btu/ton
Not much left
Deep mines
Objectives Chapter 5
Describe the two types of rock weathering
and the resulting sediment types
Describe the processes that lithify
sediments into sedimentary rocks
Classify the major clastic and
chemical/biogenic rock types by
composition and texture
Describe the connection between
depositional environment and the type of
sedimentary rock that can develop there.
Define the connections between sedimentary
formations and fossil fuels
Class 11 Objectives
Explain the principles of:
Original Horizontality
Superposition
Cross cutting relationships
Inclusions
Lateral continuity
Use these to relatively date rock strata
Define angular unconformities,
disconformities, and nonconformities and
what they represent
Explain the methods used to absolutely
date rocks.

Fall 2011
Feb 2010
Fall 2006
MARCH 2004
FEB 2003
1995
U R here
Feb 1995
Feb 1995

Feb 2003
March 2004
March 2005
OCT 2008
Feb 2010
You are here
U R here
Oct 2011
9/2006
April 2004
3/2003 1995
3/2010 10/2011
Feb 2010
March 2008
Oct 2006
2/1995
Like Pages in a Book, Layers of Rock
Tell a Story
Kentucky roadside
18
th
Century Observation
John Hutton
challenged the Church
on the age of 6,000
yrs.
He saw fossils but also
saw Earth as an engine
of change volcanoes
added material, erosion
stripped it away.
Observation
If we have 1 mm of
erosion per year (25.4
mm = one inch), in
3M years we will
erode 1000 ft of
material.
You can observe
rates of erosion and
deposition that
exceed this.
Relative Time and Relative Order
Original Horizontality
Superposition
Lateral continuity
Cross-cutting relationships
Inclusions
Unconformities
Principle of Original
Horizontality
Layers of sediment deposited in horizontal
position
Gravity
Fluid deposition
Flat rock layers
have not been
disturbed
Stenos (1638-1687) First Law
Age dating concepts
Original Horizontality
All beds originally deposited in water forming
horizontal layers
Sediments will settle
to bottom
and blanket
the bottom of lake,
lagoon, marsh
or sea
Horizontal Layers = Undisturbed
Sedimentary Rocks in Arizona
Principle of Original Continuity
Sediments originally cover large areas up
to a firm boundary in horizontal sheets
Depositional environments large and
reasonably uniform
Follow layers up the entire length of Grand
Canyon
Stenos second
contribution
Age dating concepts
Superposition
within a sequence of undisturbed
sedimentary or volcanic rocks,
oldest rocks are at the bottom
and youngest at the top
.young upward
oldest
youngest
Lateral Continuity
original sedimentary layers extend
laterally until they thin at edges
continue continue
Principle of Cross-cutting
Principle of cross-cutting relationships
Intrusions can only be
deposited in layers
already there

In example to right, the
Dikes can only cut
through existing rock
Cross-cutting
Relationships
A disrupted pattern is older
than the cause of the
disruption
Age dating relationships
Relative Age Dating Concepts
inclusions
fragments of other rocks contained
in a body of rock
must be older than the
host rock
e.g.
1) xenoliths in granite are older
than granite and
2) pieces of rock in
conglomerate are older
than conglomerate
Age dating concepts
Unconformities
A contact between sedimentary formations that
represents a gap in the geologic record -- gap
represented is variable
Conformity
Relatively continuous deposition
Deposition of a sequence of parallel
layers
Contacts between formations do not
represent significant amounts of time
from: http://www.elohi.com/photo/grandcanyon
Conformity
Types of unconformities
Angular unconformity
Contact separates
overlying younger layers
from tilted older layers
Sequence of layers
is not parallel
Contacts between
formations may
represent significant
amounts of time
angular unconformity
legacy.belmont.sd62.bc.ca
angular unconformity
from: http://www.uakron.edu/envstudies/parks/rmgcan2.html
angular unconformity
Types of unconformities

Nonconformity
Strata deposited on older crystalline
(metamorphic/igneous) rock
Erosion surface
on igneous/
metamorphic rock
covered by
sedimentary rocks
Large gap in
geologic record
Nonconformity
http://blogs.agu.org/mountainbeltway/2012/02/16/wyler-aerial-tramway-
franklin-mountains-texas/
Nonconformity Franklin Mountains
near El Paso - 500 million years missing
Nonconformity
Flat sedimentary rocks on eroded igneous
or metamorphic rock
Paraconformity
Overlaying and underlaying rocks
relatively parallel
However erosion took place in-between
Little or no evidence of erosion
Somewhat unusual and hard to explain
Paraconformity

Types of unconformities
Disconformity
Beds (formations) are parallel
Sequence of layers
is parallel
Contacts between
may represent significant
amounts of time
Difficult to recognize
Disconformity
Parallel bedding surfaces of sedimentary
rocks
Erosional or non- depositional surface
between
Disconformity
Summary - Unconformities

Unfortunately the rock story is not always easy
to figure out
Another Geologic Law
Faunal Succession observed chronological
sequence of life-forms can be used to observe
chronological sequences of all life forms through
geologic time. Age of rocks can be told from life
forms within (fossils).
The Picture of the past is not Simple.
Mother Nature does not keep rocks in a flat
horizontal position. Many geologic processes
cause sedimentary rocks to bend.
Relative time vs. Absolute time
Study of timing of geologic events and
processes is called Geochronology
Relative Time
Order of events or objects from first (oldest)
to last (youngest) - She is older than he is;
She was born first and he was born last
Age of events or objects expressed numerically
She is twenty-one and he is nineteen
Absolute Time
what events occur?
angular
unconformity
what events occur?
Nonconformity
now that we know all thiswhat happened?
Deposition
Intrusion
Tilting and
Erosion
Subsidence
and
Renewed
Deposition
Record of time eroded away
Intrusion of magma as a dike
More Erosion and Exposure
Subsidence followed by deposition
Uplift/sea level fall and river deposition
Divisions of Geologic Time