GEOLOGY FIELD ASSIGNMENT

By: Jenna Cooper

Geology 103-01

Mark Lawler

Tehachapi, California35°07'55.9"N 118°26'56.3"W

• 50,000 acres

• Tehachapi Mountains ranging from 4,000 - 8,000 feet elevation

• Located in mountains between the Mojave Desert and San Joaquin Valley

• The first people to settle in Tehachapi were the Native American tribe, Kawaiisu (Nuwa), which means “The People.”

• Tehachapi derived from Kawaiisu word “tihachipia” meaning “hard climb.”

(Tehachapi, 2014).

Quartz (SiO2)

• Silicate Mineral

• Found in Sedimentary, Igneous, and Metamorphic Rocks

• Most commonly found mineral on Earth

Milky Quartz

Composition: Silicon dioxide

Cleavage: None

Moh’s Hardness Scale: 7

Streak: White or Clear

Color: White, Pink, Red, Black, Gray, Purple, Brown, Green, Blue, Multi, Colorless

Luster: Vitreous

Crystal System: Hexagonal

Gray Quartz

(Alden, n.d.)

Conglomerate

• Clastic Sedimentary Rock

• Large (greater than two millimeters in diameter) rounded clasts (King, n.d.b).

• Contains various rock and mineral particles stuck together by sand, mud, or chemical cement due to weathering

• Pebbles and rocks often go downstream and become cemented together as clay and soil fill in gaps

Basalt• Igneous Rock

• Dark colored, fine-grained “composed mainly of plagioclase and pyroxene minerals” (King, n.d.a).

• Produced in oceanic divergent boundaries, oceanic hotspots, and plumes and/or hotspots below continents

• Usually in extrusive, lava forms

• Underlines majority of Earth’s surface and ocean basins

• Used for asphalt pavements, tiles, concrete aggregate, etc.

Vesicular Basalt or Scoria

Basalt Outcropping

Granite• Igneous Rock

• Red, Pink, Gray, or White in color with dark mineral grains

• Composed “mainly of quartz and  feldspar with minor amounts of mica, amphiboles, and other minerals” (King, n.d.c).

• Forms from slow crystallization of magma

• Most common igneous rock on Earth’s surface

• Used for countertops, tiles, monuments, etc.

• Tehachapi, CA is mostly made up of granite

Siltstone

• Clastic Sedimentary Rock

• Composed of silica, mica, “chlorite, and other micaceous clay minerals” (Editors, n.d.).

• Under heat and pressure, it can change into metamorphic rocks, gneiss or schist

Evolution of Lizards

• Not a lot of fossil evidence found

• First appeared during the Mesozoic Era during the Triassic and some evidence has suggested existence during the Permian (Datta & Ray, 2006).

• Existed on Earth for approximately 200 million years

• Amniotes – lay amniotic eggs “in which the embryo develops in a fluid-filled amnion” (Monroe & Wicander, 2012).

• Over time, majority of lizards have reduced in size

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Superclass: Tetrapoda

Class: Reptilia

Order: Squamata

Suborder: Lacertilia

Evolution of Raccoons

• Lived during the late Oligocene epoch, 25 million years ago (Zeveloff, 2002).

• First appeared in Europe

• First were carnivorous, now are omnivorous

• Lived in trees, but adapted to trees, dens, and now urban areas

• Intelligence level has increased greatly due to their dwelling in urban areas

• Increased in decaying of teeth, obesity, heart defects, blood pressure, and laziness (Kaufman, 2012).

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Family: Procyonidae

Genus: Procyon

Species: P. lotor

Evolution of the LandKawaiisu (Nuwa) Native American Pictograph Site

• Discovered in 1973 by two girls in Golden Hills, Tehachapi, CA.

• Pictographs predate to approximately 800 A.D.

• Inside the rock shelter are large pictographs, but much of it has been destroyed due to fire damage.

• Other pictographs have faded due to weathering from snow and rain

Kawaiisu (Nuwa) Native American Pictograph Site

Shelter from fire damageShelter digitally remastered to show what

pictographs should look like (Mattern, 2013).

Various pictographs digitally remastered (Mattern, 2013).

Various pictographs

Elizabeth Lake34° 39′ 56.95″ N, 118° 24′ 9.29″ W

• Part of Los Angeles County in California, west of the Antelope Valley and surrounded by the Sierra Pelona Mountains.

• Lake was created by motions from the Earth’s tectonic plates (U.S., 2004).

• Originally named La Laguna de Diablo (Devil’s Lake) because legend was the Devil’s monster lived within the lake.

(Elizabeth Lake, 2014).

Evolution of the LandElizabeth Lake Fire

• In 2013, there was a fire, known as the Powerhouse Fire, that burned approximately 30,000 acres and left the hills covered in ash

Elizabeth Lake Before

Elizabeth Lake After

Fire

After

Evolution of LandFire

• “Fire can impact a variety of soil physical and chemical properties including the loss or reduction of structure and soil organic matter, reduced porosity, and increased pH” (British, n.d.).

• Increased hydrophobicity, runoff, and decreased infiltration which causes increase in erosion

• Loss of organic matter and soil moisture

• Loss of vegetation

• Vegetation evolves to become more resistant to heat or takes a longer time to regenerate and repopulate the area

References• Alden, A. (n.d.). Quartz: How to Tell It, Different Kinds, What It Means. About.com Geology. Retrieved June 17, 2014, from

http://geology.about.com/od/minerals/a/aboutquartz.htm

• British Colombia Ministry of Agriculture. (n.d.). Fire Effects on Rangeland Factsheet. Retrieved from

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/range/publications/documents/fire2.htm

• Datta, P. M. & Ray, S. (2006). "Earliest lizards from the Late Triassic (Carnian) of India". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 26 (4):

795–800. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26[795:ELFTLT]2.0.CO;2.

• Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). Siltstone (rock). Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved June 17, 2014, from

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/544686/siltstone

• Elizabeth Lake [Map]. (2014). Retrieved from Google Maps website:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lake+Elizabeth/@34.6662381,-118.4024062,1574m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!

1s0x80c26f30ce4c5577:0x2377cb34cdcff66f?hl=en

• Kaufman, F. (Executive Producer). (2012, February 8). Raccoons and the City [Television broadcast]. PBS.

References• King, H. (n.d.a). Basalt. : Igneous Rock. Retrieved June 17, 2014, from http://geology.com/rocks/basalt.shtml

• King, H. (n.d.b). Conglomerate. : Sedimentary Rock. Retrieved June 17, 2014, from http://geology.com/rocks/conglomerate.shtml

• King, H. (n.d.c). Granite. : Igneous Rock. Retrieved June 17, 2014, from http://geology.com/rocks/granite.shtml

• Mattern, J. (2013, March 16). Kawaiisu Pictographs. [Rock Art]. Tehachapi, CA.

• Monroe, J.S., & Wicander, R. (2012). The Changing Earth Exploring Geology and Evolution.

Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

• Tehachapi [Map]. (2014). Retrieved from Google Maps website:

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.128353,-118.4933395,25041m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. (May 2004). Draft Land Management Plan: Part 2-Angeles National Forest Strategy

(.PDF). R5-MB-041. p. 47.

References• Zeveloff, S. I. (2002). Raccoons: a natural history. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.