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Ield Methods: A Typical Field Mapping Camp in The 1950s

Geological field work involves mapping rock units, structures, and stratigraphy either by hand or using GPS and GIS software. Field work also includes collecting samples for laboratory analysis, monitoring glaciers, and excavating fossils. In the laboratory, petrologists identify rocks through optical microscopy of thin sections and electron microprobe analysis of chemical compositions. Structural geologists analyze oriented thin sections to observe rock fabrics and deformation, and use stereonets to map orientations of geological structures and understand deformation histories.

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50 views

Ield Methods: A Typical Field Mapping Camp in The 1950s

Geological field work involves mapping rock units, structures, and stratigraphy either by hand or using GPS and GIS software. Field work also includes collecting samples for laboratory analysis, monitoring glaciers, and excavating fossils. In the laboratory, petrologists identify rocks through optical microscopy of thin sections and electron microprobe analysis of chemical compositions. Structural geologists analyze oriented thin sections to observe rock fabrics and deformation, and use stereonets to map orientations of geological structures and understand deformation histories.

Uploaded by

shivam soni
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ield methods[edit]

A typical USGS field mapping camp in the 1950s

Today, handheld computers with GPS and geographic information systems software are often used in


geological field work (digital geological mapping).

A petrified log in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, U.S.A.

Geological field work varies depending on the task at hand. Typical fieldwork could consist of:

 Geological mapping[22]
o Structural mapping: identifying the locations of major rock units and the faults and
folds that led to their placement there.
o Stratigraphic mapping: pinpointing the locations of sedimentary
facies (lithofacies and biofacies) or the mapping of isopachs of equal thickness of
sedimentary rock
o Surficial mapping: recording the locations of soils and surficial deposits
 Surveying of topographic features
o compilation of topographic maps[23]
o Work to understand change across landscapes, including:
 Patterns of erosion and deposition
 River-channel change through migration and avulsion
 Hillslope processes
 Subsurface mapping through geophysical methods[24]
o These methods include:
 Shallow seismic surveys
 Ground-penetrating radar
 Aeromagnetic surveys
 Electrical resistivity tomography
o They aid in:
 Hydrocarbon exploration
 Finding groundwater
 Locating buried archaeological artifacts
 High-resolution stratigraphy
o Measuring and describing stratigraphic sections on the surface
o Well drilling and logging
 Biogeochemistry and geomicrobiology[25]
o Collecting samples to:
 determine biochemical pathways
 identify new species of organisms
 identify new chemical compounds
o and to use these discoveries to:
 understand early life on Earth and how it functioned and metabolized
 find important compounds for use in pharmaceuticals
 Paleontology: excavation of fossil material
o For research into past life and evolution
o For museums and education
 Collection of samples for geochronology and thermochronology[26]
 Glaciology: measurement of characteristics of glaciers and their motion [27]

A petrographic microscope.

A scanned image of a thin section in cross polarized light.


In optical mineralogy, thin sections are used to study rocks. The method is based on the distinct refractive
indexes of different minerals.
Petrology[edit]
Main article: Petrology
In addition to identifying rocks in the field (lithology), petrologists identify rock samples in the
laboratory. Two of the primary methods for identifying rocks in the laboratory are through optical
microscopy and by using an electron microprobe. In an optical mineralogy analysis, petrologists
analyze thin sections of rock samples using a petrographic microscope, where the minerals can
be identified through their different properties in plane-polarized and cross-polarized light,
including their birefringence, pleochroism, twinning, and interference properties with
a conoscopic lens.[28] In the electron microprobe, individual locations are analyzed for their exact
chemical compositions and variation in composition within individual crystals.
[29]
 Stable[30] and radioactive isotope[31] studies provide insight into the geochemical evolution of
rock units.
Petrologists can also use fluid inclusion data[32] and perform high temperature and pressure
physical experiments[33] to understand the temperatures and pressures at which different mineral
phases appear, and how they change through igneous [34] and metamorphic processes. This
research can be extrapolated to the field to understand metamorphic processes and the
conditions of crystallization of igneous rocks.[35] This work can also help to explain processes that
occur within the Earth, such as subduction and magma chamber evolution.[36]

Folded rock strata

Structural geology[edit]
Main article: Structural geology

A diagram of an orogenic wedge. The wedge grows through faulting in the interior and along the main
basal fault, called the décollement. It builds its shape into a critical taper, in which the angles within the
wedge remain the same as failures inside the material balance failures along the décollement. It is
analogous to a bulldozer pushing a pile of dirt, where the bulldozer is the overriding plate.

Structural geologists use microscopic analysis of oriented thin sections of geological samples to
observe the fabric within the rocks, which gives information about strain within the crystalline
structure of the rocks. They also plot and combine measurements of geological structures to
better understand the orientations of faults and folds to reconstruct the history of rock
deformation in the area. In addition, they perform analog and numerical experiments of rock
deformation in large and small settings.
The analysis of structures is often accomplished by plotting the orientations of various features
onto stereonets. A stereonet is a stereographic projection of a sphere onto a plane, in which
planes are projected as lines and lines are projected as points. These can be used to find the
locations of fold axes, relationships between faults, and relationships between other geological
structures.
Among the most well-known experiments in structural geology are those involving orogenic
wedges, which are zones in which mountains are built along convergent tectonic plate
boundaries.[37] In the analog versions of these experiments, horizontal layers of sand are pulled
along a lower surface into a back stop, which results in realistic-looking patterns of faulting and
the growth of a critically tapered (all angles remain the same) orogenic wedge.[38] Numerical
models work in the same way as these analog models, though they are often more sophisticated
and can include patterns of erosion and uplift in the mountain belt. [39] This helps to show the
relationship between erosion and the shape of a mountain range. These studies can also give
useful information about pathways for metamorphism through pressure, temperature, space, and
time.[40]

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