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Labs

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    12501

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    • Lab 1 - Orientation of Lines and Planes
      This page provides practical exercises for measuring geological orientations with compass-clinometers, detailing how to measure strike, dip, and trend of rock samples, along with azimuth and quadrant conversions. It instructs students to create smooth contour maps from topographic data while understanding river flow direction. The page concludes with comparisons of contour interpretations and coal seam mapping, highlighting the impact of Earth's varying magnetic field on indoor measurements.
    • Lab 2 - Cross-sections and Three-point Problems
      This page discusses topographic profiles and cross-sections, which illustrate the Earth's surface and geological structures. It explains how to create a profile using contour intersections and emphasizes the importance of vertical exaggeration and natural scales for accurate representation.
    • Lab 3 - Working with Stereographic Projections
      This page provides a comprehensive overview of using Wulff nets for stereographic projections in geology. It includes steps for plotting orientations, marking cardinal points, measuring angles, and finding common planes. Two methods for measuring angles between planes are detailed: one using great circles and the other by plotting poles. Practical examples and exercises are included to enhance skills in geological analysis and accurate measurements.
    • Lab 4 - Introduction to Folds
      This page covers techniques for analyzing folded rocks, focusing on contouring and stereographic projection. It highlights the identification of V-shaped patterns that signify fold hinges and encourages detailed examination of folded surfaces. Students are tasked with creating diagrams of folds, constructing topographic profiles, and drawing structure contours on petroleum prospect maps.
    • Lab 5 - More about Folds
      This page explains techniques for analyzing folded geological structures using stereographic projections, particularly the pi-diagram on an equal area projection (Schmidt net). It emphasizes the necessity of statistical methods due to imperfections in fold geometry, highlights the importance of plotting poles rather than great circles for clarity, and discusses the use of structural contours in mapping complex folding.
    • Lab 6 - Fabrics and Folds
      This page introduces the concept of fabric in rocks, emphasizing its significance in determining directional properties and orientations due to strain. It includes a lab assignment where students analyze everyday objects and rock samples to identify fabric elements like foliations and lineations. Students will examine metamorphic rock outcrops on a map, documenting folds and their relationships to fabrics.
    • Lab 7 - Fractures
      This page covers techniques for stereographic projection to analyze mineral veins and joints, emphasizing small circles and density plots in geological studies. Students will learn to calculate vein orientations and shear plane densities.
    • Lab 8 - Measuring Fault Slip
      This page covers the analysis of fault mechanics and slip, focusing on dip-slip faults, with practical exercises in Lab 7. Students will identify piercing points, determine true fault slip using geologic maps, and construct stereographic projections and cross-sections. Key tasks include measuring net slip, analyzing interactions between faults and coal seams, and establishing subsurface structures.
    • Lab 9 - Field Mapping
      This page covers essential techniques for geological mapping, highlighting the use of base maps and modern surveying methods like GPS for accurate documentation of rock outcrops and geological relationships. It includes practical exercises in the Geoscience Garden, emphasizing careful measurement and detailed descriptions of outcrops. The page underlines the necessity of completing and approving maps in the field prior to lab refinement, ensuring accurate representations of geological features.
    • Lab 10 - Fold and Thrust Belts
      This page covers the characteristics and construction methods for analyzing fold and thrust belts in the Canadian Cordillera, detailing the geological structures from low-temperature deformation. It introduces the Busk (or Arc) method for parallel folds and the Kink method for angular folds, outlining their applications.

    This page titled Labs was last modified on Tue, 27 Oct 2026 21:57:07 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by John Waldron and Morgan Snyder (Open Education Alberta) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.