Table for Individual Question Feedback
Points Earned:
2.0/2.0
Correct Answer(s):
A
3.

This block of rock fell off the Kaibab cliff near the top of the Bright Angel Trail, just below the South Rim
of the Grand Canyon, and landed as shown. (No one was hurt by the fall.) Before the material in this block
was hardened to rock, the material was soft sediment. Soft sediment often dries out, cracks, and then is
buried by more sediment when the water returns. When a limestone is forming, such as this Kaibab
Limestone, the drying and wetting may happen with the tides, or in other ways. The sun was high and hot
when the picture was taken, but slanting in from the right as shown, and we have provided arrows to direct
your eye to the shadow from Dr. Alley’s boot toe as well as to another useful shadow. Are you looking at
the side that was down when the sediment was soft, or the side that was up?
A) Side that was down
B) Side that was up
Feedback:
Mud cracks extend downward into soft sediment. When more sediment is washed in, this
second layer will fill the cracks beneath. Later, after the layers have hardened, the rock may be cracked
apart. If you see troughs in a mud-crack pattern, you are looking at the side of the second layer that
originally was up. You can tell that this picture shows troughs, and not ridges, by the shadows—troughs
have the light and the shadow on the same side, as shown here, whereas ridges have light and shadow on
opposite sides.
Table for Individual Question Feedback
Points Earned:
2.0/2.0
Correct Answer(s):
B

4.
Dinosaurs once stomped across the Yukon, leaving tracks in mud that were buried in more mud and
hardened to stone. Some may have been turned on end or turned over by mountain building; others were
split apart and turned over by humans looking for dinosaur tracks and putting them in museums. The light
was shining in from the upper right, as indicated, making lighter-looking and darker-looking places


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- Fall '08
- ALLEY,RICHARDBANANDAKRISHNAN,SR
- Correct Answer, Individual Question, geologist