PSSC 330 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cascadia Subduction Zone, Pronghorn, Tule Elk
14 Sep 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Pack rat middens- trash (rocks, ash, plant species, bones, animal feces, soil) Pack rats pee on trash; thick/sticky urine serves as glue to preserve it so we can study in the future. Charcoal deposits- carbon dating (good up until 10,000 years ago) Pollen cores- dna sequence is unique to each plant. San joquin valley- originated below sea level, used to drain to monterey bay. Caused water to naturally exit from bay area. Different mountains are formed by different tectonic plates. Over millennia, central valley filled with sediments from coatal & sierra nevada ranges. Filling created extraordinary flatness (barely above sea level) Stockton arch-upwarping of crust beneath the delta (aka underground crusting) (relatively high compared to rest of central valley) Grazing mammals appear in the fossil records around the same time as grasses. Early grazers had cecal fermentation digestive systems (horses, mammoths) & primitive digestive systems (camels)
