• Washtenaw Community College

• GLG 100

Activity 10: NOVA – Making of North America: Origins

How did North America form? To answer this question, Kirk

Johnson, the Sant Director of the Smithsonian National Museum

of Natural History takes the viewer on an odyssey of time and

space, from earth’s origin to the episodes of geologic history that

pieced together the North American landmass. Answer the

following questions while watching NOVA: Making North America:

Origins. The questions follow the same order as the information

shown in the video.

1. According to the video, which place is a “paradise for geologists”?

2. Which type of rock forms “layer after layer…”?

3. How old is the Esplanade Layer?

4. Which type of environment was the Esplanade Layer, 300 million years ago?

5. When did a warm, shallow sea cover the American southwest?

6. What did “trillions of microscopic marine organisms” become compressed into?

7. What is the granddaddy of Grand Canyon Rocks?

8. How old are the rocks at the bottom of the Canyon?

9. What was the earth like 4 billion years ago?

10. According to the video, where is a place that resembles earth’s earliest land?

11. According to the video, what is one of the most active volcanoes on earth?

12. Which rock forms the “stuff of our continents”?

13. How do the plates move?

14. Where is the Lac des Iles open-pit mine located?

15. What is mined at Lac des Iles?