Exam on Tuesday during class. Bring a ruler. And bring your hand lens back.
No lab this week.
Your books are due at the start of our final exam slot - Sunday November 23 at 3:30. See you in our classroom.
Book: we've added a page to your book involving this week's lab. (It should be logical to combine with the Barn Bluff fault information.) Be kind on yourself: limit your book to five pages. (I recommend skipping weathering, erosion, saprolite development unless you're just dying to include it on a sixth page - there are simply bigger and more important topics for the geologic history of SE Minnesota.) Thus, the main five topics will be:
Very old rocks in MN river valley
1.1 Ga part of story from Taylors Falls
Cambrian-Ordovician seas
Tilting, faulting of sedimentary rocks
Glacial story
Book figures: Look in our course folder: geol100-xx-f14/CourseMaterials/for your book. In this folder, there are three sub-folders: (1) "can print these images" has images you can print and include in your book. (2) "do not print these images" has maps that I thought might be useful for sketches you want to make. (3) "resources" has a number of handouts from the MN State Geological Survey about various topics in Minnesota's geologic history. They may be useful references. If you use information from them, please remember to include citations.
Book office hours: I will be around Friday afternoon from 3-4 for book-themed office hours. I'll probably be in our classroom. There will probably be snacks.
Week 9
Reading: Chapter 17 (groundwater).
Oxygen isotopes: this is a helpful image for thinking about the differences in del18O between glacial and interglacial cycles.
Exam: Next week we have the second exam. The exam is not exactly cumulative in that it is focused on the second half of term topics. But, in order to answer these questions, you might need to draw on topics from the first half of term. Expect at least one question to be drawn from the end-of-chapter activities. Expect to identify some images of geologic structures, concepts, etc. There wil be NO handsamples of rocks and minerals. The main topics include:
Earthquakes
Plate tectonics
Geologic time
Glaciers
Climate change
Groundwater
Geology of SE Minnesota (i.e. the point of our labs)
Review session: I'll be around on Sunday night at 8 pm for a review session. Come with specific questions. I probably won't answer question like..."Can you explain oxygen isotopes again?" but I will answer the more specific kind of question like "Why does ice have negative del18O values?"
Week 8
Field trip write-up: Complete a standard question-and-answer format about our trip to Taylors Falls. Your write-up should describe the geologic history at Taylors Falls using cartoons and text. The story should go from the Midcontinent rift formation at 1.1 Ga to the glacial landscape we see today. As we've discussed in the past, pictures might be a bonus but only if they show something well.
Reading: Chapter 9 on geologic time, Chapter 14 on glaciers etc.
These videos summarizing different types of plate boundaries on the IRIS website might be a useful way to review.
Lab: remember to include details of what we saw this week in your book.
Book proposal due next Tuesday. Turn in a list of the questions that you plan to ask (and answer) along with a list (or quick sketches) of the figures that you think will show up on each page. Remember - you need a minimum of five large pages for telling the geologic history of SE Minnesota. Also, as you design your answers, consider that this will be a book and the pages will be folded in the middle.
Sunday field trip. Meet at 7:30 for breakfast. We will be back by 6 pm. Be careful setting your alarm clocks - you gain an extra hour on Saturday night, so use it for sleept but be sure to wake up in time.
Week 6
No lab this week.
Your weathering and erosion labs (Valley Grove) are due on Tuesday. Jackson will pick them up at 11 pm.
Your graded CRWP labs are outside my office.
The exam is on Thursday during class. Remember to study smart.
Jackson has review sessions on Sunday and Monday nights.
The rocks are on the cart at the back of our classroom.
Review your notes and labs and half-sheets and the book.
The slideshows are all in the course folder.
Week 5
Reading: Chapter 7 (on sedimentary rocks) and Chapter 12 (on earthquakes) including sections 12.1-12.2 and 12.5-12.15.
Next week: no lab all week. Exam on Thursday.
Week 4
Reading: Read Chapter 5 (5.1-5.8), all of Chapter 6 (on volcanoes).
Back to the first week schedule. Lunch on your own on campus.
Minnesota River valley field trip write-up due on Sunday by midnight. Remember, ask and answer a question. Please include some detailed sketches from the Morton Gneiss outcrop. Also include a cartoon of the geologic history of the region (which should start at 3.6 Ga and go until 10,000 years ago).
Here is the spot to read just how loud the eruption at Krakatoa was.
Week 3
Reading: Read sections 8.6-8.9 for your non-lab meeting day. The sections should cover the following topics: (1) metamorphic features, (2) metamorphic rocks, (3) how does metamorphism occur and (4) where does metamorphism occur.
Schedule: We have long days for lab again this week.
Lab write-up is due on your lab day.
Week 2
Schedule: We have the other type of schedule this week. On your lab day, be ready to go outside at 10:10. We will have lunch in the field. Wear sturdy shoes and clothes that can get dirty. Shorts should be fine if it is warm. Bring the following items in your backpack: water bottle, field notebook, colored pencils?, sunscreen, layers of clothing, rain coat (better to be prepared).
Read the following sections from the textbook this week: 4.1-4.5, 4.7, and 5.1-5.5. You could actually skim the other sections of Chapter 4 - they provide nice background about minerals.
FRIDAY: Everyone goes to convocation in the chapel at 10:50. Jot down a few notes during the talk so we can discuss it later.
For lab: browse through Chapter 7 on sedimentary rocks and sedimentary environments for a few sections that might have helpful diagrams for your lab write-up.
Week 1
We will be going outside in lab this week. Wear warm clothes and shoes that can get wet.
Read the following sections from the textbook this week: 1.1-1.4 and 2.1-2.9. *Note: If you have edition 1, skip 2.9 and read 2.10.
Please bring your textbook to class everyday.
Buy a ruler (the red see-through kind is the best) - we'll make a pocket for it in your field notebook. It's useful to measure things sometimes...
