Geology 130
Winter 2020
Basic Information
- Lectures: 2BC in Anderson 129
- Lab: Th 1:00-5:00
- TAs: Celine Smith (class) and Kate Nootenboom (lab)
- Office hours
- Sarah T.: Tuesday 3:00-4:00; Friday during Convo (by appointment in advance), and possibly Friday afternoons when there is no seminar (3:30-4:30). If those times don't work, check my schedule to find a time when we are both free and send me an email.
- Syllabus
- Tentative schedule
Course Updates
Week 9
- Your graded journals are in a box outside my office. Well done, all of you.
- Reading: Chapter 17 (about groundwater).
- Learning opportunity topics: rocks and minerals, sedimentary environments, geologic time, glaciers, climate, groundwater, and Death Valley. You will not need a calculator or a ruler.
Week 8
- Your last visual journal assignment (#7) will be due next Tuesday. One option for this assignment is to attend the seminar at 3:30 on Friday afternoon and write about it. The seminar will be in the other large geology classroom.
- Reading: Chapter 14 (about glaciers) and probably select parts of Chapter 13 (climate).
- Learning opportunity: heads-up. There is the second learning opportunity next week during lab. I'll put helpful slides on Moodle again.
Week 7
- Your next visual journal assignment (#6) will be due next Tuesday.
- Reading: Chapter 16 (about rivers).
Week 6
- Your next visual journal assignment (#5) will be due next Tuesday.
- Reading: Chapter 7 (sedimentary environments).
- Lab this week: bring your field notebook. We will be using them in lab. Also, there will be a talk at 3:30, so you can look clever by taking notes in your field notebook.
Week 5
- Learning opportunity.
- Field trip.
Week 4
- Read Chapter 8 (about metamorphic rocks) before lab this week.
- Read: Chapter 9 (geologic time) and Chapter 3 (plate tectonics)
- Your next visual journal assignment will be due next Monday by 11 am (in a box outside my office). I will grade it and get it back to you by Monday afternoon, because the assignment is relevant for the exam. It is about plate tectonics.
- Learning opportunity: There is an exam next Tuesday in class.
- Departmental talk: You can come hear a graduate student talk about deformation of ice on Friday afternoon, 3:30-4:30. There are snacks.
Week 3
- Read Chapter 7 (about sedimentary rocks) before lab this week.
- Read: other chapters that would have been read up until this point include 4, 5, and 6. Now that we've talked about earthquakes, Chapter 12 is also a good idea.
- Your next visual journal assignment will be due next Tuesday. It is about earthquakes.
- Don't forget to fill out the dietary restriction/allergy form that Jon sent around.
Week 2
- Read Chapter 4 before lab this week. It wouldn't hurt to skim 5.1-5.8, too.
- Lab from last week will be due at the start of lab this week.
Week 1
- Read the following sections from the textbook this week: 1.1-1.4 and 2.1-2.9. PLEASE NOTE: If you have the 2nd or 1st editions of the book, you will mostly be okay as far as the actual content. I'm working from Edition 4 of the book; I'm not quite sure how the numbers match with Edition 5.
- Read the syllabus.
- Email your professors in other classes to explain the mid-term break field trip.
- Please bring your textbook to class everyday.
- Buy a ruler (the red see-through kind is the best) from Sarah to carry in your bag. It's useful to measure things sometimes. For sale in lab on Thursday. Price: $1.
- Complete your first visual journal assignment for next Tuesday.
- Here is the schedule for the Park Reports.
Visual Journal
- Assignment 7: There are two options this week: (1) Geo-in-the-news: hometown or possible national park?. Look for articles from a local paper (either town, or state) about a local geologic story (or two) from February. Explain the story, the impacts for your hometown/state, and the geology-behind-the-news. Don't forget that images help with the retelling of the story. Or (2) Geology seminar. Attend the talk on Friday afternoon from 3:30-4:30 by an alum who studies rivers. Write up a summary of his talk including some sketches of images/maps/graphs.
- Assignment 6: River systems. Pick a river system near your hometown or within your homestate. (Be sure that the river has data on the USGS website - see below.) Make a topographic map of that system, describe the patterns of tributaries to the river, places where you think potential future sedimentary rocks could be forming, and what types of rocks they could become (think about grain size, etc.). Then spend some time poking around on this USGS website and learn something about the river - you could use current and historical flood data, current streamflow data, etc. on your chosen river. Your textbook may be helpful for understanding the USGS site.
- Assignment 5: Death Valley. Make a cartoon history of Death Valley based on our field trip. Don't use the internet to look up information (although feel free to discuss with one another). Start with the oldest rocks (1.8 Ga) and get to modern Death Valley (badwater, age now). Your history might have some parts that are in map view and others that are in cross-section view. Add in details about which stops helped us constrain each part of the history.
- Assignment 4: Plate tectonics. Draw (not print out) an imaginary plate system that includes a mid-ocean ridge and a subduction zone - a two-dimensional diagram is fine. Add details and labels for major topographic features; also show where earthquakes and volcanoes are expected in the diagram. Your text should do two things: (1) Explain how mid-ocean ridges work, including a discussion of how to make new crust, seafloor stripes, the types of rocks that form, and the different kinds of data that help us know about these systems. (2) Explain what happens at subduction zones, including why melting occurs and why stratovolcanoes are formed in these systems. Let me reiterate: Make all of your own diagrams by drawing - the act of drawing often helps you understand better. Imagine the audience is some relative of yours who knows little geology. You shouldn't need to cite other sources apart from your textbook.
- Assignment 3: Earthquakes. Find about earthquake hazards near your hometown by exploring this USGS website. Do many (or few) earthquakes happen near you? On what kinds of faults? How deep are the hypocenters? Any famous earthquakes? etc. Then, find out about earthquakes near a national park you'd like to visit. Be sure to compare the earthquake hazard of your hometown with the park. For each place, show a location map that includes earthquake information. If relevant, you could also mention whether either place is at risk for tsunamis. Your textbook may also be a useful resource (especially for mid-continent folks).
- Assignment 2: Volcanoes. Compare two different kinds of volcanoes. One should be the volcano nearest the park you want to visit in 5 years. (Or the nearest volcano that you can find good information about.) The other should be a different kind of volcano, anywhere on Earth. Your comparison should include text and images (photos, cartoons, sketches). For this assignment, hand-drawn images are often more informative than ones just printed from Google image. Location maps may be useful. Don't forget to ask a question that ties all the pieces together. Remember to cite your sources (internet or textbook).