GG200 Geologic Inquiry

4 credits

Usual format is three 50-minute lectures and one 3-hour lab

Writing Intensive

 

Catalog description:

Origin and age of the solar system and earth: interior of the earth; plate tectonics and records of biological evolution and past environments.

 

Specific topics covered include:

History of Geology & Stenos Laws

Earth Structure & Calculations in Earth Science

Review of Plate Tectonics & Plate Motions

The Carbon Cycle: Respiration, Photosynthesis & Carbon Sequestration

The Modern Earth System & Paleoproxies

Diversity of Life

Evolution: Selection, Speciation & Extinction

Facies and Depositional Environments

Time Scale, Geocronology & Paleomagnetism

Stable Isotopes & Geochemical Cycles

Hadean & Archean: The Origin of Life & The Rise of Oxygen

Proterozoic: Rise of Oxygen, Snow Ball Earth, & The First Animals

Paleozoic Life: Cambrian Explosion, The Rise of Plants & Early Extinctions

Paleozoic Tectonics: North American Mountain Building, Coal Swamps & Pangea

Mesozoic: Super Continent Break-up, Ocean Anoxia, Impacts, Flood Basalts & Mass Extinctions.

Cenozoic Climate

The Younger Dryas/Holocene

 

This class is designated as writing intensive (WI) and there are usually 3 types of assignments: figure caption writing, short essays, and a paper on a significant event in EarthÕs history.