Students gain experience in organizing, preparing, and presenting earth science topics and answering questions. How rocks deform on a microstructural to hand specimen scale. Topics include dislocations, work hardening and recovery processes, annealing and recrystallization, slipsystems, preferred orientation mechanisms, and foliationd evelopment. The study of the processes, including fluvial, glacial, wind, mass movement, and wave action, shaping the earth's surface by erosion and deposition of geologic materials. Emphasizes the role of past and present climate.
Field trips are a major component.
Natural Hazards Exploration of how to develop comprehensive plans to mitigate the impact of natural hazards on humans. Includes basic scientific background, current mitigation practices, and proposed mitigation strategies. Includes group and individual student proposals for value added. Most recent natural disasters will be focal points. Students prepare maps of subsurface features using large data sets.