From earthquakes to landscapes, this course introduces the surficial and internal processes of the earth. Topics are plate tectonics, minerals and rocks, volcanoes, rivers, glaciers, oceans, geologic time, energy resources, and landscape evolution.
Labs focus on plate tectonics, rocks and minerals, maps, and field trips.
Lectures concentrate on field techniques, stress, strain, faulting, folding, rock rheology, the relation between rock deformation and metamorphism, isotopic systems and the thermal histories of rocks, and associations of large scale structures, tectonics, and igneous activity at plate boundaries. Of nine labs, five are field trips that involve collection of original data. Short problem sets emphasize quantitative skills. During the final three weeks of the semester, students research the structural, igneous, and metamorphic history of the Moine thrust fault in Scotland. This course is speaking and writing enriched.