Geology 220
Introduction
The plate tectonic revolution began in the late 1960s. The theory explains the origins of volcanoes and earthquakes and the locations of mountain belts and oceans. We will explore topics such as the structure of the Earth, earthquake analysis and prediction, the creation and destruction of the ocean floor, and the location and style of mountain building across the globe. Weekly writing assignments, homework exercises, and a group laboratory project are required.Learning goals
Much of your success in this course will be measured on your ability to think like a scientist and solve problems using a variety of tools rather than your ability to recall facts (although a moderate amount of recollection is necessary, too). Upon your successful completion of this course, I hope you will:- enjoy thinking about the dynamism of Earth on the geologic time scale
- be comfortable using quantitative methods to understand topics in tectonics including plate motion, earthquake mechanisms, the types of plate boundaries, and magnetism of the sea floor
- have conceptual understanding of various geophysical methods including gravity, magnetics, paleomagnetism, and seismology
- read and extract useful information from all sorts of maps
- hone your scientific writing and editing skills
Text
Kearey, Klepeis, and Vine. Global Tectonics, third edition. Blackwell Science. (It's purple and quite different from the second edition, which is green.)Bring to class
- buy a ruler at the bookstore that has a protractor and bring it every day
- colored pencils will be useful
- bring a calculator
- bring the textbook
Technology guidelines
- Note taking: Please take notes on paper rather than on a laptop - I make a lot of drawings on the board. Talk to me in person if you really want to use a device. No photographs of the board are allowed unless you ask permission.
- Calculators: It would be better if you used a real calculator rather than your phone. Exceptions may be made for in-class work but be sure to have an app with trig functions.
- PhonesPhones will not be allowed during the duration of the entire lab unless specified by me.
Field trip
There is no weekend field trip for this class. Instead, I encourage you all to go on the departmental field trip. What a great way to see the products of Tectonics.Grading
This is the breakdown for grading. For more information about each category, continue reading below this list.- 30% - Exams
- 15% - Homework and quizzes
- 15% - Laboratory exercises
- 10% - Group laboratory project
- 30% - Plate tectonics wiki
Exams
There will be two midterms for this course (probably weeks 4 and 8) and no final exam. At least one of the midterms may be a take-home exam.Homework and quizzes
There are ~5 homework exercises that I will assign throughout the term. These are designed to allow exploration of important concepts in plate tectonics, often in a bit more mathematical detail, than we’ll cover in class. Be sure to start the homework early so you can come talk to me if you have questions.Labs
Labs are a good way to puzzle out ideas that we discuss in class, specifically using maps to consider various aspects of plate tectonics. There are four labs that I assign, which are typically completed in groups. The rest of lab meetings are devoted to editing the wiki and to the group project (see next section). Please be neat and turn in work on time.Group project
There will be a group project for this course carried out during the second half of the term, mostly during lab. These experimental projects will involve analog materials to try to model some classic plate tectonic settings.Plate tectonics wiki
In this course, you will be writing an article about your very own tectonic plate, or part of a tectonic plate, on the course wiki. Please note at the start that I do not know all the answers about each plate; you will often be discovering information on your own.The structure of this assignment is not like a normal term paper that you write in a few days at the end of term. Instead, there will be short, focused, weekly writing assignments that are often loosely related to the course material. This way, you have a chance to apply what we discuss in class to your own personal test case. Peer editing is an important part of this writing assignment - you'll edit other's pages each week following a new writing assignment. At the end of the term, you will have time to revise and reorganize your article based on comments of your peers and Sarah.
Please note that this assignment may (and should) take 3-4 hours per week outside of class, especially later in the term as the topics become more research-based. Sophomores may want to consider including part or all of their article in their writing portfolio.
You may have one late assignment in the term. Late means that there is no substantial text at the time that I provide comments. I suggest that you skip that section until the end of the term and keep up with the remaining assignments. I will provide comments for one late section if there is text by Friday of Week 9.
In addition to grading each section, I also pay attention to the following components in your wiki grade: figures, quality of revisions, number and quality of citations, formatting, peer editing, meeting the wiki TA, and completing sections on time.