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Text: The Earth System Kump, Kasting, Crane
Web Site: http://www.indiana.edu/~pratg105/
Rationale and
Objectives
Geology 105 is an interdisciplinary science course designed for university students with widely varying backgrounds and intended majors. Students enrolled in Geology 105 should be interested in understanding the impact of climate change, evolving life, and extraterrestrial events on Earth's atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere. Particular emphasis will be given this semester to understanding the current scientific debate over the origin(s) of life and the possibility of early or sustained life on other planetary bodies. Lectures and laboratories will focus on the interactive nature of chemical, physical, and biological processes that have shaped our planetary environment during the past 4.5 billion years.
Lectures are congruent with laboratory exercises and assigned textbook readings. Students are expected to read the assigned chapter or pages prior to lecture and to be prepared for discussion and exercises based on their reading. Concepts and terms necessary to understand the laboratory exercises are presented during the lecture. Introductory comments during the lab periods are brief, in order to provide the maximum possible time for students to conduct experiments, utilize instruments, and handle geological specimens. The laboratory exercises will be posted on the course web site prior to the laboratory meeting and a hard copy of each exercise will be distributed at the beginning of the lab meeting. Absence from laboratory is granted only on the basis of written documentation for illness or tragedy. There are no make-up laboratory meetings. Each student is allowed to drop the grade from one lab exercise.
Successful completion of Geology 105 requires attendance at lectures and attention to assigned readings. Your grade in this course will be a direct reflection of your effort and intellectual commitment; there is no shortcut to obtaining an A or B in this class.
Lecture Schedule:
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Lecture Date: |
Topic: |
Reading Assignment: |
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M Aug 30 |
What is a habitable planet? |
handouts |
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W Sep 1 |
Water on Earth and Mars |
Astrobiology Magazine |
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M Sep 6 |
Fluxes and reservoirs |
Chapter 1 |
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W Sep 8 |
Glacial-interglacial cycles |
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M Sep 13 |
Atmospheric circulation |
Chapter 4 |
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W Sep 15 |
Monsoons |
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M Sep 20 |
Oceanic circulation |
Chapter 5 |
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W Sep 22 |
A thermohaline conveyor belt |
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M Sep 27 |
FIRST HOURLY EXAM |
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W Sep 29 |
Plate tectonics |
Chapter 7 |
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M Oct 4 |
Radiometric dating |
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W Oct 6 |
Origin of Earth |
Chapter 10 |
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M Oct 11 |
Origin(s) of life |
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W Oct 13 |
Rise of oxygen |
Chapter 11 |
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M Oct 18 |
Appearance of multicellular life |
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W Oct 20 |
faint young sun paradox |
Chapter 12 |
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M Oct 25 |
Archean anti-greenhouse |
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W Oct 27 |
Modern greenhouse effect |
NOAA
link |
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M Nov 1 |
SECOND HOURLY EXAM |
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W Nov 3 |
Biodiversity through time |
Chapter 13 |
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M Nov 8 |
Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction |
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W Nov 10 |
Pleistocene glaciations |
Chapter 14 |
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M Nov 15 |
Milankovitch cycles |
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W Nov 17 |
Last Glacial Maximum and Holocene |
Chapter 15 |
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M Nov 22 |
Glacial melting and sea level rise |
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W Nov 24 |
THANKSGIVING BREAK |
no labs
this week |
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M Nov 29 |
Medieval Warm and Little Ice Age |
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W Dec 1 |
THIRD HOURLY EXAM |
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M Dec 6 |
Global warming |
Chapter 16 |
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W Dec 8 |
Ozone depletion |
Chapter 17 |
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F
Dec 17 |
FINAL EXAM for
1:25 p.m. lecture starts at
2:45 p.m. |
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M
Dec 13 |
FINAL EXAM for
2:30 p.m.
lecture starts at 5:00 p.m. |
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Logistics
and Attendance
Topics in lecture and laboratory build from fundamental concepts at the beginning of the semester to complex interdisciplinary concepts later in the semester. Attendance in lecture is necessary both for your performance as an individual and for your contribution to group activities in lecture and laboratory. Lab instructors do not have time to remedially cover concepts for students who miss lecture. In order to ensure the quality of this course for all students, unannounced quizzes and graded exercises are given in lecture. Some of the quizzes and in-class exercises will be conducted in small groups.
Grading
Hourly exams = 45% (15% for each of three hourly exams)
Laboratory exercises = 30%
Final comprehensive exam = 15%
Unannounced quizzes and lecture exercises = 10%
Accountability
My responsibility as the instructor is to provide a provocative and relevant college course. I will incorporate as many breaking news stories as possible. Your responsibility as a student is to be intellectually engaged with scientific hypothesis concerning origin(s) and sustainablility of life on Earth and other planetary bodies.
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