Sections: 4-5PM Thursday and 10:30-11:20 Friday
Lecture room: 123 KGL
Section room: TBA
Prof: Jeffrey Park, 316 KGL, 2-3172, jeffrey.park@yale.edu, Office Hrs 4-5PM Monday
Section Leader: Krister Smith
Web Page: via http://classes.yale.edu/ or http://www.geology.yale.edu/~jjpark/geo120.html
TEXTS:
Lunine, Jonathan I., Earth:
Evolution of a Habitable World, Cambridge Univ Press, 1999.
Turekian, Karl K., Global Environmental Change: Past Present and Future, Prentice Hall, 1996.
Additional books that you may wish to refer to, or purchase via your favored bookseller.
Van Andel, Tjeerd, New Views on an Old Planet: A History of Global Change, Cambridge Univ Press, 1994. The Yale Bookstore claims that this book is not available in bulk for the class, yet the online booksellers claim to have copies. This text is a narrative of climate history, a useful complement to the lectures in the second half of the class.
Emiliani, C., Planet earth : Cosmology, geology, and the evolution of life and environment. Cambridge Univ Press, 1992. This text is an ideosyncratic compendium of knowledge related to earth history, from the Big Bang to radioactive dating to mineral types to atmospheric circulation. Covers most of the G&G120 material, and more.
Officer, Charles B., and Jake Page, Tales of the Earth. Oxford University Press, 1994. Slim volume with number of interesting anecdotes on environmental change, past and present. Officer is a noted skeptic about meteor-induced extinctions.
THESE AND OTHER RESERVE BOOKS, available in Kline Science Library.
After you have visited Professor Turekian's home page, check out his favorite heavy metal band. Check out the personal statement of "Rob"!
Requirements & grading: hour tests 20% each, final 35%, assignments 25%
Homework assignments: assigned on a Monday, due the next Monday -- there will be 8-10 of these. Some exercises may involve the internet, so keep your mouse finger limber! No late homework without Dean's excuse. We will post homework solutions and comments as necessary.
Note on the reading assignments: Passages in up to five books are indicated week by week. Van Andel, Emiliani, and Officer are on reserve. No student is likely to read everything every week, but certain topics may pique your interest and you may want to dig into the reserve reading. In some weeks the reserve reading corresponds to the lectures better than do the Turekian and Lunine texts. There are a few weeks where reading in Van Andel is particularly relevant. These relevant passages are italicized. Occasionally there will be explanatory material posted on this web page, linked to a particular lecture.
1.1 Introduction: Earth processes, catastrophic vs gradual change.
1.2 Relative
time: Stratigraphy
1.3 Absolute
time: Radioactive Dating
SECTION
READING:
Lunine, Chap 5 & 8 (p 47-53; p 75-84)
Turekian, Chapter 2 (pp 23-42)
Van Andel, Chap 1 & 2 (pp 1-40)
Officer & Page, chap. 4 (pp 82-96)
Emiliani, Chap. 1, 2.5-2.6, 3, 7.1-7.2 and 7.6.
2.1 My favorite
ten minerals
2.2 Igneous
Rocks and Processes
2.3 Volcanoes
and their hazards
SECTION
READING:
some lecture
notes on volcanoes
Lunine, Chap 16 (pp 196-210)
Turekian, Chapter 1 (pp 1-22)
Officer & Page, Chap. 1 (pp 3-31)
Emiliani, Chap. 9 & 10 (pp 165-204)
3.1 Earthquakes and the Earth's interior
lecture
outline
3.2 Plate
tectonics: Historical development
3.3 Plate
tectonics: Modern perspectives
SECTION
READING:
Lunine, Chap 9 (pp 85-96)
Van Andel, Chap 6, 7 & 8 (pp 105-170)
Emiliani, Chap. 11 & 12 (pp 205-253)
4.1 Earthquakes
and plate tectonics: What if the smoking gun shoots blanks?
4.2 Earthquakes
hazard mitigation
4.3 Principles
of atmospheric dynamics
SECTION Materials
for homework #3
READING:
some lecture
notes on earthquakes
Turekian, Chap 5 (pp 87-102)
Officer & Page, Chap. 2 (pp 32-58)
Emiliani, Chap. 13 (pp 254-286)
5.1 Troposphere,
stratosphere & the ozone hole
5.2 Air pollution
and acid rain
5.3 The greenhouse effect
SECTION
READING:
Lunine, Chap 22 (pp 281-296)
Turekian, Chap 7, 8 & 9 (pp 123-170)
Van Andel, Chap 3 (pp 43-65)
Officer & Page, Chap. 7 & 8 (pp 151-203)
6.1 First hour
test (20% of grade)
6.2 Ocean circulation and dynamics
6.3 Nutrient transport & biologic productivity
SECTION
READING:
Lunine, Chap 22, again (pp 281-296)
Turekian, Chap 5 (pp 87-102)
Van Andel, Chap 10.1-10.4 (pp 196-210)
Emiliani, Chap. 14 (pp 287-309)
7.1 Marine sediments - O and C isotope markers
7.2 El Nino and the Southern Oscillation
7.3 Overview: Plate tectonics and earth history
SECTION
READING:
Lunine, Chap 6 (pp 54-59)
Emiliani, Chap. 15 & 16 (pp 310-343)
8.1 In the beginning
8.2 Early Earth and early life
8.3 Prelude to the Cambrian explosion
SECTION
READING:
Lunine, Chaps 11,12,13,14 (pp 115-176)
Turekian, Chap 3 (pp 43-62)
Van Andel, Chaps. 13, 14 & 15 (pp 253-308)
Emiliani, Chap. 19 & 20 (pp 371-445)
Spring Break
9.1 Evolution: Pruning tender branches on the tree of life
9.2 Paleozoic: Carboniferous ice ages & the Permian mass extinction
9.3 The Mesozoic world
SECTION
READING:
Turekian, Chap 11 (pp 181-192)
Lunine, Chaps 16,17,18 (pp 196-239)
Van Andel, Chaps 16, 17, 18, 19 (pp. 311-391)
Officer & Page, Chap. 3 (pp 59-81)
Emiliani, Chap. 21, 22, 23 (pp 446-530)
10.1 Plate tectonics, the carbon cycle and atmospheric CO2
10.2 Dinosaurs and hydrocarbons in the Mesozoic super-Greenhouse
10.3 The meteor that Bruce Willis didnt catch
SECTION
READING:
Turekian, Chap 6 (pp 103-122)
Van Andel, Chaps 9, 10, 11, 12 (pp. 173-249)
Emiliani, Chap. 17 & 18 (pp 344-367)
11.1 Second hour test (20% of grade)
11.2 Cenozoic cooling
11.3 Icehouse Earth: Evidence
WEEK #11
ASSIGNMENT: METHANE CLATHRATES
Lunine, Chap 19 (pp 240-254)
Turekian, Chap 4 (pp 63-86)
Van Andel, Chaps 3 *review*, 4, 5 (pp 43-101)
Officer & Page, Chap. 4 & 6 (pp 82-96; pp 125-150)
Emiliani, Chap. 24 (pp 531-552)
12.1 Icehouse Earth: Mechanisms
12.2 Since the last glaciation: the Holocene
12.3 Climate and human prehistory
SECTION
READING:
Lunine, Chaps 20 & 21 (pp 255-280)
Turekian, Chap 10 (pp 171-180)
Officer & Page, chap. 5 & 6 (pp 97-124)
13.1 Historical climate changes
13.2 Detecting
anthropogenic climate change
13.3 Global warming: The future?
SECTION
READING:
Focussed
Articles on Global Warming
Lunine, Chaps 22 (again), 23,24 (pp 281-310)
Turekian, Chap 7 *review* (pp 123-142)
Officer & Page, chap. 8 & 9 (pp 180-212)
Final Exam: Thursday May 3, 2PM.