OLD 1998 Syllabus for G&G 120b: Global Change

Syllabus for 1999 will differ!

Lectures: MWF 12:30-1:20PM

Sections: TBA

Lecture room: TBA
Section rooms: 120 KGL and 123 KGL

Final Grades for 1998 are in

Profs: Jeffrey Park, 316 KGL, 2-3172, jeffrey.park@yale.edu, Office Hrs 2:30-4:30PM Tues

Phil Ihinger, 220 KGL, 2-3132, phil.ihinger@yale.edu, Office Hrs TBA

TAs: Steven Petsch (Head TA) steven.petsch@yale.edu

Albert Colman, albert.colman@yale.edu

Web Page: http://www.geology.yale.edu/~jjpark/geo120.html

Texts:
Van Andel, Tjeerd, New Ideas on an Old Planet: A History of Global Change, Cambridge, 1994.

Turekian, K. K., Global Environmental Change: Past Present and Future, Prentice Hall, 1996.

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: midterm 25%, final 40%, assignments 35%

Homework assignments (weeks 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12) will be handed out at Tuesday lecture, due 9 days later at start of Th lecture. Sections will discuss problem solving related to homework set. Some exercises will 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.

Section discussions (weeks 6, 9, 11 & 13) will be based on short readings handed out at Th lecture of previous week. You will bring one-page reaction papers to section to prime the discussion.


1.1 Introduction: Earth history, catastrophic vs gradual change.
1.2 How do we tell how old things are?
SECTION Did a meteor kill the dinosaurs? Feedback from this section in 1997.
Reading: Van Andel, Chap 1 & 2 (pp 1-40); Turekian, Chapter 2 (pp 23-42); Reserve: Officer & Page, chap. 4 (pp 82-96)

2.1 My favorite ten minerals
2.2 Volcanoes and other sources of hot rock
SECTION Radioactive dating homework
Reading: Turekian, Chapter 1 (pp 1-22); Reserve: Officer & Page, Chap. 1 (pp 3-31); Emiliani, pp 50-63 (background material on radiometric dating); Emiliani, pp 165-192 (minerals -- contains much more detail than necessary for this course!); Emiliani, pp 193-204 (igneous rocks).

3.1 Earthquakes and the Earth's interior
3.2 The theory of plate tectonics
SECTION Minerals to plate tectonics homework
HOMEWORK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Reading: Van Andel, Chap 6, 7 & 8 (pp 105-170), some earthquake notes

4.1 Goodbye, California!! Earthquake hazard assessment
4.2 Principles of atmospheric dynamics
SECTION Earthquake hazards homework
Reading: Turekian, Chap 5 (pp 87-102); some earthquake notes
Reserve: Officer & Page, Chap. 2 (pp 32-58)

5.1 Troposphere, stratosphere & the ozone hole
5.2 Greenhouse gases & global warming: Take 1
SECTION Meteorology and greenhouse effect homework
Reading: Turekian, Chap 7, 8 & 9 (pp 123-170); Van Andel, Chap 3 (pp 43-65); REQUIRED: web-based readings in the above hotlinks.
Reserve: Officer & Page, Chap. 7 & 8 (pp 151-203); IPCC Scientific Assessment (1990) Chapters 1, 2, 3; some ozone images to peruse

6.1 Principles of oceanic dynamics
6.2 Nutrient transport, biologic productivity & ocean sediments
SECTION Section discussion: the ozone hole
Reading: Turekian, Chap 5 (pp 87-102); Van Andel, Chap 10.1-10.4 (pp 196-210); ozone-depletion handouts

7.1 The atmosphere and ocean together: El Nino
7.2 Midterm
no SECTION
Reading: review past reading

8.1 In the Beginning
8.2 Early Earth and early life
SECTION Review of midterm - homework, due in lecture TH after break
Reading: Van Andel, Chaps. 13, 14 & 15 (pp 253-308); Turekian, Chap 3 (pp 43-62)

Spring Break

(incorporates one-lecture delay)

9.1 Early Earth and early life
9.2 Evolution: Pruning tender branches on the tree of life
SECTION About the homework, due in lecture 2nd T after break (3/31/98)
Reading: Van Andel, Chaps 16, 17, 18, 19 (pp. 311-391); Turekian, Chap 11 (pp 181-192); evolution reading on the net

10.1 The geologic time scale & mass extinctions
10.2 Plate tectonics, the carbon cycle and atmospheric CO2
SECTION Section discussion: is "evolution" theory or fact?
Reading: Van Andel, Chaps 9, 10, 11, 12 (pp. 173-249); Turekian, Chap 6 (pp 103-122); Reserve: Officer & Page, Chap. 3 (pp 59-81)

11.1 Dinosaurs and hydrocarbons in the Mesozoic super-Greenhouse
11.2 After the meteor: Cenozoic cooling
SECTION Section discussion: Limits to resources
Reading: Van Andel, Chaps 3 *review*, 4, 5 (pp 43-101); Turekian, Chap 4 (pp 63-86); Reserve: Officer & Page, Chap. 4 (pp 82-96); natural resources handouts

12.1 The icehouse Earth
12.2 Since the last glaciation: the Holocene
SECTION Climate change homework
Reading: Turekian, Chap 10 (pp 171-180); Reserve: Officer & Page, chap. 5 & 6 (pp 97-150)

13.1 Global Warming: The recent past
13.2 Global Warming: The future? Guest Lecturer: Bert Bolin, former Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
SECTION Section discussion: Global warming
Reading: Reserve: Officer & Page, chap. 9 (pp 104-212); Turekian, Chap 7 *review* (pp 123-142); global warming handouts

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