The Last ESCI 111 Physical Geology

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(The Last) ESCI 111Physical Geology
Prof. W. W. Locke wlocke_at_montana.edu Trap
223 994-6918
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Summer semester!

• My first time!
• Tremendous opportunity
• 121 studentfaculty
• How do we make the most of it?
• Interact!
• Why are you here?
• Make-up?
• Head start?
• Certification?

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Who am I?

• At MSU since 1982
• Before that
• Dartmouth College (BS)
• U. S. Army (Topographic survey)
• Univ. of Colorado (MS, PhD)
• Interests
• Glacial geology Quaternary process
• Environmental geology/geography
• Field
• Baffin Island, northern Rockies/Ystone

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Who are you?

• Class From enrollment info
• 3 sophomores
• 1 junior
• 4 seniors
• 4 post-baccalaureate
• Major
• 6 Education
• 2 ESCI

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Class logistics

• MTWR 730-950 long!
• Lets take a break (walk?) 830
• Lab W 1000-1220
• Odd few but long!
• Field trip?
• Wed., June 17?
• Web page

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Geology is the science of

• What?
• Rocks and minerals
• Earth resources
• Internal processes and structure
• External processes and hazard
• Time

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Science News, 8/26/05

• SCIENTISTS SAY EARTH'S CENTER ROTATES FASTER THAN
  SURFACE from The New York Times
• As the earth turns, the center of the earth turns
  even faster.
• Confirming assertions first made in 1996, a team
  of geophysicists are presenting data in the
  journal Science today showing that the earth's
  inner core, a ball of solid iron larger than the
  moon, spins faster than the rest of the planet.
  Over a period of 700 to 1,200 years, the inner
  core appears to make one full extra spin.
• That extra spin could give scientists information
  about how the earth generates its magnetic field.
  http//tinyurl.com/78ohz

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Whats a scientist?

• Am I one?
• Are you?
• Should you believe a scientist?
• Should you believe anyone?
• What do scientists believe?
• Why do scientists think and say what they do?

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Current Events

• Chinese earthquake anniversary
• Earthquakes
• Rising gas prices
• What do these events have in common?

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Price of gas

• Rising much faster than inflation
• 50 crude, 25 refining, 25 tax
• US Gulf coast!
• REAL costs?

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What can we learn from these events?

• THINK/PAIR/SHARE
• THINK of common threads/differences
• PAIR with a neighbor and discuss
• SHARE with the class
• Communalities
• Rare?
• Local
• Civilization exists by geological consent
  subject to change without notice Will Durant

• Differences
• Mountains/oceantectonic setting

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Course Overview

• Core Curriculum
• ESCI majors?
• Related disciplines (LRES, Engr.)?
• Other sciences
• Other disciplines
• Year in college?
• No prerequisites
• HS/MS chemistry
• Arithmetic (logarithms, trigonometry)
• My role(s) cheerleader, coach, referee

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My Course Expectations

• Web-mounted
• Attend lab
• Start Wednesday
• Three absences failure
• Attend class
• Last semester 077, 184, 287
• Attend with decorum

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Your Course Expectations?

• THINK/PAIR/SHARE
• Content?
• Skills?

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Further Expectations

• Anticipate class
• Read text!
• Attend class
• Ask questions!
• Review class
• Take good notes!
• QUESTION!
• 1 per student

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Importance of the Textbook

• Complete (and testable!)
• Lectures will clarify, emphasize, and give
  examples.
• Introductory
• Read to raise questions
• Encyclopedic
• Read again to review after class and before tests

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Learning from a Textbook

• Terms
• Boldfaced
• Critical or trivial?
• Pictures
• Critical concepts
• Graphs
• Axes units, scales
• Patterns
• Tables
• Key concepts

Aesthenosphere Uniformitarianism
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Learning from a Textbook II

• Take notes
• Paraphrase
• Summarize
• Do exercises
• Ask questions
• Self, peers
• TA, professor
• Draw pictures

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Questions?
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Geology

• Study of the Earth
• Materials
• Processes
• Systems
• Reservoirs
• Fluxes
• Rates

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Physical

• Materials and processes
• Landforms and landscapes
• NOT Historical
• Numerical ages
• Fossil assemblages
• BUT Time is key

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Importance of Scale

• Space
• Earth, North America, Great Plains, Black Hills,
  Mount Rushmore, the monument, granite, minerals,
  elements
• Time and rate

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Geological Timeline
14.7 GaBig Bang
HOW DO WE KNOW?
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Natural Science

• Scientific Methodgeologists 1870s
• Observation (Logic)
• Testing to disprove
• Multiple working hypotheses
• Theories
• Paradigms ruling theory
• Plate Tectonics

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Scientific method

• Observe
• Describe
• Explain (hypothesis)
• TEST!
• Modify explanation

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Uniformitarianism

• Present is the key to the past (and the future).

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Applied uniformitarianism

• Is Earth a valid analog for Mars?
• Is Mars a valid analog for Earth (or is Venus)?

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Example Mars!

• Observations?
• Red color
• Red fines
• Black rocks
• Scattered rocks
• Angular
• Wide range of sizes
• Coatings?
• Areas of fine sediment
• Varying colors
• Conical peaks

• Hypotheses - processes
• Cratering
• Volcanism
• Mass wasting
• Rivers
• Wind
• Weathering
• Others?