GEY112—PHYSICAL GEOLOGY syllabus

Fall 2007, University of Maine at Presque Isle

Instructor: Professor Chunzeng Wang;

Office: Room 306, South Hall; Phone: (207) 768-9412;

Email address: chunzeng.wang@maine.edu

Official website: http://www.umpi.maine.edu/~wangc

Office hours: 9:30-10:30 AM, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays; or by appointment

 

Lecture hours: 8:00-9:15 AM, Tuesdays and Thursdays

Lab hours: Lab Section 002—1:00-3:00 PM, Tuesdays

Textbook: Essentials of Geology, by Lutgens and Tarbuck (9th edition)

(8th edition also acceptable)

Lab manual: Lab Manual for Physical Geology, by Kevin McCartney; and handouts

 

Important notes

 

1.      Class attendance: Class attendance is strongly required. Lecture exams will include material that will be exclusively covered in the lecture. Therefore, if you miss classes your test grade will be negatively impacted. Also, because both lectures and lab exercises are scheduled to be on the same pace, the lecture will greatly help doing lab exercises.

2.      Field trips: Physical geology is a field science. Field observation is essential to geological learning. This course therefore comes with field trips.  (1) Local field trip: A field trip for local geology around Presque Isle is scheduled. All students are required to attend the field trip. (2) NEIGC (New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference) annual field trips: This year’s NEIGC meeting will be held in Quebec City of Canada at Oct. 5-7. It offers geoscience field trips around Quebec City. UMPI has a long tradition to take students to NEIGC field trips. Students are strongly encouraged to take the trips. Details of the trip plan will be discussed in the class. Check this website for our last fall’s NEIGC trip:

http://www.umpi.maine.edu/scimath/GeoClub/trips/NEIGC2006.htm

3.       Exams and Grading: Your lecture grade will be based on three exams with each accounts toward 20% of your total GEY112 grade. Your lab work (lab quizzes and exams) is worth 40% of your total grade. Mineral quiz, rock test, and lab final each accounts for 30% of your lab grade; the rest 10% of your lab grade comes from your participation and attendance. Please note that your total GEY112 grade will not be assigned on a curve. There is not a predetermined number of As, Bs, or Cs.

Fall 2007 GEY112 Class Schedule

Week

M

Tuesday

W

Thursday

1

8/27

8/28 Introduction; Earth structure (Chapter 1)

Lab 1: Mineral properties

8/29

8/30 Minerals (1) (Chapter 2)

2

9/3 

Labor Day

9/4 Minerals (2) (Chapter 2)

Lab 1 (cont.) and Lab 2: Mineral identification

9/5

9/6 Minerals (3) (Chapter 2)

3

9/10

 

9/11 Geologic resources and mining (Chapter 2)

Lab 2: Mineral identification (cont.); Mineral review

9/12

9/13 Dynamic earth system and plate tectonics (1)

(Chapters 1 and 15)

4

9/17

 

9/18 Plate tectonics (2) (Chapters 1 and 15)

Lab quiz 1: Mineral quiz

9/19

9/20 Plate tectonics (3) (Chapters 1 and 15)

5

9/24 

9/25 Igneous activities (Chapters 3 and 4)

FIELD TRIP (half day)

9/26 

9/27 Igneous rocks (Chapters 3 and 4)

6

10/1

10/2 Lecture Exam 1

Lab 3: Igneous rocks

10/3 

10/4 Metamorphism and

metamorphic rocks(Chapter 7)

7

10/8-10/12

Columbus Day Break. No classes.

8

10/15

10/16 Weathering, soils, and soil erosion (Chapter 5)

Lab 3: Igneous rocks (cont.) and

Lab 4: Metamorphic rocks

10/17 

10/18 Sedimentation and

sedimentary rocks (Chapter 6)

 

9

10/22

10/23 Rock deformation and folds (Chapter 17)

Lab 5: Sedimentary rocks

10/24

10/25 Rock deformation and faults (Chapter 17)

 

10

10/29 

10/30 GSA meeting; no lecture today.

Lab 5: Sedimentary rocks (cont.)

10/31

11/1 GSA meeting; no lecture and lab today.

11

11/5

11/6 Geologic time and dating of rocks (Chapter 18)

Lab quiz 2: Rock test

Lab 6: Dating of rocks

11/7 

11/8 Mountain building and mountain belts

(Chapter 17)

 

12

11/12

Veterans Day, No classes

11/13 Earthquakes (Chapter 14)

Lab 7: Topographic maps and map reading skills

11/14 

11/15 Lecture Exam 2

 

13

11/20 

11/20 Mass wasting and landslides (Chapter 8)

Lab 7: Topographic maps and map reading skills (cont.)

11/21-11/23

Thanksgiving. No classes.

14

11/26

11/27 Streams (1)(Chapter 9)

Lab8: Contour construction

11/28 

11/29 Streams (2)(Chapter 9)

 

15

12/3

12/4 Glaciers (Chapter 11)

Lab 9: Topographic profiles and profile construction

12/5

12/6 Groundwater (Chapter 10)

16

12/10 

12/11 Shorelines (Chapter 13)

Lab quiz 3: Lab final

12/12

12/13 Lecture final

17

12/17

12/18

12/19

12/20