GEOL112-06S2 (U) Semester Two 2006 (University Campus)

Understanding Earth History

18 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 10 July 2006
End Date: Sunday, 12 November 2006
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 23 July 2006
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 8 October 2006

Description

An outline of the development and diversity of life on Earth, the forces controlling Earth history and the geological structure and development of New Zealand and the southwest Pacific. The course also considers the application of geological knowledge to society.

This course covers the geological history of the Earth and describes how geologists unravel the story hidden in rocks and fossils. The lecture course covers the origin of the Earth, moon and planets; geological time and the geological time scale; fossils and the evolutionary history of life on Earth; introductory structural geology; New Zealand's tectonic development; mining, exploration and engineering geology. Practical work includes an introduction to topographic maps; construction and interpretation of simple geological maps; study of the more commonly occurring, and geologically useful, groups of invertebrate fossils. There is a 1-day field trip to study the geology of the Middle Waipara region, north Canterbury.

What the course entails:
Three lectures and one practical class per week in the same time slot as GEOL111, plus a  1-day field trip.

What you need for this course:
Can be taken by students with no previous experience in geology. However, GEOL111 is recommended preparation. Two additional laboratory classes will be arranged on Saturday mornings for those who have not taken GEOL111.

What this course gets you into:
Together with GEOL111, GEOL112 is recommended preparation for all 200 level Geology courses.

Learning Outcomes

  • Students successfully completing this course should have a basic understanding of:
  • the history of life on Earth
  • the geological usefulness of fossils
  • simple geological structures and how they may be produced
  • the tectonic development of New Zealand
  • aspects of applied and environmental geology.

    Students will be able to:
  • read a topographic map and identify landscape features on the maps produced by different geological processes
  • use aerial photographs to identify landscape features or potential geological hazards
  • interpret simple geological structures shown on geological maps and write a simple geological history of a mapped area
  • identify common fossil invertebrates and appreciate their value in age-dating, correlation, and paleoenvironmental reconstruction.

Prerequisites

RP: GEOL111

Restrictions

Recommended Preparation

Course Coordinator / Lecturers

Margaret Bradshaw and Dave MacKinnon

Lecturer

Jarg Pettinga

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Final Examination 60%
Fossil identification, mapping etc 25%
Short question and answer written test 18 Aug 2006 15%


Each student will have a practical test including fossil identification, mapping techniques and interpretation of a geological map during week 25 (9-13 October) during scheduled laboratory groups.

Course links

Library portal

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $679.00

International fee $2,920.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Geological Sciences .

All GEOL112 Occurrences

  • GEOL112-06S2 (U) Semester Two 2006 (University Campus)
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