GEOL112-09S2 (C) Semester Two 2009

Understanding Earth History

18 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 13 July 2009
End Date: Sunday, 15 November 2009
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 26 July 2009
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 11 October 2009

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 mandatory 1-day field trip provisionally set for 19/20 September or 26/27 September 2009. Each student will be levied a $25 field fee payable at enrolment.

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 / Lecturer

Catherine Reid

Lecturers

Jarg Pettinga and Travis Horton

Lab Coordinator

Kate Pedley

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Short answer test 20 Aug 2009 15% Short question and answer written test in normal lecture time
Practical test - Week 24 scheduled lab 35% Practical test including fossil identification, mapping techniques and interpretation of a geological map. (Test to be held in scheduled practical class in Week 24)
Examination 50% Final examination


Each student will have a practical test including fossil identification, mapping techniques and interpretation of a geological map during scheduled laboratory groups.

Textbooks / Resources

Recommended Reading

Coates, Glen. , Cox, Geoffrey J; The rise and fall of the Southern Alps ; Canterbury University Press, 2002.

Marshak, Stephen; Earth : portrait of a planet ; 3rd ed; W.W. Norton, 2008.

Prothero, Donald R; Bringing fossils to life : an introduction to paleobiology ; 2nd ed; McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2004.

Course links

Library portal

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $770.00

International fee $3,415.00

* 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

  • GEOL112-09S2 (C) Semester Two 2009
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