3 credits - Winter 2014 - T/Th 10:05-11:25 in FDA 315
3 credits - Winter 2014 - T/Th 10:05-11:25 in FDA 315
TAs:
Tim Sherry (timothy.sherry[at]mail.mcgill.ca, office: FDA 233) Office Hours: Weds 1-2 pm
Naomi Barshi (naomi.barshi[at]mail.mcgill.ca, office: FDA 403) Office hours: Mon 1-2 pm
If you can't make the office hours, email for an appointment or just drop by the office and try your luck!
I hate giving exams, because I think learning happens when it takes longer to solve a problem and explain a solution. Your exam cramming skills will no longer be useful to you after university, so I don't want to invest in helping you practice those habits, and focus on assessing you on skills geologists actually need. To this end, I'm trying something new this term. Examination will have a take-home portion which is completely open-book, open-internet, open-for collaboration and discussion. You will bring your work on the take-home portion to class and complete a related but independent essay exam in class. I'm looking forward to your feedback on how this works.
| Quizzes | 2% each | 22% | |
| Problem Sets | 5% each | 20% | |
| Regional Plates Website | 40% for individual plate page, 40% for topical page, 20% for role in group | 14% | |
| Wikipedia Repair Project | 10% for article, 4% for peer review | 14% | |
| Test 1 (week 7) | 7.5% for take home part, 7.5% for in-class part | 15% | |
| Test 2 (week 13) | 7.5% for take home part, 7.5% for in class part | 15% | |
| Seminar Summaries (allowable seminars on schedule below) | 1% each | ≤ 4% | |
| TOTAL: | 104%. Own it! | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Final marks will be calculated using the McGill University Grading Scale | |||
For problem sets and assignments, you will receive a grading rubric with the assignment. Quizzes will be given at the beginning of class. There will be no make-ups for missed quizzes, but you can gain extra credit (up to 4% of your final grade) by doing Seminar Summaries. See schedule below for appropriate seminars (blue text).
McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/ for more information).
I will be explicit in every case whether you are to work alone or are encouraged to work with your classmates on an assignment. If you are ever unsure about expectations, be sure to check. I HATE CHEATING and personally believe that cheaters and plagiarisers do not belong at McGill or deserve the priviledge of a university education. If I become aware of academic dishonesty I will not hesitate to take disciplinary action through official University channels against anyone who commits, facilitates or assists in the covering up of cheating or plagiarism.
In accord with McGill University's Charter of Students' Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.
Reading and lectures for this course will be given in English, which is the most commonly used international language for science, including geology. Although my own language abilities are limited, I encourage you to use any literature or online resources to learn the terminology of structural geology in French, and I hope I will learn along with you. You are welcome to submit written work in French. I reserve the right to enlist the help of francophone colleagues as needed to assist in grading your work.
You are responsible for everything discussed in lecture, even if it is unplanned! Getting notes for any missed lectures is your responsibility; ask your classmates. Reading quizzes are common, always at the beginning of lecture, and may include questions based on the assigned reading and 1-2 preceeding lectures
Blue text indicates seminars in the department which you can summarize for credit + extra credit!. If you would like to summarize a seminar that isn't on this list, check with me first. It must be legitimately related to tectonics in order to get class credit. Reading assignments are in green.
| Week | Date | Lecture Topic | Start these readings + assignments | Due dates + Quizzes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tues Jan 7 | Intro to course; Historical prospective | Chapter 1 (pgs. 1-8) | |
| Thurs Jan 9 | 20th century development of plate tectonics Link to slides Form groups for Plates Website Project |
Start plates web pages | ||
| 2 | Tues Jan 14 | Seismology (review), structure of the mantle, rheology Layers of continental and oceanic crust, exposed analogs Isostacy and flexture, heat flow. CR lecture notes |
Chapter 2 (p. 9-53) | Quiz 1 on Ch. 1 and lecture material |
| Thurs Jan 16 | Problem Set 1: Moment of Inertia | Email plates page (500 words + graphics) to group, Christie and Naomi | ||
| 3 | Tues Jan 21 | Plates break-out discussion groups Citing and Writing handout |
Chapter 3 (p. 54-71) | |
| Thurs Jan 23 | Continental Drift: paleomag and how past continents are reconstructed CR lecture notes |
Work on your 2nd page for the Plates website | Quiz 2: Ch 2 Problem Set 1 due |
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| Jan 24 - 3:30 pm - Redpath Museum. Jeff Cardille | ||||
| 4 | Tues Jan 28 | Sea floor spreading and transform faults, relative and absolute motions 1960's papers to read CR lecture notes |
Chapter 4-5 (p. 72-120) | Quiz 3: Ch 3 |
| Thurs Jan 30 | Regional Plates Website due - email link to Christie + Naomi by 5pm | |||
| 5 | Tues Feb 4 | Ocean Ridges CR lecture notes |
Chapter 6 (p. 121-151) | Quiz 4: Ch. 4-5 |
| Thurs Feb 6 | Problem Set 2: Plate motions. Useful papers: Argus (2011), Bird (2003), Prescott (2001), Shao (2011), | |||
| Feb 6 - 12:00pm - FDA 232 - Jeff McGuire: 20,000 foreshocks under the sea | ||||
| Feb 7 - 3:30pm - Redpath Museum - Jeff McGuire: Seafloor Seismic and Geodetic - Cascadia | ||||
| 6 | Tues Feb 11 | Rifting Continents CR lecture notes |
Chapter 7 (p. 152-209) | Quiz 5: Ch. 6 |
| Feb 11 - 12:00pm - FDA 232 - Christie Rowe | ||||
| Thurs Feb 13 | Take-Home Test 1 | Turn in Problem Set 2 | ||
| 7 | Tues Feb 18 | Strike-slip faults Visuals and CR Lecture notes |
Chapter 8 (p. 249-279) | Quiz 6: Ch. 7 |
| Thurs Feb 20 | In-class Test 1 | Take-home test due | ||
| Feb 21 - 3:300pm - Redpath Museum - Rob Rainbird | ||||
| 8 | Tues Feb 25 | Subduction zones! | Chapter 9 - important sections are 9.4, 9.5,
9.6, 9.9 (p. 252-264, 275-279) Lecture slides |
Quiz 7: Ch. 8 10am: deadline to turn in take home test without late penalty |
| Thurs Feb 27 | Problem set 3: Flexure and depth of the Oceans and useful papers: McKenzie (2005) and Spinelli (2011) | |||
| March 3-7: Reading Week! No school! | ||||
| 9 | Tues Mar 11 | Subduction | Chapter 10 (skim 10.2, skip 10.4, the rest is < 30 pg. ) Wikipedia Repair project |
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| Thurs Mar 13 | Orogenic belts and continent collision Lecture stuff |
Quiz 8: Ch. 9 | ||
| March 14 - 3:30 pm - Redpath Museum - Claude Herzberg - Tectonic and thermal history of the Earth: a petrological view | ||||
| 10 | Tues Mar 18 | Orogenic belts and continent collision Lecture notes |
Chapter 11 (p. 346-378) | Turn in Problem Set 3 |
| Thurs Mar 20 | Peer-review session for Wikipedia Repair | Quiz 9: Ch. 10 | ||
| 11 | Tues Mar 25 | Precambrian tectonics, debates about Archean tectonics notes | Chapter 12 (p. 379-403) | |
| Thurs Mar 27 | Problem Set 4 and some useful papers: Schellart 2004, Billen 2003, van Hunen 2011, van Hunen 2012, van der Hilst 1991, Parsons 1980 | Wikipedia Article Repair due | ||
| March 28 - 3:30 pm - Redpath Museum - Taylor Perron, MIT - Restless rivers, dynamic divides: a new view of Earth’s shifting landscapes | ||||
| 12 | Tues Apr 1 | Driving forces of plate tectonics | . | Quiz 10: Ch. 11 |
| April 1 - 12:00pm - FDA 232 - Rebecca Harrington, McGill EPS | ||||
| Thurs Apr 3 | Driving forces of plate tectonics, Notes Take-Home Test 2 |
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| April 4 - 3:30 pm - Redpath Museum - Don Francis | ||||
| 13 | Tues Apr 8 | Implications of plate tectonics - climate, life, element cycling, habitability | ||
| Thurs Apr 10 | In-class Test 2 | Take-home Test 2 Due | ||
| Mon Apr 14 | . | Prob Set 4 (OPTIONAL) emailed by midnight | ||
| Online Lecture: Thorne Lay at the 2011 AGU Meeting: Great Earthquake Ruptures in the Age of Seismo-Geodesy | ||||
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