186-233A
Earth & Life History
Week of September 5, 2001
Welcome! This course is given
as three weekly 1-hour lectures, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from
13:35 to 14:25. We meet in Engineering/McConnell Room 304.
This week you should:
-
get the textbook ("Earth Systems
History", by S.M. Stanley)
-
read Chapter 6
-
try to figure out if this course
is the right one for you
NOTE:
This course has no formal university-level pre-requisite. However it does
assume a minimal background in physical and life sciences (high-school
chemistry and biology). If you have doubts about your general science literacy,
consult
the instructor early for guidance. Remember: the add/drop deadline
for this Fall term is Sunday, September 15, 2002.
Geologic time and dating:
how far back can we read Earth's history?
The key concepts covered
this week are the basic principles and methods used by earth scientists
to date events that took place in pre-historic times. By the end of the
week, we will have covered the following terms:
-
relative dating versus
absolute
dating.
-
the principle of superposition
-
correlation
-
biostratigraphy, magnetic stratigraphy,
isotopic stratigraphy
-
index fossils (or guide fossils)
and biozones
-
sedimentary rock, igneous rock
-
intrusive or cross-cutting relationship
-
marker bed (or key bed)
-
unconformity
-
radiometric dating
-
radioactive (parent) and radiogenic
(daughter) isotopes, radioactive decay, half-life
The highlighted words are defined
in an on-line glossary on WebCT. Click on them, or look up the glossary
in the ACTION MENU near the top of your screen.
Reading from Stanley: Chapter
6 (feel free skip over the topics that we do not cover during the lectures...
e.g. sequence stratigraphy. Exams in this course will only evaluate your
grasp of the material presented in class.)
The following review questions,
on page 178 from Stanley, are particularly relevant:
1), 2), 3), 6), 7), 11).
Use them for self-study but remember that the mid-term exam will NOT repeat
exactly these questions, and will not be in a multiple-choice formet. Be
prepared to write up answers in complete sentences.
Useful or interesting links: