GEOL 5690 s.1 Spring 2010

Tectonic History of the Western United States: Syllabus

Meetings: 1:00-1:50 pm, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, BESC 1B81

Instructor: Craig Jones, ESCI 440C, x2-6994, cjones@cires.colorado.edu

Office Hours: TBA

Website: http://www.Colorado.edu/GeolSci/courses/GEOL5690/

The website will have readings assigned and additional readings relevant to class meetings.

Goals: Obtain a grounding in the geologic history of the western United States and an understanding of the techniques that are used in building a tectonic history, including the limitations of these techniques.

Prerequisites: nothing fixed, but a course in structural geology and some college-level physics is highly desirable. We will be assuming some basic physics and chemistry as we describe some of the techniques used in tectonics; a differential equation or two might make a special appearance.

Format: Lectures and discussion, with some student presentations. Readings from the technical literature will accompany lectures. Readings will be placed in a box in the Geology mailroom (towards the left side, marked 5690 readings)

Coursework: Students will complete about 6 homeworks over the duration of the course, and a final exam. No late homeworks will be accepted. The time of the final will be determined. Additionally, students will have to complete a project: a web site on one aspect of the geology of the western U.S. and presentation of the site to the class. The web site should have two levels for users: one an overview of the geology being considered, the second a detailed description of some aspect of how we have come to reach this understanding.

Text: Turcotte and Schubert’s 2nd edition of Geodynamics. It is not comprehensive but the best thing out there. Class readings will be placed in a mailbox in the Geology mailroom and posted to the website. Baldridge's Geology of the American Southwest is optional; it is a geologic history of the region without the geodynamics and is a handy reference.

Reserve texts. I will place these books on reserve in the library along with our texts:

• The Cordilleran Orogen: Conterminous U.S., DNAG volume G-3 (Burchfiel et al.). This provides a comprehensive overview of the tectonic history of the western U.S. in both temporal and thematic chapters.
• Telford et al.'s Applied Geophysics. A thorough development and guide to using geophysical techniques, it is probably the most common reference used by working geophysicists. (Might be under GEOL4714 reserve)
• Stüwe, Geodynamics of the Lithosphere. A book that has much more emphasis on the geochemistry and petrology produced by tectonic events, with somewhat more controversial material included.

Grading: homework will be 40%, participation 10%, project 25%, and final 25%

Special dates:

• 11 January first class
• 18 January MLK day (no class)
• 22-26 March Spring break
• 30 April last class

Course outline. We have 15 weeks total time. There are about 12 main topics we will explore, plus student presentations (which I expect to take about a week of time, depending on enrollment), so expect each of the below to occupy about a week. This list is provisional as suggestions within the class will be considered as we move along. Bold faced techniques to be emphasized. Italicized topics depend on time available.

GEOL5690 home | C. H. Jones | CIRES | Dept. of Geological Sciences | Univ. of Colorado at Boulder

Last modified at January 11, 2010 12:30 PM