GEOLOGY 225: EARTH MATERIALS: Syllabus, Fall, 2002
Instructor: Calvin Miller
Week Lab Class Reading
8/26 - - Introduction: Ignorance, doubt, and certainty in science and life; importance of Earth materials; natural cycle of Earth materials; Mineralogy as the basis for study of Earth materials intro handout material; Ch. 1; Ch. 3 for lab!
9/2 1A Intro to mineral properties and identification Earth chemistry and the Earth materials cycle; minerals in Earth materials; properties of minerals Ch. 2
9/9 1B (continue properties & identification) Mineral optics (begin Lab 2A) P00 p. 1-30
9/16 2A Mineral optics Mineral optics, cont.; EarthMatNews Ch. 5
9/20-21 (optional: dept. field trip, Cumberland Plat.)
9/23 2B Mineral optics, cont. The silicate minerals; EarthMatNews Ch. 5, cont.; (look over Part III of text)
9/30 3 Silicate minerals; labquiz 1 Stability of phases; magmatic processes; minitest 1
10/4-5 (optional: join field trip to Blue Ridge) 10/11-12
10/7 4 Igneous rocks & minerals Magmatic processes, cont.; surface processes, surface minerals (soil, sediment, sedimentary rock); EarthMatNews Ch. 6
10/14 5 Soil, sediment, sedimentary rock; sed. minerals Surface processes, cont.; metamorphism and metamorphic rocks & minerals; EarthMatNews Ch. 7
10/21 (no lab - fall break) (finish ig!, start sed)Metamorphism, cont.; EarthMatNews Ch. 8
10/28 6 Metamorphic rocks/metamorphic minerals (sed, meta, start ore lab Thurs!)Ore deposits/economic minerals and rocks; Lab 7: Ore deposits, non-silicate minerals; no EarthMatNews Ch. 9, 10
11/4 (start lab 8, plus labquiz)Lab 8 Intro to crystal structure: External morphology; labquiz 2 (minquiz3; finish lab 7, work on lab 8 Tues)Introduction to crystal structure; Earth Mat News Ch. 11
11/8-9 class field trip
11/11 9 Crystal structure: Morphology, cont.; stereo diagrams minitest 2; crystal structure, cont.; X-ray diffraction; EarthMatNews Ch. 12, 13
11/18 10 Crystal structure: Unit cells, Miller indices, intro to X-ray diffraction XRD, cont.; atomic structure and crystal chemistry; EarthMatNews
12/2 11 X-ray diffraction demo; labquiz 3 minitest 3; crystal chem, cont.;
12/9 LAB FINAL concluding remarks; Final presentations
· Texts: main text is Perkins, Mineralogy, 1998 (P98); Lab text is Perkins, 2000, Minerals in Thin Section (P00). Bring P98 to all labs and P00 to labs 2-6. I also recommend that you bring out your 101 text - it is an excellent reference.
· Readings listed above are from P98, except for a single reading from P00 (P98, Ch. 4 is repeated in P00); they are listed above to precede the lecture or lab during which the material is covered. More specific assignments will be made from day to day during the semester.
· bring a hand lens to labs (and a pocketknife, if you have one)
· see following pages for discussion of tests/quizzes, EarthMatNews, etc.
GEOLOGY 225: EARTH MATERIALS
Calvin Miller (5719 Stevenson; x 2-2232, millercf@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu);
office hours: Mon 1-2 PM, Tu 11-12 AM, Th 8-9:25 AM
TA: Pete Berquist (5708 Stevenson; x2-2140; peter.j.berquist@vanderbilt.edu)
office hours: TBA
Philosophy and Style of the Course
The focus of this class has been broadened from purely mineralogy to Earth materials - that is, the nature of and processes that form the materials that make up the Earth. We will stick largely to solid materials, but all solid materials reflect interaction with fluids, and they are the permanent recorders of the history of the oceans and atmosphere. Much of the subject matter that we cover is, frankly, difficult, but it is both fascinating in its own right and forms a basis for understanding all Earth processes. Widening the scope to Earth materials will make clearer the general relevance of our studies.
· Mineralogy, Earth Materials, Geoscience, and Science - Mineralogy is addressed in physics, chemistry, and materials engineering as well as geology. Though it is a very challenging discipline, it was one of the first to be relatively thoroughly studied and addressed by modern scientific methods. In addition, minerals are the most regular and predictable of natural features. As a consequence of these factors, there were a series of great breakthroughs in mineralogy over the last century that left us with a relatively sound understanding of the essential nature of crystalline materials - and because of this mineralogy in its strict sense is less dynamic than other areas of geoscience. Thus, because minerals are the principal constituents of most materials that make up the Earth and their basic nature is reasonably well understood, mineralogy serves as a sound basis for addressing highly complex, fascinating, and socially important problems that face us in the geosciences.
· Goals of the course - This is not a traditional mineralogy course. My aim is to provide you with a basic understanding of the nature of minerals, an ability to use mineralogic methods to describe Earth materials, and a recognition of how to delve more deeply into the discipline. In addition, I want you to see minerals as the building blocks of the most abundant materials that make up the Earth and to understand the dynamic cycles that create, modify, destroy, and recreate all of the materials of the Earth.
· Student interaction - Your participation will be a critical part of classes - please come ready to ask questions and to offer your insights. I will provide, both ahead of time and during class, questions and ideas that are intended to focus on both critical material and important (or occasionally off-the-wall) implications, but please provide your own ideas, comments and questions. If you are confused or feel you are being left behind, please let me know either in class, after class, or between classes - everyone learns differently and professors (at least I) can't always gauge how fast material can be assimilated by individuals or in some cases by the class as a whole. You will learn better and I will teach better if you are an active participant. (I also welcome discussions between classes, either during office hours or at most any other time.)
· Uncertainty - Please read the excerpts from the review of the recent book based on a lecture series by the physicist Richard Feynmann. It makes clear a critical but often overlooked factor in true science: uncertainty. NOTHING, including science, is without uncertainty. What we try to do is assess and then reduce uncertainty. Don't trust anyone, including yourself (or me), who claims to be absolutely certain; don't despair when you feel uncertain; recognize that progress is made by chipping away at uncertainty and making the best possible decisions from logic and available information. You will have a lot of uncertainty while you are learning about minerals, but it is possible over the course of a semester to learn a lot and to gain justifiable confidence. This is great preparation for addressing vital and far more open questions about Earth processes.
General Class Organization:
· Lecture, lab, reading, and homework assignments will all be closely tied together. The reading must be done carefully before the following lab, because the lab will be based in large part upon the lectures and reading that precede it. The reading assignments are not lengthy, but they will be challenging. I will supply you with notes and questions that should help to focus your reading. You will be strongly encouraged to discuss the reading and the previous lab during the lecture periods. Labs will introduce you to Earth materials and to the methods of describing and studying them.
· An enormous number of minerals exists in nature (>3,000 or so), but only a tiny fraction are important in abundance and a modest number more are important economically or scientifically. In this class, I expect slight familiarity with about 100. You will see roughly 50 in the lab, and I expect you to know very well the approximately 25 that are most important in Earth materials. I will provide you with a list that makes clear what you are to know.
· I don't believe in emphasizing memorization, and tests in general will reflect this. However, storing some facts in brain is an unavoidable part of learning, and for this class mineral formulas are the most important memory-intensive data. I will require you to know or at least recognize about 40 formulas, and you will be tested on them - as many times as it takes you to learn them (you may retake the minquiz with only your highest score counting)
· Short problem sets consisting of problems that relate to class material will be assigned frequently. They will generally be due one week after they are handed out.
· Field trips: We will have one overnight (camping) class field trip that will acquaint you with Earth materials in "real life." We will observe ancient and modern Earth materials, and we'll have a look at human utilization and impact upon them. you will write a very brief report about the trip. You are encouraged to go on either or both of two other field trips - the departmental field trip to the Cumberland Plateau in September and a field trip to the Blue Ridge for my advanced class in October. (A small amount of extra credit is available for going on these additional trips.)
· In addition to the regular reading assignments, everyone will peruse current literature for news relevant to Earth materials (i.e. practically anything having to do with the Earth sciences); this can include the popular press (any newspaper or magazine), popular science literature (e.g. Science News, American Scientist, Scientific American, Discover, Earth Magazine, Geology Today, Science News, scientifically relevant websites), and the more general scientific journals and newsmagazines (e.g. the summary sections of Nature and Science, GSA Today, Eos, Geology). We will discuss news most Thursdays in class (EarthMatNews) - three or four of you will present very brief summaries of what you've found each time. You will therefore be expected to bring something to discuss twice during the semester. Please come prepared.
· You will make a final presentation at the end of the semester. This will include a careful, detailed outline with references and a ~10 minute class presentation with illustrated handout for your classmates (and me); the outline will be due several days before you present the report. You will choose your topic in consultation with me - it can be almost anything dealing with Earth materials and the processes that form them and/or their importance to humans.
Grading:
Your grade will be broken down into two parts: final exams (lecture + lab), which will count either 25 or 50%, and everything else, which counts the remaining 50 or 75%. Your grade will be determined on the basis that gives you the highest result.
(1) 70% class final COMPREHENSIVE FINALS (50 or 25% of total grade)
(2) 30% lab final
100%
(1) 42% three minitests (14% each)
(2) 5% minquizzes
(3) 6% homework
(4) 10% class participation
(includes EarthMatNews, attendance, general participation) EVERYTHING ELSE (50 or 75%)
(5) 4% field trip write-up
(6) 10% final student presentation
(7) 8% lab reports and effort/participation
(8) 15% three lab quizzes (5% each)
100%
extra credit: One point each will be added to your final total grade for going on the extra field trips
