Jan. 25 Ruins of an Older World: The Discovery of Earth History
Reading: Chap. 1
LAB: No Lab Today, but meet at lab to go over policies
Jan. 27 Every Rock is a Record of History: Historical Approaches to Lithology
Reading: Chap. 2
Jan. 30 Terrestrial Sedimentary Environments
Reading: Chap. 5
Feb. 1 Fluvial & Deltaic Environments; Walther's Law
Reading: Chap. 5
LAB: Analysis of Sedimentary Rocks (IEH Lab 3)
Feb. 3 Coastal and Marine Environments; Transgressions and Regressions
Reading: Chap. 5
Feb. 6 Geologic Time I
Reading: Chap. 6
Quiz 1 due
Feb. 8 Geologic Time II
Reading: Chap. 6
LAB: Depositional Environments(IEH Lab 4)
Feb. 10 Lithostratigraphy
Reading: Chap. 6
Feb. 13 Biostratigraphy and the Geologic Timescale
Reading: Chap. 6
Feb. 15 Another Geography: Plate Tectonics
Reading: Chap. 8
LAB: Relative Dating and Unconformities(IEH Lab 1) & Radiometric Ages (IEH Lab 2)
Feb. 17 Every Valley Shall Be Exalted...: Orogenesis I
Reading: Chap. 9
Quiz 2 due
Feb. 20 ...And Every Mountain and Hill Made Low: Orogenesis II and Geochemical Cycles
Reading: Chaps. 9, 10
Feb. 22 Fossils & Fossilization
Reading: Chaps. 3, 4
LAB: Stratigraphy (IEH Lab 5)
Feb. 24 Evolution I: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
Reading: Chap. 7
Feb. 27 Evolution II: Tempo & Mode, Patterns & Process
Reading: Chap. 7
Quiz 3 due
Feb. 29 Phylogeny, the Tree of Life
Reading: Chap. 7
LAB: Facies Relationships and Sea-Level Change (IEH Lab 7)
Mar. 2 Exam I
LAB: Biostratigraphy (DEH Lab 5) & Radioisotopic Dating Techniques (DEH Lab 6)
Mar. 5 Introduction to the Precambrian and The Hadean Eon: Strange Aeons
Reading: Chap. 11
Mar. 7 The Archean Eon I: The Origin of Life
Reading: Chap. 11
LAB: Fossils and Fossilization(IEH Lab 8)
Mar. 9 The Archean Eon II: Biogenesis
Reading: Chap. 11
Mar. 12 The Proterozoic Eon I: Birth of Modern Geology
Reading: Chap. 12
Quiz 4 due
Mar. 14 The Proterozoic Eon II: Rodinia and Pannotia
Reading: Chap. 12
LAB: Paleontology I Common Precambrian and Paleozoic Fossils I (Lab will be a handout)
Mar. 16 The Proterozoic Eon III: Snowball Earth and the Garden of Ediacara
Reading: Chap. 12
Mar. 19-23 SPRING BREAK!
Mar. 26 The Early Paleozoic Era I: Cambrian and Ordovician Geology
Reading: Chaps. 13-14
Mar. 28 The Early Paleozoic Era II: When Trilobites Ruled the Earth
Reading: Chaps. 13-14
LAB: Paleontology II Common Paleozoic Fossils II (Lab will be a handout)
Mar. 30 The Middle Paleozoic Era I: Siluro-Devonian Geology
Reading: Chap. 13-14
Apr. 2 The Middle Paleozoic Era II: The Conquest of Land
Reading: Chap. 13-14
Quiz 5 due
Apr. 4 The Late Paleozoic Era I: Carboniferous Geology
Reading: Chap. 15
LAB: Paleontology III Common Post-Paleozoic Fossils (Lab will be a handout)
Apr. 6 The Late Paleozoic Era II: Permian Geology
Reading: Chap. 15
Apr. 9 The Late Paleozoic Era III: Life in the Coal Swamps
Reading: Chap. 15
Apr. 11 The Late Paleozoic Era IV: Permian Life and the Permo-Triassic
Extinction
Reading: Chap. 15
Quiz 6 due
LAB: Index Fossils and Depositional Sequences (IEH Lab 12)
Apr. 13 Exam II
Apr. 16 The Mesozoic Era I: Triassic-Jurassic Geology
Reading: Chap. 16
Apr. 18 The Mesozoic Era II: Cretaceous Geology;
Reading: Chap. 17
LAB: Interpretation of Geological Maps (IEH Lab 13)
Apr. 20 The Mesozoic Era III: Black Shales and Chalk Seas &
The Mesozoic Era IV: Flowers and Mammals
Reading: Chap. 16-17
Quiz 7 due
Apr. 22 (Sunday): western Maryland Field Trip: details TBA
Apr. 23 The Mesozoic Era V: The Age of Dinosaurs
Reading: Chap. 16-17
Apr. 25 The Mesozoic Era VI: The K/Pg Extinction
Reading: Chap. 16-17
LAB: Canadian Shield, Stable Platform, and Coastal Plain (IEH Lab 14) &
Paleozoic Orogenies of Ancestral North America (IEH Lab 15)
Apr. 27 The Cenozoic Era I: Paleogene Geology
Reading: Chap. 18
Apr. 30 The Cenozoic Era II: Neogene Geology
Reading: Chap. 19
Quiz 8 due
May 2 The Cenozoic Era III: Quaternary Geology
Reading: Chaps. 20
LAB: Cordilleran Geology (IEH Lab 16), Cenozoic Geology (IEH Lab 17) &
Pleistocene Geology (IEH Lab 18)
May 4 The Cenozoic Era IV: The Age of Mammals
Reading: Chap. 18-20
May 7 The Cenozoic Era V: The Scatterlings of Africa
Reading: Chap. 18-20
May 9 The Cenozoic Era VI: To the Anthropocene and Beyond!
Reading: Chap. 18-20
Quiz 9 due
LAB: Lab Exam
May 16 (WEDNESDAY!) FINAL EXAM, PLS 1113, 8:00-10:00 am
For a formatted printable copy of the complete syllabus, click here.