Jan. 26 Ruins of an Older World: The Discovery of Earth History
Reading: Chap. 1
Jan. 28 Every Rock is a Record of History: Historical Approaches to Lithology
Reading: Chap. 2
LAB: Description and Classification of Sedimentary Rocks (DEH Lab 1)
Jan. 30 Terrestrial Sedimentary Environments
Reading: Chap. 5
Feb. 2 Fluvial & Deltaic Environments; Walther's Law
Reading: Chap. 5
Feb. 4 Coastal & Marine Environments; Transgressions & Regressions
Reading: Chap. 5
LAB: Interpretation of Sedimentary Rocks (DEH Lab 2)
Feb. 6 Geologic Time I
Reading: Chap. 6
Quiz 1 due
Feb. 9 Geologic Time II
Reading: Chap. 6
Feb. 11 Lithostratigraphy
Reading: Chap. 6
LAB: Relative Time and Sequence of Events (DEH Lab 3)
Feb. 13 Biostratigraphy and the Geologic Timescale
Reading: Chap. 6
Feb. 16 Another Geography: Plate Tectonics
Reading: Chap. 8
Feb. 18 Every Valley Shall Be Exalted...: Orogenesis I
Reading: Chap. 9
LAB: Lithostratigraphy (DEH Lab 4)
Quiz 2 due
Feb. 20 ...And Every Mountain and Hill Made Low: Orogenesis II and Geochemical Cycles
Reading: Chaps. 9, 10
Feb. 23 Fossils & Fossilization
Reading: Chaps. 3, 4
Feb. 25 Evolution I: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
Reading: Chap. 7
LAB: Biostratigraphy (DEH Lab 5) & Radioisotopic Dating Techniques (DEH Lab 6)
Feb. 27 Evolution II: Tempo & Mode, Patterns & Process
Reading: Chap. 7
Quiz 3 due
Exam I Review Sheet handed out
Mar. 2 Phylogeny, the Tree of Life
Reading: Chap. 7
Mar. 4 Exam I
LAB: Fossil Preservation and Taphonomy(DEH Lab 8)
Mar. 6 The Hadean Eon & the Archean Eon I: Strange Æons
Reading: Chap. 11
Mar. 9 The Archean Eon II: The Origin of Life
Reading: Chap. 11
Mar. 11 The Proterozoic Eon I: Birth of Modern Geology
Reading: Chap. 12
LAB: Lab Exam 1 (Covers material from 1/28 to 2/25)
Mar. 13 No Class Today
Quiz 4 due
Mar. 16-20 SPRING BREAK!
Mar. 23 The Proterozoic Eon II: Rodinia and Pannotia
Reading: Chap. 12
Mar. 25 The Proterozoic Eon III: Snowball Earth and the Garden of Ediacara
Reading: Chap. 12
LAB: Paleontology I Protists, Sponges, Corals, Bryozoans (Read DEH Lab 10 and Appendix pp. A-1 to A-6; Lab
will be a handout)
Mar. 27 The Early Paleozoic Era I: Cambrian and Ordovician Geology
Reading: Chaps. 13-14
Mar. 30 The Early Paleozoic Era II: When Trilobites Ruled the Earth
Reading: Chaps. 13-14
Apr. 1 The Middle Paleozoic Era I: Siluro-Devonian Geology
Reading: Chap. 13-14
LAB: Paleontology II Brachiopods, Mollusks (Read DEH Lab 11 and Appendix pp. A-7 to A-11; Lab
will be a handout)
Quiz 5 due
Apr. 3 The Middle Paleozoic Era II: The Conquest of Land
Reading: Chap. 13-14
Apr. 6 The Late Paleozoic Era I: Carboniferous Geology
Reading: Chap. 15
Apr. 8 The Late Paleozoic Era II: Permian Geology
Reading: Chap. 15
LAB: Paleontology III Arthropods, Echinoderms, Graptolites (Read DEH Lab 12 and Appendix pp. A-10 to A-17; Lab will be a handout)
Apr. 10 The Late Paleozoic Era III: Life in the Coal Swamps
Reading: Chap. 15
Quiz 6 due
Exam II Review Sheet handed out
Apr. 13 The Late Paleozoic Era IV: Permian Life and the Permo-Triassic
Extinction
Reading: Chap. 15
Apr. 15 Exam II
LAB: Paleontology IV Vertebrates, Plants (Read DEH Appendix pp. A-17 to A-25; Lab
will be a handout)
Apr. 17 The Mesozoic Era I: Triassic-Jurassic Geology
Reading: Chap. 16
Apr. 20 The Mesozoic Era II: Cretaceous Geology;
Reading: Chap. 17
Apr. 22 The Mesozoic Era III: Black Shales and Chalk Seas &
The Mesozoic Era IV: Flowers and Mammals
Reading: Chap. 16-17
LAB: Geologic Maps and Interpretation of Earth History in Selected Regions pt. 1(DEH Lab 15)
Quiz 7 due
Apr. 24 The Mesozoic Era V: The Age of Dinosaurs
Reading: Chap. 16-17
Apr. 25 (Saturday): western Maryland Field Trip: details TBA
Apr. 27 The Mesozoic Era VI: The K/Pg Extinction
Reading: Chap. 16-17
Apr. 29 The Cenozoic Era I: Paleogene Geology
Reading: Chap. 18
LAB: Geologic Maps and Interpretation of Earth History in Selected Regions pt. 2(DEH Lab 15)
May 1 The Cenozoic Era II: Neogene Geology
Reading: Chap. 19
Quiz 8 due
May 4 The Cenozoic Era III: Quaternary Geology
Reading: Chaps. 20
May 6 The Cenozoic Era IV: The Age of Mammals
Reading: Chap. 18-20
LAB: Lab Exam 2 (Concentrates on labs from March 4 onward)
May 8 The Cenozoic Era V: The Scatterlings of Africa
Reading: Chap. 18-20
Final Exam Review Sheet handed out
May 11 The Cenozoic Era VI: Living with the Ice Ages
Reading: Chap. 18-20
Quiz 9 due
May 18 (MONDAY!) FINAL EXAM, PLS 1172, 8:00-10:00 am
For a formatted printable copy of the complete syllabus, click here.