TENTATIVE Course Outline:

COURSE OUTLINE: - GEOLOGY 200A

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Course: Tectonics and Lithology

Instructor: - Professor W.R. Church

Teaching Assistant: - Lisa Munro

Lectures: - Tuesday 9-10 am, room WSC-240; Thursday 9-10 am, room WSC-240

Labs: - Section 002 Tuesday 2-5, room B&G 129; Section 003 Wednesday 2-5, B&G 129

Prerequisites: Earth Sciences 020; or one of Earth Sciences 081a, 083F, and one of 082b, 084b

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The main aim of course ES 200a is to provide students with an understanding of how the Earth 'works' in terms of the dynamic processes that have lead to the development of the Earth's more important tectonic environments - the upper mantle, rift zones, passive continental margins, ocean basins, mid-ocean ridges, oceanic and continental margin arcs, collisional and extensional zones, and the accretionary lower and upper continental crust - and to impart the vocabulary needed to rationally discuss the fundamental geological concepts of chemical fractionation, material mixing, sedimentation, physical volcanism, rock deformation and metamorphism, meteorite impact, crust formation, and the genesis of mineral deposits and energy reserves. In the laboratory part of the course, students will learn how to use rock assemblages, and their distribution pattern as seen on geologic maps, to establish the processes involved in their genesis - and consequently the identity of the tectonic environment in which they formed.

Since the lab component of the course involves the examination of rocks in hand specimen, and since the ability to identify a rock depends on one's competence in identifying the minerals forming the rock, the course will begin with a review of the physical and chemical properties of the common rock forming minerals, and of the established schemes of rock classification. A 'mineralogy' test will be administered within the first three weeks of the course (Sept 24th), and a 'lithology' test on Oct 17th.

Students will also be introduced to data management and computerized mapping (GIS) through use of the Geological Survey of Canada's data base software package 'FIELDLOG', and the analysis of lithologic maps will be demonstrated using maps of the Ewart-Forgie and Hyman-Drury townships of Ontario. As an introduction to the concept of crustal accretion, but also in preparation for the Earth Science mapping course Geology 250Y, the course will conclude with a review of the Archean and Proterozoic geology of northern Ontario.

Lab sessions are three hours long, and attendance is mandatory (a record of attendance and competence will be kept by the lab T.A.; see p. 23 of the Academic Calendar, concerning 'Attendance').

Please note: students will not be allowed to arbitrarily switch lab sections during the course.

TEXT BOOKS

There is no required text to be purchased for the course because none exists. Lecture outlines and many of the overheads (GIF format) used in the lectures will however be available for consultation and downloading at the course web site:

http://instruct.uwo.ca/earth-sci/200a-001/200outl.htm

Caveat: the web site is coldware/courseware not warmware/learnware, and is provided as a service to facilitate access to the factual and graphical material used in lectures; its existence should not be used as an excuse by students to absent themselves from class!!! Lectures are used as a means of providing explanation and promoting discussion, and only secondarily for the purpose of conveying information. Participation in class and laboratory activities is therefore a formal requirement.

The course instructor may also be contacted by E-mail at:

wrchurch@uwo.ca

EVALUATION

Student evaluation will include a mineralogy test (worth 10%), two short answer tests (each worth 10%) dealing with geological (including Fieldlog) terminology, a lab test worth 25%, and a final essay type examination (worth 45%) which will cover all course material (terminology, classification, geography, and concepts).