G 410/G510 Geology of North America
Four Credits, Spring 2013
Location: To be determined
Time: Monday-Wednesday-Friday 12:45 to 1:45 pm
Instructor: Jim Jackson
email: jjackson@pdx.edu
office hours: Monday-Wednesday-Friday 12:00 to 12:30 pm in CH 17.
Course Description: The Geology of North America provides an overview of the regional geology of the continent and its oceanic margins It emphasizes observations made across the range of scales between thin section and tectonic plate. These observations are used to formulate and test hypotheses made on a regional scale. Readings are selected from recent literature, and also include selected classic papers. Class exercises utilize techniques that are suited to regional geological analysis.
G 410 Text: McPhee, J. 1998 Annals of the Former World (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York) 696 pp.
G 510 and G 410: Selected papers available through the PSU Library Electronic Reserves website.
Schedule: topics are subject to change
April 1: Introduction to the course: The Geological Map of North America (GSA DNAG)
April 3: The Gulf of California: Oblique Continental Rifting
April 5: The San Andreas Fault and Walker Lane
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April 8: North Atlantic Margin: Normal Continental Rifting
April 10: Exercise 1: Seismicity and topography of the San Andreas Fault Zone
April 12: Exercise 2 Introduction to seismic interpretation
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April 15: The Northwest Atlantic and Artic Margins
April 17: Gulf of Mexico
April 19 Exercise 3 Seismic interpretation
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April 22: Southern Alaskan Margin
April 23 Field Trip Departs
April 24: Field Trip to Northern California
April 26: Field Trip to Northern California
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April 28 Field Trip Returns
April 29: Laramide Orogeny I
May 1: Laramide Orogeny II
May 3: Exercise 4: Remote sensing of compressive structures
May 6: Cordilleran Geology: Jurassic and Triassic
May 8: Appalachian Mountains I: Descriptions of the range
May 10: Exercise 5 Balanced Cross Sections
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May 13: Appalachian Mountains II: Ancestral Rocky Mountains
May 15: AAPG Meeting No Class
May 17: AAPG Meeting No Class
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May 20: AAPG Meeting No Class
May 22: AAPG Meeting No class
May 24: Appalachian Mountains III : Orogenic Sediments
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May 27: Memorial Day-PSU closed
May 29: Appalachian Mountains IV relations with other continents
May 31: Appalachian Mountains V: Plate collision and assembly of Pangea
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June 3: Precambrian Paleogeography of North America
June 5: Precambrian Plate Tectonics: What? When? Where?
June 7: Outstanding questions in North American Geology
Final Exam: date and format to be determined
Reading List: all papers will be available through the PSU Library Electronic Reserves.
Presentations G 410: each student will present four brief talks summarizing one paper.
Presentations G 510: each student will present four talks comparing two linked papers. A written summary will be prepared for each talk.
Final Exam: each student will prepare a short paper discussing an aspect of North American geology that remains poorly understood. These papers will be presented and discussed during the final exam.
Grading
G 410 G 510
Reading Notes 15% Reading Notes 15%
G410 Exercises 20% G510 Exercises 15%
Class participation 20% Class Participation 25%
Field Trip Note Book 20% Field Trip Note Book 20%
Final Paper 25% Final paper 25%