Search: Earth and Planetary Science, Natural History

Collecting, analyzing, and presenting stratigraphic data; dating and correlating sedimentary rocks; recognizing ancient environments and reconstructing Earth history; seismic and sequence stratigraphy; event stratigraphy and neocatastrophism; applications of stratigraphy to climate change, petroleum geology, and archaeology

Intersection of geological processes with American cultures in the past, present, and future. Overview of ethnogeology including traditional knowledge of sources and uses of earth materials and their cultural influences today. Scientific approach to study of tectonic controls on the genesis and global distribution of energy fuels, metals, and industrial minerals. Evolution and diversity of opinion in attitudes about resource development, environmental management, and conservation on public, private, and tribal lands. Impending crisis in renewable energy and the imperative of resource literacy.

Earth's climatic changes have been substantial throughout geologic history, and these changes constitute fascinating natural experiments that reveal much about the earth's climate systems and their capacity for change. In this course we will review important methods for past climate reconstruction and also current knowledge of past climate changes throughout earth's history, with an emphasis on those of the Quaternary. Methods to be explored include analyses of physical, geochemical, and paleontologic characteristics of marine sediments, coral reefs, coastal sediments, lake sediments, tree rings, and ice cores.

Introduction to classification and geometry of geologic structures; their origins and genetic relation to stress fields and their use as kinematic indicators; case histories of selected regions to elucidate tectonic evolution of mountain systems in different plate tectonic settings. Laboratory exercises will focus on analysis of hand specimens and structural relations portrayed on geologic maps. Several trips to observe geologic structures in the field to supplement laboratory exercises.

Formation and evolution of the earth. Nucleosynthesis; formation of the solar system; planetary accretion; dating the earth and solar system; formation of the core, mantle, oceans, and atmosphere; plate tectonics; heat transfer and internal dynamics; stratigraphic record of environment, and evolution; climate history and climate change

Geological mapping, field observation, and problem-solving in the Berkeley hills and environs leading to original interpretation of geological processes and history from stratigraphic, structural, and lithological investigations. Integration of the Berkeley hills geology into the Coast Ranges and California as a whole through field trips to key localities. Training in digital field mapping, global positioning systems, and laser surveying. Interdisciplinary focus encourages participation by nonmajors.

An introduction to the physical and chemical processes that have shaped the earth through time, with emphasis on the theory of plate tectonics. Laboratory work will involve the practical study of minerals, rocks, and geologic maps and exercises on geological processes.

This course will review the geologic record of climate change emphasizing how such knowledge can constrain present day thinking about (and predictive models of) future climate change. We will cover the entire spectrum of climate variations, from the formation of the Earth's early atmosophere 4.6 billion years ago to the ice ages to the development of instrumental records.