Course Description
Global cycling of major elements. Rock-water interactions. Kinetics of mineral dissolution and growth in soil, marine, freshwater, sedimentary basins and hydrothermal systems. Geochemical models for estimating reaction rates and reservoir capacities/fluxes are considered.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Term paper or project.
Athena Title
WEATH & DIAGENESIS
Prerequisite
CHEM 1211 and CHEM 1211L and GEOL 3020-3020L
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will go into the field every other week to study weathering profiles developed on different parent materials. They will learn to make descriptive observation of soil and saprolite. On alternate weeks students will study chemical and physical processes responsible for weathering at the Earth's surface. Scale of study will start at the atomic level and finish at the global level. Students will understand the exogenic cycling of elements on the Earth.
Topical Outline
* Elberton granite - Petrology, saprolite and soil Physical properties of rocks and soil analysis * Athens gneiss - Soil pits, tilled soils and soil moisture Inorganic chemical weathering * Gladesville norite - Petrology, saprolite and soil Biochemical weathering * Shoulderbone ultramafics - Petrology, saprolite and soil Biochemical weathering * Daniel Springs meta-gabbro - Mapping economic ore deposits Intensity and rates of weathering * Huber kaolins and Tivola Limestone - Petrology, saprolite and soil Exposure ages and denudation rates * North Georgia fault zones and Paleozoic Blue Ridge Province Weathering and global climate change * Jekyll Island, Georgia - Pleistocene paleosols and coastal soils