Course Description
Earth’s history is fundamental for understanding links among the hydrosphere (oceans, rivers), cryosphere (glaciers, ice sheets), geosphere (Earth), biosphere (life), and atmosphere (greenhouse gases, climate) through time. Innovative discoveries provide the framework for quantitative assessments, research, and writing projects addressing current and future decisions for Earth and its resources.
Athena Title
Found of Earth Systems History
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in GEOL 1122, GEOL 1122H, GEOL 2360H
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- Students will analyze the theories of how life evolved on Earth and life’s potential to be found on other planets, their earliest putative habitats, and their major contribution to Earth’s climate and environmental change starting ~ 3.8 billion years ago and continuing to today.
- Students will analyze the theories of how life evolved on Earth and life’s potential to be found on other planets, their earliest putative habitats, and their major contribution to Earth’s climate and environmental change starting ~ 3.8 billion years ago and continuing to today.
- Students will critique and synthesize major trends in body size evolution in relation to increasing oxygen levels over Earth’s history and chart the trajectory of life from early microscopic organisms to some of the largest multicellular creatures on Earth (i.e., fungi and forests, dinosaurs and whales).
- Student will examine data on species diversification and mass extinctions with a goal of applying adaptation and resiliency concepts that are fundamental concepts for resolving current and future conservation issues.
Topical Outline
- I. Reading the Sedimentary and Fossil Rock Record
Depositional Environments
Principles of Geology
Fun with Rocks: Test Your Skills at Interpreting the Rock Record
- II. Concepts and Applications Relating to the Rock Record Evolution
Relative Geologic Time Scale
Origin and Early Evolution of the Universe, Earth, Atmosphere, and Oceans
Mountain Building and Drifting Continents (Plate Tectonics)
- III. Evolution of the Earth: Archaean and Proterozoic History
Earth's Earliest Continental Crust
What is Life? Origin of Life on Earth
Geobiology and Tectonics
- IV. Evolution of the Earth: Early Paleozoic
Tectonics and Geobiology
- V. Evolution of the Earth: Middle Paleozoic
Tectonics and Geobiology
- VI. Evolution of the Earth: Late Paleozoic
Tectonics and Geobiology
Extinctions and Recovery from Extinctions
- VII. Evolution of the Earth: Mesozoic Era
Tectonics and Geobiology
Mass Extinction
- VIII. Evolution of the Earth: Cenozoic Era
Tectonics and Geobiology
Pleistocene Glaciation, advent of humans and the Anthropocene
General Education Core
CORE II: Physical Sciences
