Ge 101, Introduction to Geology and Geochemistry

Syllabus

Get your syllabus (dates revised 8/30/04). You can't tell the players without a syllabus. Also, here is the class Collaboration policy.

Geochemistry Textbook

This year we are using an on-line textbook, Geochemistry by Bill White. If this link to the site at Cornell causes trouble, I will set up a local mirror. Note that this is a draft of the textbook and contains a number of errors. Here are the corrections and errata I am aware of. If you see a mistake I missed, anything from a typo to a misnumbered equation reference to a science mistake, tell me.

Lecture Notes

The lecture notes are posted here in advance in the hope that this means you will be armed to the teeth with tough questions by the time you get to class. The full set of lectures is here, but until the day of each lecture what is posted may be last year’s version. Only after the lecture are these notes final and definitive. I recommend you make sure that eventually you have a set of final notes downloaded on the day of or after each lecture. Note: do not just click on the link, you will probably get a page of gibberish. On Windows, right-click to get the download menu, choose save file. On Macintosh, option-click to get the download menu, choose save file. Does anyone know the html attribute to make download rather than display automatic? Warning: some of these are big files, use caution before downloading over modem connection.

 

2004 Lecture Notes

• Prefatory Material
• Lecture 1a: Geologic Time
• Lecture 1b: Plate Tectonics, Geodynamic setting of major rock suites
• Lecture 2a: Igneous classification, mid-ocean ridges
• Lecture 2b: Hotspots
• Lecture 3: Subduction and volcanology
• Lecture 4: Chemical thermodynamics, melting, major elements, mineralogy
• Lecture 5: Structural Geology
• Lecture 6: Geomorphology
• Lecture 7: Orogeny, continental dynamics and regional metamorphism
• Lecture 8a: Stratigraphy and Paleomagnetism
• Lecture 8b: California
• Lecture 9: Weathering and sedimentary rocks
• Lecture 10: Cosmochemistry: origin of nuclei, solar system, and earth
• Lecture 11: Geochemical classification of elements and gross differentiation of the Earth
• Lecture 12: Radioactivity
• Lecture 13: Mixing and Box Models
• Lecture 14: Stable Isotopes
• Lecture 15: Chemical Oceanography
• Lecture 16: Atmospheric Chemistry
• Lecture 18: Chemical Geodynamics: lithophiles
• Lecture 19: Chemical Geodynamics: noble gases

Cumulative Index of Lecture Notes

The index PDF is complete, but pages may move around a bit during the term, so check for final version at end of term.

Problem Sets

2004 Sets

• Problem set 1 as PDF file or obtain a hardcopy with color copies.
• Problem set 2 as Microsoft Word file or as a PDF file.
• Problem set 3 as Microsoft Word file or as a PDF file.
• Problem set 4 as Microsoft Word file or as a PDF file. Here is the data file for the last problem on problem set 4.
• Problem set 5 as Microsoft Word file or as a PDF file.
• Problem set 6 as Microsoft Word file or as a PDF file.

List of Review Questions

To prepare for the final, consider the following List of review questions and info about the final.