Module Identifier | EA11810 | |||||||||||
Module Title | THE EARTH IN SPACE AND TIME | |||||||||||
Academic Year | 2007/2008 | |||||||||||
Co-ordinator | Professor Michael J Hambrey | |||||||||||
Semester | Semester 2 | |||||||||||
Other staff | Professor Alex Maltman | |||||||||||
Course delivery | Lecture | 20 x 1 hour lectures | ||||||||||
Practical | 5 x 2 hour practicals | |||||||||||
Assessment |
|
(i) earth structures - how deformation in the earth has modified the arrangement of materials;
(ii) the present-day distribution of earth resources, including energy sources and mineral deposits in
Britain;
(iii) the links between geology and landscape; and
(iv) the nature and uses of geological maps.
Maps form a convenient way of summarising and recording geological information, and help bring together the different themes of the course. The basic principles are covered in both the 1st edition (Blue cover) and the 2nd edition (Green cover) of the recommended text book by Maltman, but the 2nd Edition includes sections on environmental matters and physical geography.
The lecture themes are:
These are grouped under "geological maps" and "evolution of Britain from a global perspective"; the lectures on these topics will be interspersed with each other.
1. GEOLOGICAL MAPS
Geological maps: an introduction
(Practical 1. An introduction to Geological maps)
(Practical 2. Visual assessment of maps)
Geological maps: visual assessment
(Practical 3. Measurements on maps)
Earth structure: the fracturing of rocks
Geological maps: structures on maps
(Practical 4. Structures on maps; resources and landscape)
Earth structure: other deformation structures
(Practical 5. Maps for resource and environmental planning)
2. EVOLUTION OF BRITAIN
Evolution of geological concepts (including key personalities in the 17th to 19th centuries)
Geological time (development of ideas, the geological time-scale, methods of dating and
correlating rocks)
Tectonic framework of the British Isles
Early crustal evolution (Archaean - middle Proterozoic)
Early sedimentary basins (late Proterozoic cover rocks)
Late Proterozoic basin development, orogeny and magmatism
Cambrian - Silurian sedimentary basin development and volcanism
Geological maps: measurements on maps
Earth structure: rock deformation; folding
The Caledonian orogeny - compressional tectonics
The Old Sandstone continent and Devonian seas; Carboniferous coal-forming swamps and warm
tropical seas
Late Palaeozoic - Cenozoic extensional tectonics
Permian - Triassic tropical deserts
Jurassic - Cretaceous warm shallow seas and early Cenozoic rift-basin deposits
The Palaeogene (Early Tertiary) igneous record
The Quaternary Period: glacial/interglacial cycles
This module is at CQFW Level 4