Stuff for GS 342, EEOA
Fall 2009, Russell/Reiners
Bill White's Geochemistry Text
Chapter 2 of Broecker (PDF, ~ 8 Mb)
Isotopic Weights and Abundances (PDF, 58 kb)
Wallace and Hobbs, Chapter 1 (PDF ~5MB)
PETM reading 1: Link to Nash, 2008, High Country News
PETM reading 2: Zachos et al., 2005
Problem Set 1 (PDF), due Wed. 2 Sept., 5 pm.
Problem Set 2 (PDF), due Fri. 11 Sept., 5 pm.
Problem Set 3 (PDF), due Wed. 23 Sept., 5 pm.
Problem Set 4 (PDF), due Mon. 5 Oct., 5 pm.
Problem Set 5 (PDF), due Wed. 21 Oct., in class.
Problem Set 6 (PDF), due Wed. 28 Oct, 5 pm.
Problem Set 7 (PDF), due Mon. 9 Nov., in class.
Problem Set 8 (PDF), due Mon. 9 Nov., in class.
Review for Exam 1 for Reiners' lectures (PPT)
Review for Exam 1 for Russell's lectures (PDF)
Snowball Earth review (PPT)
Review of Ocean lectures (PDF)
PETM review (PPT)
Other Stuff
Basic Radioactive Decay Equations
The final project
The final project comprises a written paper (roughly 8-15 pages, including figures) and a presentation to the class (12 minutes plus 3-5 minutes for questions). The topic should be a problem or poorly understood phenomenon in Earth System Science. The goal is to analyze and discuss an issue using primary sources and, if appropriate, original calculations or simple modeling. It is not ok to simply summarize what is known about an issue—you need to do some kind of critical analysis of it.
Your presentation and paper should include sections on:
A clear statement of the problem to be addressed
Why this problem is important Review of previous studies, ideas, observations, models bearing on the problem
Limitations in previous work or what, specifically, the remaining questions are
A calculation or proposed test that could potentially solve this problem
Conclusion
References (see below for Referencing style)
Examples of possible topics for final projects:
What is Gaia? Is it scientific?
What are the uses and limitations of simple planetary energy balance models?
How well do simple climate feedback scenarios work for describing complex systems?
What can we really say about the atmosphere from BIFs?
What can we really say about core formation from extinct radionuclides?
How did life survive the putative Snowball Earth episodes? How (and how well) do we know atmospheric O2 or CO2 concentrations through time?
What caused the PETM?
How might ocean circulation change in future climate change scenarios?
What was the earliest Earth surface like? Cool? Wet? Magma ocean? For how long?
Referencing Citations in the paper should take the form of something like this:
“Sedimentologic patterns worldwide provide evidence for an increase in terrestrial erosion rates between 2-4 Ma (Molnar, 2004).”
A “References Cited” section at the end of the paper should include all cited sources, with format something like this:
Molnar, P., 2004, Late Cenozoic increase in accumulation rates of terrestrial sediment: How might climate change have affected erosion rates?, Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Science, v. 32, p. 67-89.
Citations in the presentation should take a generally similar form. You do not need a final slide of references, but you do need to cite works within the talk appropriately. Recognizing previous work and original ideas is of paramount importance. Ask us if you are unclear about this.
Last updated: 13 Nov 2009, 9:12 am