GEOS 218
Geological Disasters and Society

Spring 2009
Professor Peter Reiners

Click here for Spring 2009 GEOS 218 Syllabus

News and other interesting/useful stuff

Lee Allison's (Our State Geologist's) Arizona Geology Blog
2007 IPCC Climate Change Report
NASA's Earth Observatory, Natural Hazards
Live Volcano Cams
Volcano News (from Volcano Live)
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report (Smithsonian Inst.)
Earthquake Activity Map (IRIS)
Near Real-Time Earthquake List (USGS)
Recent Landslides (USGS)
Recent/Ongoing Floods (NASA)
US Flood Watch/Warnings (NWS)
Active Tropical Storms (US Navy)
Severe Storms (NASA)
USGS Hazards Page

Lecture Summaries (ppt files)...Lecture summaries will be posted before each class to help you with notetaking.

15 Jan 2009: Introduction
20 Jan 2009: Energy Flows and Some Basic Earth Properties
22 Jan 2009: More Basic Properties and Starting Plate Tectonics
27 Jan 2009: Plate Tectonics, through divergent plate boundaries
29 Jan 2009: Plate Teconics: Plate boundary types
3 Feb 2009: Earthquakes I
5 Feb 2009: Earthquakes II
10 Feb 2009: Earthquakes: Damage, buildings, and California
12 Feb 2009: North American Earthquakes
17 Feb 2009: Exam I
19 Feb 2009: Volcanoes, melting, tectonics, and igneous rx
24 Feb 2009: Magma properties, 3Vs, eruption types
26 Feb 2009: 3Vs, eruption types
3 Mar 2009: Killer volcanoes
5 Mar 2009: Nyos, Supervolcanoes, "In the Path of a Killer Volcano"
10 Mar 2009: Supervolcanoes, case histories, volcano monitoring, St Helens if we have time
SPRING BREAK!
24 Mar 2009: Wildfire, guest lecture by Thomas Swetnam, Director of the Laboratory for Tree-Ring Research (LTRR)
26 Mar 2009: no class
31 Mar 2009: Weather and climate intro
2 Apr 2009: Weather and climate, cont.
7 Apr 2009: Weather, climate, severe events
9 Apr 2009: Mid-latitude cyclones, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and lightning
14 Apr 2009: Climate: ancient climate change
16 Apr 2009: Hurricanes, guest lecture by George Zandt
21 Apr 2009: PETM, and modern climate change I
23 Apr 2009: Modern climate change II
28 Apr 2009: Wrap-up
5 May 2009: In-class presentations

Homeworks (pdf and doc files)...Homeworks will be posted here as they become available.

Homework 1, due Thursday 29 January 2009, in class (MS Word) (NOTE: this is a corrected version; there was a typo in problem 5, which is now Extra Credit).
Homework 2, due Thursday 12 February 2009, in class (MS Word doc)
Homework 3, due Thursday 12 March 2009, in class (MS Word doc)
Homework 4, due Tuesday 14 April 2009, in class (MS Word doc)
Homework 5, due Tuesday 28 April 2009, in class (MS Word doc)

Review Sheets for Exams (pdf files)...Review sheets/Study guides will be posted before each exam.

Exam 1 review (PDF)
Exam 2 review (PDF)
Exam 3 review (PDF)
Review ppt for Exam 3

General info (click here for full syllabus)

GEOS 218 -- Geological Disasters and Society  (3 units)
Description:   Geological catastrophes (earthquakes, meteorite impacts, flooding) are important processes in shaping the Earth. This course will acquaint students with the scientific principles governing these catastrophes.
Prerequisite(s):   two courses from Tier One, Natural Sciences (NATS 101, 102, 104).
Approved as:   General Education Tier Two - Natural Sciences.

Last updated 10:24 pm, 28 April 2009