The geologic record, covering 4.6 billion years, provides us with a long-term perspective of the Earth system and how it operates over time scales much longer than human history. Using Wellesley’s extensive rock and fossil collection, geologic data sets and journal articles, we will reconstruct and interpret Earth's eventful past, including periods of mountain building, dramatic climate changes, and the evolution and extinction of life on our planet. This class should give students an understanding about deep time and that we live on an ever changing planet. The lab component of this class will be entirely in the field where we will visit key geologic outcrops that represent a large part of Earth history. During three weekends throughout the semester (one half day, one full day and one 1.5-day trip) we will explore the regional geology in New England and Upstate New York. The majority of the field work will take place during a 6-day field trip to the southwestern United States in mid-May between the last day of finals and commencement. This class fulfills the geosciences major requirement.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 10

Prerequisites: Open only to Geoscience majors who have taken any 100-level GEOS course, or by permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Monecke

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: