North Seattle Community College Spring 2009

Geology 103: Evolution of the Earth

Course meeting times: MWF, noon — 2:20 p.m.

Lectures, labs and discussions will be held in Room AS 1623

Texts: Donald Prothero, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters (ISBN 0231139624)

John Rogers and M. Santosh, Continents and Supercontinents (ISBN 0195165896)

Optional text:

Hill Williams, The Restless Northwest: A Geological Story (ISBNM 0874222508)

Other (recommended) equipment:

• A clipboard for field trips

• E-mail account that you will check twice per week

• Access to a scientific calculator

• Colored (at least five colors) and uncolored pencils

• Access to an introductory physical geology textbook (such as Chernicoff's Essentials of Geology or McGeary and Plummer's Earth Revealed) for those who haven't taken any previous GEL course.

Course purpose: This course is designed to give you an overview of the history of the Earth recorded in rocks and fossils. Specifically, we will look at what plate tectonics theory implies about the locations of the continents over time, what the fossils record about the climate and geographical setting of their habitat and what we can infer about past ecologies and environments. We will also answer the question, did Washington always look (geographically) like this? And how do we know this? Previous coursework in geology and biology is helpful but not required. Please check your e-mail (or send me an e-mail if you haven’t heard from me in a while) for updates.

Instructor: Tracy Furutani Office: IB 2328B

Phone: 528-4509 Office hour: Daily, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.

e-mail: tfurutan@northseattle.edu TA: John Figge

website: http://northstar.northseattle.edu/furutani