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Earth and Life Through Time
Earth and Life through Time (01:460:212:01) Fall 2008
| Time/Place: | Period 4: TuTh 1:50?3:00 pm, |
| Place: | Wright (Chemistry) Auditorium, Wright-Rieman Labs (Busch campus) |
| Instructor: | Dennis Kent dvk@rci.rutgers.edu |
| Office: | 101 Geological Sciences Labs Building, 117 Bevier Rd. (Busch) |
| Office hours: | TuTh 3:15-4:00pm, W 1:30?3:00 pm
or by appointment |
| Department Office: | 250 Wright-Rieman Labs (Busch) |
| Administrative Assistant | Jovani Reaves
Tel: 732 445-2044 |
| Text: | Steven M. Stanley, 2005. Earth System History (W.H. Freeman), 567p.
(Texbook is optional and supplements the lectures, which will be the basis for the exams and quizzes.) |
| Website: | http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~dvk/ |
| Grading: | Each exam counts 30%; 5 pop quizzes count 10% of final grade. |
| Departmental policy: | "No make-up exams will be given without written documentation from a Rutgers University official." |
Syllabus
| # | Day Date | Topic | Suggested
readings
(Stanley) |
|---|
| 1 | Tu Sep 02 | Scientific method |
| 2 | Th Sep 04 | Earth in space | Ch. 1 |
| 3 | Tu Sep 09 | Hadean | Ch. 11 |
| 4 | Th Sep 11 | Concepts of time | Ch. 6 |
| 5 | Tu Sep 16 | Climate system | Ch. 4 |
| 6 | Th Sep 18 | Archean origins | Ch. 11 |
| 7 | Tu Sep 23 | Diversity of Life | Ch. 3 |
| 8 | Th Sep 25 | Evolution and the fossil record | Ch. 7 |
| 9 | Tu Sep 30 | Catch-up and Review |
| 10 | Th Oct 02 | Exam #1 |
| 11 | Tu Oct 07 | Proterozoic continents & early atmosphere | Ch. 12 |
| 12 | Th Oct 09 | Polar wander and plate tectonics | Ch. 8 & 9 |
| 13 | Tu Oct 14 | Carbon cycle | Ch. 10 |
| 14 | Th Oct 16 | Snowball Earth | Ch. 12 |
| 15 | Tu Oct 21 | Cambrian Explosion: Burgess shale | Ch. 13 |
| 16 | Th Oct 23 | Invasion of land | Ch. 14 |
| 17 | Tu Oct 28 | Assembly of Pangea | Ch. 15 |
| 18 | Th Oct 30 | Catch-up and Review |
| 19 | Tu Nov 04 | Exam #2 |
| 20 | Th Nov 06 | Breakup of Pangea | Ch. 16 |
| 21 | Tu Nov 11 | K/T impact & extinction event | Ch. 17 |
| 22 | Th Nov 13 | Evolution of mammals | Ch. 18 & 19 |
| 23 | Tu Nov 18 | Himalayan orogeny: hothouse to icehouse | Ch. 18 & 19 |
| 24 | Th Nov 20 | Early Man | Ch. 19 |
| 25 | Tu Nov 25 | Last Glacial & Holocene | Ch. 20 |
| | Th Nov 27 | Thanksgiving, No Class |
| 26 | Tu Dec 02 | Modern global change | Ch. 20; IPCC report |
| 27 | Th Dec 04 | Catch-up and Review |
| 28 | Tu Dec 09 | Exam #3 |
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