Day 15: SCI110: Fossils, Museum Field Trip, evidence of Ordovician seas

Spring 2006 Schedule
Last time: Museum Field Trip
- A bit more on plate tectonics
- Principle of Uniformity and Occam's Razor
- Museum Field Trip
Today:
- Homework:
  - Enjoy your Spring Break!
  - Prepare for Quiz 2 - rock cycle, plate tectonics, museum visit
  - Dr. Denise Robertson will be with you on the Monday following Spring Break, for the start of evolution
  - Chapter 21, pp. 495-512; QFT 5-12
- Distribute presentation rubric
- (Prepare for plate tectonics -- 10 minutes)
- Plate tectonics presentations
- Return (some) group projects
  - Evaluate web site references for accuracy, credibility, etc.
  - Follow the form given in the worksheet packet!
  - "Fail to reject" rather than "accept" a null.
- Questions about the museum center worksheet?
- Chapter 16 -- Earth's surface
  - Principle of Uniformity (and Occam's razor, the Principle of Parsimony)
    - Diastrophism: process of deformation
      - Stresses
        
        Compressional - push
        Tensional - pull
        Shear - sidelong
      - Strains - adjustment to stresses
        
        elastic
        plastic
        fracture
    - Volcanism - movement of magma
    - Earthquakes
      - Body waves:
        
        P - Primary, compressional waves
        S - Secondary, shear waves
      - Surface waves - slower
    - Glaciers!
      - Scouring
      - Compressing
      - Fluting
      - Moraines
  - Questions for thought, chapter 16, 1-5
- Chapter 22: The history of life on Earth
  - Keep Table 22.2, p. 326 front and center
  - Finding a clock - radiometric dating
    - Different clocks for different time frames
    - Uranium 238 for rocks
    - Carbon-14 for recent life
    - Concepts of half-life, decay
  - The age of the Earth: 4.5 billion years (Milky Way, ~12 billion; Universe, ~12.5 billion) -- oldest rocks and crystals are about 4 billion years old
  - Fossils: evidence of ancient organisms in the history of life
  - Kentucky Geology
  - Objective: find and identify evidence of Ordovician fossils (440-500 million years ago)
  - Gondwana animation
  - More Ordovician animals
  - Pile of fossil photos!
  - galloping crinoids!

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