GEOL 2210 - Earth and Life History

• Be able to identify and classify common rocks and understand how geologists use rock properties to interpret Earth history.
• Know the major five mass extinctions, when they occurred, what caused them, and what organisms were affected.
• Know the paleogeographic positions of past major landmasses and know when supercontinents have existed.
• Know when life first evolved and how that life has changed over the last ~4 billion years.
• Know when the major ice ages have occurred on Earth and what lead to these conditions.
• Learn the geologic time scale and understand the stratigraphic, paleontologic, and radiometric age dating concepts that were employed in its development and continue to be used in refining the time scale.
• Understand evolution and its role as the unifying theory of biology.
• Understand how continents have formed over geologic time; in particular understand how North America has grown.
• Understand how the Earth’s atmosphere and how its composition has changed over time.
• Understand how the different Earth systems (atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere) interact and have evolved through time.
• Understand plate tectonics and its central role as the unifying theory of geology. Be able to articulate the relationship between volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountain belts and tectonic plate boundaries.
• Understand the relationships between environments, climate, and the distribution of life on Earth.