COURSE DESCRIPTION: FALL 1995
GG710 - SELECTED TOPICS IN GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS

"DATING QUATERNARY EVENTS"

2 unit graduate seminar course.

Explore the wonderful world of geochronology.

Learn how to make the words "GLOBAL CHANGE" work for you.

Detailed examination of techniques for:

Learn why radioactive and other types of tracers everyone studies in a typical geology curriculum are mostly worthless for dating recent events.

Dig the vibes of a whole host of tracers that have been applied to dating recent events with varying success:

cosmogenic nuclides like 14C and 10Be.
short-lived natural decay products of U and Th.
non-radioactive tracers such as the short-term fluctuations in the direction and intensity of the Earth's magnetic field.
racemization of amino acids.

Throw away your "text book" geochronology knowledge!

Learn which tracers can be applied to your areas of research interest

Try to uncover when a particular tracer is or isn't reliable for a given application.

Learn to accept with a grain-of-salt the often over-stated claims of scientists using someone else's geochronologic data.

Class focus will be determined by the group.

Open-discussion style class sessions/ lots of student participation.

[UH Geology & Geophysics Academics | KenChron page, page of the future]

last page update on 27 August 1995