GEOL& 208 - Geology of Pacific NW

Credits: 5
Variable Credit Course: No

Lecture Hours: 44
Lab Hours: 22
Worksite/Clinical Hours: 0
Other Hours (LIA/Internships): 0

Course Description: Field trips, hands-on examples, on-line resources, maps, and current topics are used to explore the geological processes that produced the landscapes, resources, and hazards seen today in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia. GEOL& 100, 101, 110, EASC 111, or OCEA& 101 recommended but NO PRIOR GEOLOGY COURSEWORK REQUIRED. Field trips may be required. Lab included.

Prerequisite: ENGL 099 with a grade of C or higher (or placement into college-level English); and either placement into OR co-enrollment in OR completion of a college-level Math course with a grade of C or higher.
Distribution Requirements:

Natural Sciences Distribution Requirement

Meets FQE Requirement: No
Integrative Experience Requirement: No

Student Learning Outcomes

Describe the significant events in the evolution of the Earth, their sequence, and the structure and scope of the Geologic Time Scale.
Understand and interrelate the biologic, climatic, hydrologic, and tectonic mechanisms controlling the array of geological processes operating on Earth, and the physical and chemical principles behind them.
Know the main physiographic provinces of the Pacific Northwest.
Understand the process(es), which produced each province.
Be able to place the formation of each physiographic province in chronological context.
Appreciate the cultural diversity in the use of marine and earth resources in the Pacific Northwest, and in lifestyles of residents in the different physiographic provinces.

Course Contents

Introduction/Review of physical geology concepts & map reading.
Overview of physical geography/physiographic provinces of the Pacific Northwest.
Stratigraphy, paleogeography, tectonics, and/or volcanology of the: Northern Rocky Mountains & Blue Mountains; Okanogan Highlands; Methow Basin, North Cascades, & San Juan Islands; Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary basins; challis arc & the Basin & Range; Coast Range & Olympic Peninsula; Coast Range & Olympic Peninsula; Columbia Basin; Snake River Plain & Yellowstone Hot Spot; Cascade volcanic arc; Pleistocene glaciations; Missoula Floods & the Channeled Scablands.
Great earthquakes of the Cascadian Subduction Zone.
Geological resources of the Pacific Northwest.

Instructional Units: 5.5