Introduces the solid earth and its surface: plate tectonics, minerals and rocks, weathering and erosion, sedimentary processes and depositional environments, structural deformation, and geochronology.
Deep time is treated as a skill rather than a fact. Students are expected to work fluently with timescales from the annual to the hundred-million-year, and to recognize which processes operate at which rate. Assessment includes calculation of rates and durations.
Marine and coastal environments supply the depositional examples throughout. Laboratory work covers mineral and rock identification, map and cross-section interpretation, and description of core material from the department's collection.