ESCI 201 - Earth Materials: Minerals and Rocks

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

The solid Earth is made up of minerals, melts, and rocks. These materials act as reservoirs for atoms that have been continually recycled by geological and geochemical processes in operation since our planet’s formation. This course holistically considers the identification of these materials as we investigate the processes that drive their formation, alteration, and breakdown. We approach these topics through a combination of field (outcrop description, hand specimen identification), laboratory (optical and electron microscopy, x-ray analysis), and computational techniques (simple thermodynamic models). John Zayac.

Prerequisite(s): ESCI 151 or permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods; one 4-hour laboratory.

Course Format: CLS