Minerals and Rocks: GEOS 3010 Spring 2009 Dr. Heather Petcovic

1. Minerals and Rocks: GEOS 3010 Spring 2009 Dr. Heather Petcovic Lecture: TR 9:30-10:45 am Rood 1120 Lab: W 1:00-2:50; R 2:00-3:50 (Travis Hayden)

2. Dr. Petcovic’s Contact Info: • heather.petcovic@wmich.edu • PH. 269-387-5488 • Office Hours: • T&R 10:45-11:30 (after class), and by appointment • Office ROOD 1137 • Course webpage: http://homepages.wmich.edu/~hpetcovic/GEOS3010.html

3. Required Texts & Materials: • (1) A Minerals and Rocks custom publication (M&RCP) in PDF format. We will distribute a CD copy of this textbook. • (2) Simon and Schuster's Guide to Rocks and Minerals (R&M): Prinz, Harlow, and Peters, 1978 • (3) You will need a hand lens for the lab. A triplet style, 10x lens is recommended. Lenses will be made available for the laboratory. • Recommended CD: Hands on Mineral Identification: M. Darby Dyar, 1999

4. Schedule, Assignments, & Grading: • Course schedule - three units: • Plate tectonics – review and theory • Minerals – physical and chemical characteristics • Rocks and rock-forming processes • Lecture: • Mostly focus on theory, principles, quantitative problems • Lab: • Mostly focus on mineral & rock identification • Assignments: posted on course website • Grading: see syllabus

5. Course Format and Rationale • Course serves a mix of students: • Secondary Teaching majors • Earth Science majors • Others! • Historically, majority of students => 2ndary Ed/ES • Relevant to ES Practitioners • A content course but models teaching strategies • Emphasis on Active Learning strategies • ~ Weekly collaborative learning/in class group accountability format activities

6. Objectives of GEOS 3010: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: • Classify, describe, and identify the materials of which the earth is made • Describe and explain the scale and nature of their origin and occurrence within the paradigm of plate tectonic theory • Describe and explain their distribution in the outer layers of the earth including important, non-renewable energy and mineral resources • Think critically and solve quantitative problems about the nature, occurrence, and use of earth materials

7. Themes • The Geosphere is part of the Earth System • Formation and modification of solid, natural earth materials is highly interrelated with other aspects of the earth system • No rock is an accident! • Earth materials relate to the physical and chemical conditions during their formation • Earth materials record the evolution of the earth through geological time in a plate tectonic context

8. Themes: Use of Earth Materials • Fundamental significance of the study of Minerals and Rocks • Everything we use must be grown or mined • Naturally occurring material and energy resources that are the foundation of modern societies • The importance of practical and industrial uses is a main reason for study of earth materials

9. Themes: How is science “done”? With your neighbor(s), discuss • What do we mean by “critical thinking?” Describe. • Is there such a thing as the “Scientific Method”? Why or why not? • If yes, what do we mean by this term?

10. Theme: Critical Thinking • The process of critical thinking involves acquiring information and evaluating it to reach a well-justified conclusion or answer. • It also generally requires ability to • recognize problems • find workable means for meeting those problems • gather and marshal pertinent information • recognize unstated assumptions and values • comprehend and use language with accuracy, clarity, and discrimination • interpret data • appraise evidence and evaluate arguments • recognize the existence (or non-existence) of logical relationships between propositions • draw warranted conclusions and generalizations • put to test the conclusions and generalizations at which one arrives • reconstruct one's patterns of beliefs on the basis of wider experience • render accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in everyday life From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking)

11. Theme: The Scientific Method • formulate the essence of a problem or question • gather, organize, and review relevant observations, facts, or other related information (induction) • suggest relationships between these observations, typically in the context of some model or models including formulation of a new model, if necessary (deduction) • make predictions or establish relationships on the basis of the model(s) • collect more pertinent observations related to your predictions • review the relevance of these new observations in light of the original relationships or models. • decide if there is critical negative evidence to support discarding any of the the relationships or models that you are using or decide that the model is still useful and continue in your investigation

12. Strategies Used in Doing Science(Determining How the World Works) • “Bottom Up” • Induction: • Putting together numerous individual observations, facts, and relationships to create useful generalizations about how the world works • Mineralogy and Petrology studies • “Top down” • Deduction • Formulation of generalities about how the world works (or some portion of the world “a system”) so as to predict and understand relationships between numerous individual observations, facts, etc. • Plate Tectonics and the Plate Tectonic Rock Cycle

13. What will we do? • BOTH! • The scientific method and multiple working hypothesis • The scientific method is a subset of Critical Thinking

14. Content: What is the earth made of? With your neighbor(s), • List the materials that make up the earth, and define each one. • How does plate tectonic theory fit in with earth materials?

15. What is the earth made of? • Earth Materials

16. Plate Tectonics and The Tectonic Rock Cycle • “No rock is an accident” • The occurrence of rocks and minerals in the earth follows patterns determined by the coherent logic of plate tectonics • The plate tectonic paradigm provides an overarching context for most of geological processes and materials especially earth materials • Plate Tectonics is a great example of a scientific model and a deductive approach to scientific investigations

17. Naturally occurring Inorganic solid Specific chemical composition (or range of composition) Regular geometric arrangement of constituent atoms Specific physical characteristics Minerals/Mineralogy

18. Minerals and the Crystalline State • Basic Chemistry and Atomic Theory • How atoms form molecules and compounds • Valence • Ionic radii • Bonding • Mineral/Crystal Chemistry • How atoms arrange to form crystals • Coordination Principle • Polymorphism, Isomorphism and Solid Solution • The unit cell

19. Crystallography The geometric organization of crystalline solids, crystal chemistry Crystal symmetry and descriptive crystallography Crystallographic Axes and Crystal Systems Physical properties and structure of crystals hardness, density, cleavage/fracture, optics, The Crystalline State • luster, • color/streak, • luminescence,

20. Native elements (~50) Sulfides (~300) Halides (~100) Oxides (and hydroxides) (~250) Nitrates, carbonates & borates (~200) Sulfates (~200) Phosphates/Arsenates/ Vanadates (~350) Silicates (~500) Organic substances (~20) Mineraloids Silicates account for ~80% of the minerals at the Earth’s surface! Determinative Mineralogy and Mineral Systematics/Classification • How minerals are classified

21. Naturally occurring Solid aggregates Composed of mineral grains, glass, and/or other naturally occurring solids Overwhelming majority of earth materials Rocks/Petrology

22. Petrology • The rock cycle/tectonic rock cycle, and rock distribution/occurrences • Igneous Rocks • textures, structures, and mineralogy • classification and petrogenesis (the ways in which rocks are formed) • Sedimentary Rocks & Weathering • textures, structures, and composition • classification and petrogenesis • Soils

23. Petrology • The rock cycle/tectonic rock cycle, and rock distribution/occurrences • Metamorphic Rocks • Metamorphic textures, structures, and mineralogy/protolith • metamorphic facies, classification, and petrogenesis • Building materials and other economic uses of Minerals and Rocks • ores, gems, and industrial Minerals and Rocks • The study of Mineralogy and Petrology is a great example of an inductive approach to scientific investigation