Understanding our planet

Aims of the course

This course aims to
1. Develop an understanding of the interior of the Earth and how it contributes to the distribution of continents and oceans on the surface, our long-term climate history and the evolution of life.
2. Help you make observations from rocks, minerals and fossils and to use them to understand where they came from and to know why they might be found there.
3. Better your understanding of the evolution of our planet over the last 500 million years.

Content

This course will introduce you to the processes that create terrestrial planets such as ours – you will learn about the forces driving plate tectonics, volcanic eruptions, climate change and biological evolution, and how to understand these processes by studying rocks, minerals and fossils.

We will start by looking at the Earth’s internal engine: What controls our magnetic field? What drives plate tectonics? How do we make and break supercontinents? Then we introduce minerals; the building blocks of a rocky planet. We will learn how the physical and chemical properties of different minerals follow a logical pattern and are therefore useful as a tool to understanding how and where different rocks form. Building on this we will study igneous and metamorphic rocks, looking at the theory of where on Earth they are made and followed by practical investigation of rocks and minerals in hand-specimens and using a petrological microscope. We end this half of the course by looking at what makes the Earth a habitable planet, touching on the evolution of life and a practical look at fossils and geological time.

The second half of the course will focus on processes going on at the Earth’s surface. How do the atmosphere and oceans interact and link to climate? How can we detect this in the past and understand palaeo-environments? Finally, we will look at the evolution of the Earth’s climate record over the last 500 million years. What controls climate changes over long-, medium- and short-time scales? We will look at how these changes can be tracked over geological time, using a combination of the rock record, sea-floor sediments and ice-core records.

Presentation of the course

Interactive lectures will introduce the concepts, followed by practical hands-on studies of rocks, fossils and minerals, a visit to the world-famous Sedgwick Museum and a tour of The Godwin Lab (Cambridge University’s Climate Research facility).

Class sessions

1. Inside the Earth. Looking at the internal engine:
We are taught at school Earth has a core, mantle and crust. But how do we know, and what are they made of? What “drives” the processes we see at the surface?

2. Minerals; the basic building blocks of the planet:
In this interactive session we will cover both the theory behind mineral design combined with a hands-on practical experience with real mineral samples.

3. From micro to macro! How crystals combine to form different rocks:
We will look at how the internal engine is fundamental to the rock cycle and explore why certain groups of minerals are found in certain rocks.

4. From core to crust: Meteorites to Microfossils, the rocks that make up the Earth.
A practical laboratory trip to the Department of Earth Sciences, Downing Site where we will look at hand-specimens and thin-sections from the different layers of the Earth.

5. How to build a habitable planet. What makes us the perfect Goldilocks planet?:
In this session we will look at what makes Earth a habitable planet. What is different about our planet, what makes it “just right”? Then we will go on to talk about how the evolution of life is punctuated by mass extinctions and how we can use these to date rocks and establish a geological timeline.

6. Atmosphere and Oceans. How to read past environments from the rock record:
Using the timeline from the last session, we will look at how rocks from different time periods allow us to build up a picture of life on Earth, and perhaps more importantly of how things changed.

7. Practical Case Study:
We return to the Earth Sciences department to investigate the statement: “The Isle of Arran, Scotland, has drifted northward from 20°S in the Devonian to its present-day position at 55°N over the last 400 million years”. Department of Earth Sciences, Downing Site.

8. Evolution - Rock Legends:
We will visit the World famous Sedgwick Museum to look at how have organisms have changed over time and what these rock legends can they tell us about life on Earth through the ages.

9. Greenhouses and Icehouses. Earth’s climate history over 500 million years:
In this last session we will focus in on global climate and how it changes over many different time scales; from short term decadal changes to long term icehouse-greenhouse transitions over millions of years, using the Antarctic climate story as a case study.

10. Climate Science in Action:
Our final session will be a visit to the Godwin Laboratory, Downing Site, where Cambridge Scientists conduct research into Earth’s climate record.

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes for this course are:
1. To gain an understanding of the interior of the Earth and how it contributes to the distribution of continents and oceans on the surface, our long-term climate history and the evolution of life.
2. To be able to make observations from rocks, minerals and fossils and to use them to understand where they came from and to know why they might be found there.
3. To better understand the evolution of our planet over the last 500 million years.

Required reading

Langmuir, C H, and Broecker, W S, 2012. How to Build a Habitable Planet. Princetown University Press.
Klein, C and Philpotts, A, 2013. Earth Materials: Introduction to Mineralogy and Petrology. Cambridge University Press.

Typical week: Monday to Friday

Courses run from Monday to Friday. For each week of study, you select a morning (Am) course and an afternoon (Pm) course. The maximum class size is 25 students. 

Courses are complemented by a series of daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to the learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events.

Evaluation and Academic Credit 

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses. 

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £75 per essay.

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit.

Certificate of attendance

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically after the programme.