In the first part of this wide-ranging course we will look at some of Earth’s major features such as volcanoes, earthquakes, mountains and oceans, and see how their distribution can be explained by plate tectonics, a unifying concept in Earth Sciences. We then discuss how evidence from different types of rock can reveal a wide range of geological processes – from volcanic eruptions and meteorite impacts to submarine landslides. We will also see how rocks with distinct features are produced in different sedimentary environments, such as a shallow tropical sea, a desert or underneath a glacier.
Other topics will be the alteration of rocks by the heat and pressure associated with mountain building, and the various methods for dating rocks and geological events. You will also learn about the immensely complex history that even a small area of the planet such as Britain has experienced over several billion years.
We will then look at evolution and the history of life, using evidence from the fossil record. Fossils may form in a variety of ways and sometimes soft tissues can be preserved in surprising detail. Exciting finds continue to be made, and new methods of investigation, such as the use of medical imaging techniques, can reveal aspects of ancient life previously unavailable. One of the sessions will cover natural selection, a process crucial to understanding biological evolution, and briefly discuss how new species originate.
The course will provide you with an overview of major events in the history of life, such as the Cambrian Explosion, when many different groups of animals make their first appearance in the fossil record about 540 million years ago. Another aspect covered will be mass extinctions and their causes. For example, did a meteorite really wipe out the dinosaurs and many other groups at the end of the Cretaceous Period, 65 million years ago?
There will be a chance to study some real rocks, minerals and fossils in the teaching room, and questions will be encouraged throughout. We will finish by briefly discussing current threats to biodiversity and how life might evolve in the future.
Learning outcomes
- To show how the distribution of many of Earth’s major features such as mountains, oceans, volcanoes and earthquake can be explained by the processes of plate tectonics operating today and in the past;
- To illustrate how geologists can use a wide range of evidence from rocks and minerals to reveal the dynamic history of our planet;
- To gain an understanding of how fossils are formed, and show how evidence from fossils and the rocks containing them can be used to reconstruct ancient organisms and the environments in which they lived;
- To give an outline of evolution and major events in the history of life, including mass extinctions and evolutionary radiations.
