Greg Wiles

Department of Geology

The College of Wooster

Wooster, OH 44691 USA

gwiles@acs.wooster.edu

Return to Geology Course Pages

Schedule of Lecture and Laboratory Sessions

(With Weekly Links to Other Web Resources)

 

Lectures in Scovel Hall Room 116, Monday and Friday, 1:00 - 3:50 p.m.

(note lab and lecture are combined)

Web Resources for Week #1: Dingman outlines the global hydrologic cycle beginning with a discussion of the Earth's energy (NRG) balance. The spatial receipt of solar NRG to the planet across the latitudes and its redistribution drives atmospheric circulation, which in part, determines the global distribution of precipitation. Precipitation then drives the hydrologic cycle. The EPA site concerned with the hydrologic cycle and humankind's impact is a good place to start. To see how Ohio's water is used visit the Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet on Ohio's hydrologic cycle. Colorado State University presents a more global view of the allocation of water at its site.

You should also know about the Applied Hydrogeology text web page. Here you will find corrections to the text if some of what you read and in particular some of the math does not seem right - it may be the book and not you. Also available at this site are solutions to problems in the back of each chapter, which may be good as practice exercises or I may even assign a few of these.

Web Resources for Week #2: This week we will be using data from the US Geological Survey gaging stations and performing field work in the Killbuck drainage basin. Check out the EPA surf your watershed site to get an idea of the local watershed in our area. Texas is the answer to the bonus question on which state is currently experiencing a major drought, to learn more about drought in the US from a paleoerspective visit the NOAA drought page. Part of the hydrologic spreadsheet involves the inevitable unit conversions cruise the web for pages (Web caution, test that the conversions are correct) that easily to the conversions for you, this is one that I use is found here.

Announcements: Tuesday at 11 AM is a meeting of the GEOCLUB, we will take the Geology picture at that time. Jessica Conroy and Katherine Nicholson are the speakers for Thursday's GEOCLUB, you all should attend.

Web Resources for Week #6: To gain a background on the Woburn Case see the following sites. The first is maintained by D.Kennedy. He has a great set of pages that also have the news stories written about the case. The book a Civil Action by Jonathan Hare has its own site.

Be sure to take in the work of classmates Kristina Brady and Megan Kennedy at GEOCLUB on Thursday.

Assignments: Take a look at the manual that goes with Bair and Lahm CD on constructing Potentiometric profiles. Read over and take a look at the CD. Chapter 1, problem 2 and 3 will be the ones we are concerned with.

Assignments: 18 October; Trip to the Killbuck Marsh for coring with Tom Lowell. Slug testing of wells in the South Wellfield, Wooster guest hydrogeologist, Terry Lahm, Capital University in Columbus.

All fieldtrips are required for the class and vans will leave at 1 pm from the front of Scovel Hall. For each of the trips, each student is required to fill out a waiver form. Labs are due as noted on the lab handouts, no late work will be accepted. Three exams including a comprehensive final will (9:00 am Monday 9 December) make up 45% of your total grade, quizzes 15% and field and lab reports 25%. In addition to thse evaluations your general participation in the final project and class, field and lab will count toward 15% of the final grade. Most quizzes will be announced, however I will occasionally give a pop quiz in lecture or lab, the two lowest scores of the ten quizzes will be dropped.

Each student is required to analyze a hydrogeologic data set for a written 8-10 page paper (with figures). You will need to meet with the instructor to identify interests and availability of data for your project. A project timetable will be handed out in class.

Each week I will post my office hours on my office door (Scovel 119). In addition, feel free to contact me by e-mail (gwiles@acs.wooster.edu) or by phone (X-2298).