The Basin & Range (Jr I.S.) GEO 401  Instructor: Robert J. Varga

Description: Perhaps no region of the United States has influenced recent geologic thinking as much as has the Basin & Range province. In the 1970's and 1980's the region became the focus of stunning discoveries that fundamentally changed existing models for the rifting process throughout the world, including models for mid-ocean ridges. Contributing to this paradigm shift were important studies in Basin & Range structure, petrology, sedimentology, and geophysics. This course will explore the architecture of the Basin & Range through through these various disciplines. We will look at the historical development of modern thinking, identify areas of agreement between workers as well as areas of current crontroversy and active research. The course will end with an optional 7-10 day field excursion to the southern Great Basin where we will examine extensional relationships between about Las Vegas, NV and Parker, CA. This course will be writing-intensive, discussion-based and structured much like a topical graduate seminar. As such, students will have much of the responsibility for discussion preparation and generation.

In short, we will learn a lot about many diverse subjects using the Basin & Range as a focus. Each of you will gravitate toward a certain area of inquiry (e.g. petrology, sedimentology, stucture, etc.) during the course and make this the focus of your own detailed investigation leading to a final research paper and presentation. This focus should provide valuable background in your eventual I.S. research. 

In Class Discussions: This course will be run in seminar format. As such, student participation via questions and comments is not only important, but mandatory...much of the grade in this course depends upon your participation! The typical meeting will involve discussion of papers that each of us will have read prior to the meeting. Normally, several students will be assigned to "present" an individual paper and to lead a discussion about it. The purposes of these discussions is to form a consensus about the important elements that the authors are trying to get across and to fit these into the context of the course. These discussions are also very much a time for answering the inevitable questions about things you might have found unclear or confusing about the reading. Note that each of us is coming into this course with different backgrounds and that you will very seldom understand everything that you read prior to our meetings...this is the point of a seminar after all!

In addition to discussions, I will often present details of a particular method or analytical technique via informal lectures. These will usually be associated with in-class exercises.

Field Trips: There are two field trips associated with this course. The first is a mandatory weekend trip to examine the Gettysburg half-graben basin in Pennsylvania. We will be joined on this trip by Dr. Sam Root, retired former Shoolroy Professor of Natural Resources of The College of Wooster Department of Geology. On this trip we will leave early Friday (12 April) morning (time TBA) and return late afternoon in the evening on Sunday (14 April).

A second, and optional trip is scheduled to leave immediately after final exams. On this trip, we will proceed by plane to Las Vegas, NV to spend approximately a week examining classic Basin & Range extensional structures in the Colorado River region. While the majority of the cost of this trip will be borne by the Department, we will expect a contribution from each student attending (in the range of $300-$400). You will be hearing of more details about this trip as the semester proceeds.

For both trips, each student will be required to fill out, and turn in (to Ms. White, Departmental Administrative Coordinator), a so-called "Liability Release" form available in PDF form here:

Grading: The calculation of grades for Geology 401 this semester will be as follows: