Learning objectives for topic 1 (cosmology):
Read chapter 1
1) Know why ancient astronomers differentiated planets from stars
2) Understand the terms “heliocentric” and “geocentric”
3) Be able to cite evidence demonstrating that the Earth is round, and know how
to calculate the Earth‘s circumference
4) Know the definition of a light year, and what it measures
5) Understand the parallax method for calculating the distance to nearby stars
6) Understand the Doppler effect, and evidence for an expanding universe
7) Know the approximate age of the Universe
8) Understand how the chemical elements are formed in stars, and that stars
have finite lifetimes
9) Know the order of the planets with increasing distance from the Sun
10) Understand the difference between terrestrial and gas-giant planets (and
which planets are which type)
11) Be able to describe the formation of our galaxy, the solar system and the
planets, according to the nebular hypothesis
12) Know the current theory for the formation of the Moon
13) Understand why the Earth is round
14) Be able to explain why life (as we know it) is abundant on the Earth but
not on other planets
Learning objectives for topic 2 (Earth's Interior):
Read chapter 2
1) Know the meaning of magnetosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere
2) Know that the atmosphere is ~78% nitrogen and ~21% oxygen
3) Know that about 70% of Earth’s surface is covered by liquid water
4) Know the names and approximate compositions of the chemical layers of the
solid Earth (crust, mantle, outer core, inner core)
5) Be able to define the terms organic chemicals, minerals, glasses, rocks,
metals, melts and volatiles
6) Understand the compositional differences between silicic, intermediate,
mafic and ultramafic rocks, and how their density varies with composition
7) Understand the fundamental difference in thickness and composition between
oceanic and continental crust, and how this is apparent on a hypsometric curve.
8) Know that both pressure and temperature increase with depth inside the
Earth, and the definition of the geothermal gradient
9) Understand how seismic waves give information about the composition of the
Earth’s interior
10) Be able to explain the difference between the lithosphere and
asthenosphere, and how these divisions compare with the chemical divisions
between crust and mantle
Learning objectives for topic 3 (Continental Drift):
Read chapter 3.
1) Understand the scientific method, and what is meant by a hypothesis and a
theory (pages 9 and 10)
2) Be able to explain the five lines of evidence that led Wegener to propose
continental drift (fit of the continents, locations of past glaciations,
distribution of equatorial climatic belts, distribution of fossils and matching
geologic units)
3) Know what is meant by magnetic inclination and magnetic declination
4) Understand how rocks can record paleomagnetism
5) Be able to explain the meaning of apparent polar wander
6) Be able to describe the key bathymetric features of the ocean floor
(mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains, continental margins, seamounts, trenches, and
fracture zones)
7) Know that new oceanic crust is formed at mid-ocean ridges from cooling magma
8) Know that Earth’s magnetic field reverses periodically
9) Be able to explain why marine magnetic anomalies are evidence in favor of
seafloor spreading
10) Understand why ocean floor sediments become thicker away from mid-ocean
ridges
Learning objectives for topic 4 (Plate Tectonics):
Read chapter 4
1) Understand the concept of tectonic plate, and that plates move relative
to each other
2) Know that plates are pieces of lithosphere that overlie the weaker
asthenospheric mantle, and that any particular plate may include oceanic crust,
continental crust, or both
3) Be able to name the three main types of plate boundary, and identify
examples of each
4) Know the difference between an active continental margin and a passive continental
margin
5) Understand why volcanism occurs at divergent and convergent plate boundaries
but (not usually) at transform boundaries, and why earthquakes occur at all
three types of plate boundary
6) Be able to describe the generation of new oceanic lithosphere at a divergent
margin, and the process of subduction at a convergent margin
7) Understand the relative motions of the two sides of an oceanic transform
fault
8) Know that volcanism also occurs above mantle "hot spots", e.g.
Hawaii, and how this can reveal information about the directions and rates of
plate motions
9) Be able to describe how a divergent margin may form from a continental rift
zone (birth of a plate boundary)
10) Be able to describe how a continental collision may terminate a convergent
margin (end of a plate boundary)
11) Be able to name and describe the two main forces driving plate motions
(slab pull and ridge push)
12) Understand the difference between absolute and relative plate motions, and
how each may be measured.
Learning objectives for topic 5 (Minerals):
Read chapter 5.
1) Understand the definition of the term mineral: a homogeneous, naturally
occurring, solid inorganic substance with a definable chemical composition and
an orderly internal arrangement of atoms, ions or molecules in a crystal
lattice.
2) Be able to distinguish minerals from non-minerals (e.g. glasses, inorganic
substances, liquids, man-made materials, etc.) based on the above criteria
3) Know that two or more minerals are called polymorphs if they have the same
chemical formula but different crystal structures (e.g. graphite and diamond)
4) Know that minerals can form by solidification from a melt, by precicpitation
from solution, or by recrystallization from other minerals.
5) Understand the textural terms euhedral and anhedral, to describe whether a
particular crystal has well-formed crystal faces or not
6) Be able to use simple tests based on physical properties (especially
hardness, streak, luster, density, cleavage and habit) to identify common
rock-forming minerals (you will do this in lab too)
7) Know the seven principal classes of minerals: silicates, oxides, sulfides,
sulfates, halides, carbonates and native metals, and the characteristic
elements in each (e.g. sulfates always contain both sulfur and oxygen)
8) Understand how different arrangements of silica tetrahedra produce the five
classes of silicate mineral, and common examples of each: independent tetraheda
(e.g. olivine), single chains (e.g. pyroxene), double chains (e.g. amphibole),
sheet silicates (e.g. mica), framework silicates (e.g. quartz and feldspars).
Learning objectives for topic 6 (Rock Cycle):
Read Interludes A and B, as well as chapter 6.
1) Know the three principal rock types (igneous, sedimentary and
metamorphic), and understand how each is formed
2) Know the meaning of the term "protolith"
3) Understand the concept of the rock cycle: material may be transformed from
one rock type into another, or into another rock of the same type
4) Be able to explain the processes by which a rock of one type may be
transformed into a new rock of the same or different type
5) Be able to describe the conditions that cause melting of mantle and
crustal rocks (decreased pressure, addition of volatiles, and heat transfer),
and know the tectonic settings in which each kind of melting occurs
6) Know the difference between magma (underground) and lava (above ground) and
that magma is a mixture of molten rock, crystals and gases (either dissolved or
as bubbles)
7) Be able to identify the chemical composition of magmas from the minerals in
the crystallized rock, and use the terms silicic (or felsic), intermediate,
mafic and ultramafic correctly
8) Understand how Bowen’s Reaction Series describes the sequence of
crystallizing minerals, and how this series relates to the crystal structure of
the minerals (e.g. chain silicates such as pyroxenes vs. framework silicates
such as feldspars)
9) Understand the movement of magma, why it goes where it does (buoyancy and
pressure), and how magma viscosity is affected by temperature, composition and
water content
10) Understand how cooling rate affects the texture of a solidified magma, and
know the terms pegmatitic, phaneritic, porphyritic, aphanitic and glassy.
11) Be able to infer the environment of crystallization (e.g. extrusive,
shallow intrusive or deep intrusive) from the texture
12) Be able to identify and name the structures that result when magma
solidifies within the Earth (plutons, tabular intrusions, laccoliths,
batholiths, xenoliths and the stoping process, sills, and dikes), and describe
how they formed
13) Know and be able to use the classification of igneous rocks, based on
chemical compositions and textures, and be able to identify rocks as e.g.
granites, rhyolite, obsidian, etc (for all compositions, not just silicic
rocks).
Learning objectives for topic 7 (Sedimentary Rocks):
Read chapter 7
1) Know the meaning of clastic, chemical, biochemical and organic
sedimentary rocks, and how each type is formed (cementing loose grains of rock,
precipitating ions from water solution, concentrating skeletal material of
aquatic organisms, or the accumulation of dead plants or plankton
respectively).
2) Understand that the rock grains needed to create clastic sedimentary rocks
are the result of the breakdown (disintegration) and chemical change
(decomposition) of existing rock by physical (mechanical) weathering and
chemical weathering, followed by removal of the sediment from its source
(erosion), subsequent transport by air, water or ice, and eventual deposition
somewhere else.
3) Know the difference between physical and chemical weathering, and be able to
describe examples of each:
Physical weathering includes jointing, frost wedging, root wedging, salt
wedging, thermal expansion, and animal attack.
Chemical weathering includes dissolution, hydrolysis, oxidation and hydration.
4) Understand the positive feedback relationship between physical and chemical
weathering, and under what climate conditions each is most effective
5) Be able to explain why soil is more than just broken down rock, the physical
structure of typical soils (zones and horizons), and the relationship between
soil type and the environment, using the examples of pedalfer, pedocal, and
laterite.
6) Be able to classify and describing the most common sedimentary rocks, using
the classifications:
• clastic sedimentary rocks (examples: conglomerate, sandstone, shale,
siltstone, and mudstone; to do this you will need to understand the grain size
scale, and the concepts of sorting, roundedness, and maturity)
• biochemical sedimentary rocks (examples: limestone, including fossiliferous
limestone, micrite and chalk)
• chemical sedimentary rocks (examples: the evaporites gypsum and halite,
travertine)
• organic sedimentary rocks (examples: coal and oil shale)
7) Know that sedimentary rocks occur in layers called beds or strata, which may
display sedimentary structures such as cross beds, graded beds, ripple marks,
mud cracks, and fossils.
8) Be able to use these sedimentary structures to infer the paleoenvironment,
especially whether it was terrestrial (possibly glacial valley, mountain
stream, mountain front, sand dune, lake, or river), or a marine environment (a
delta, shallow-marine clastic area, shallow-marine carbonate area, or
deep-ocean water.)
9) Understand the terms transgression and regression, and the importance of the
word "relative" in discussing relative changes in sea level.
10) Be able to relate the distribution of sedimentary rocks, and their inferred
depositional environments, to the major processes of plate tectonics. (e.g.
rifts, passive continental margins, intracontinental areas, and foreland
basins.)
Learning objectives for topic 8 (Metamorphic Rocks):
Read chapter 8 (re-reading interludes A and B may be useful)
1) Know the four agents of metamorphism: heat, pressure, differential stress
and fluids
2) Understand that temperature and pressure conditions together determine
whether a particular mineral is stable or unstable, and that unstable minerals
will break down to be replaced by new stable minerals in response to changing
pressure and temperature
3) Know the meaning of a "hydrothermal solution", and examples of
changes that occur due to circulating hot fluids (sea floor metamorphism,
precipitation of mineral veins)
4) Understand the concepts of regional metamorphism, contact (or thermal)
metamorphism, and dynamic metamorphism, and the main factors that control each
type
5) Be able to classify metamorphic rocks as foliated and nonfoliated, know that
foliation or banding results from either preferred mineral orientation or
compositional banding or both, and understand that preferred mineral
orientation results from recrystallization in the presence of differential
stress
6) Be able to describe and identify the common nonfoliated rocks: hornfels,
quartzite, marble, and dolomitic marble.
7) Be able to describe and identify the common foliated rocks: slate, phyllite,
schist, gneiss, and the "hybrid rock" (part igneous, part
metamorphic) migmatite, and know the order in which they form with increasing
temperature and pressure.
8) Understand the concept of "prograde" and "retrograde"
metamorphism, where metamorphic changes occur in response to increasing
(prograde) or decreasing (retrograde) pressures and temperatures
9) Know the main environments in which metamorphism occurs, and what kind of
metamorphism (regional, contact, dynamic or hydrothermal) that occur in each.
For example:
• areas adjacent to plutons (contact or thermal metamorphism)
• fault zones (dynamic metamorphism)
• the deep crust beneath mountains adjacent to subducting plates or between
colliding plates (regional metamorphism)
• mid-ocean ridges (hydrothermal metamorphism)
• subduction zones (two kinds of regional metamorphism: high-pressure
low-temperature in the downgoing slab, and high-temperature low pressure in the
volcanic arc due to intrusion of plutons)
Learning objectives for topic 9 (Geologic Time):
Read chapter 12. Interlude D contains useful background information on
fossils
1) Understand the concepts of relative dating and absolute dating
2) Know the key principles for determining relative age (uniformitarianism,
superposition, original horizontality, original continuity, cross-cutting
relations and inclusions), and be able to apply these to determining a sequence
of geologic events from a cross-section (e.g. be able to interpret Fig. 12-5)
3) Understand the principle of fossil succession, and how this is used to
determine the relative ages of sedimentary rocks
4) Know the three tyes of unconformity (angular unconformity, nonconformity and
disconformity) and understand how each develops
5) Know the basics of the geologic time scale (on the WebCT site as a pdf
file). I expect you to know the names and order of the eons, eras and periods:
• EONS: Archean, Proterozoic,
Phanerozoic
• ERAS: Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic (all within the Phanerozoic Eon)
• PERIODS: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian
(all within the Paleozoic Era)
Triassic,
Jurassic, Cretaceous (all within the Mesozoic Era)
Tertiary,
Quaternary (all within the Cenozoic Era)
6) Be able to describe the process of radioactive decay, and how it is used
in radiometric dating (absolute dating). You will need to know the meaning of
isotopes, half-life, and understand that radiometric dating is only possible
because radioactive decay occurs at a constant rate.
7) Be able to calculate the age of a rock, given the number of parent and
daughter isotopes present and the half-life of the decay process.
8) Know the age of the Earth (4.5 billion years), and the approximate times at
which the three Eons began and ended: Archean (4500 to 2500 Ma), Proterozoic
(2500 Ma to 540 Ma), Phanerozoic (540 Ma to present)
Note Ga = billion years (109 years) and Ma = million years (106
years)
Learning objectives for topic 10 (Rivers and Floods):
Read chapter 17 and Interlude E.
1) Understand how rain initially travels across the land's surface as sheetwash, then either infiltrates the soil to become groundwater, or ends up in a small stream which is a tributary of a larger trunk stream.
2) Know the four main types of drainage pattern (radial, dendritic, trellis and orthogonal) and the geologic factors that favor development of
a particular type
3) Know the meaning of drainage basin (also called a catchment area or watershed), and drainage
divide, particularly a continental
divide. Understand the concept of headward
erosion, and how this may lead to stream
piracy.
4) Understand the concept of the water table, and be able to interpret the position of the water
table relative to a permanent stream and an ephemeral stream.
Know the meaning of a dry wash.
5) Know the terms discharge (the
volume of water carried by a stream) and relate flow velocity to the channel cross-section (shallow and wide vs
narrow and deep).
6) Be able to describe the proceeses by which rivers erode the landscape: scouring of loose sediment, forcing open cracks (breaking
and lifting), abrasion by
sediment carried in the river, and dissolution.
7) Know the three components that make up a river's total sediment load: dissolved
load, suspended load and bed load. Know that suspended load accounts for most of the sediment carried by
almost all rivers, and know the difference between the competence and the capacity of a stream.
8) Understand the depositional processes that occur along rivers, and why
sorting of sediment occurs along the course of a river. Be able to name and
describe the main features of a trunk stream, including headwaters (or source), valleys, canyons, the river mouth, channel, floodplain, thalweg, meanders and deltas. Be able to describe how erosion occurs at a cut bank, deposition occurs at a point bar, and flooding events result in the deposition of natural
levees.
9) Understand the concept of a river's base level; that the ultimate base level for any river must be sea level, but that lakes and
artificial dams can result in a local base level. Understand the likely response of a river to an
imposed change in base level (e.g. construction of a dam, relative sea level
rise and fall). Be able to interpret canyons with incised meanders, or valleys that show alluvial terraces, in terms of base level change.
10) Know the difference betwen a flash flood and a floodplain flood, and the timescale over which each can occur.
Understand the concept of a recurrence interval, and the relative sizes of floods with different
reccurrence intervals. Know the probability of (for example) a 50-year flood
happening on the Missouri river in any given year, and the various methods by
which flood "prevention" is attempted (artificial levees and floodways).
Learning objectives for topic 11 (Groundwater):
Read chapter 19.
1) Understand the concept of the hydrologic cycle, and how water moves between various reservoirs on, above, and under Earth's surface.
2) Know the definition of porosity
and permeability, and understand
the difference between primary and secondary porosity. Know the definitions of aquifer and aquitard (or aquiclude), and be
able to determine which one a given rock will be, on the basis of its porosity
and permeability.
3) Understand that the water table
separates the zone of aeration
(above) from the zone of saturation
(below), and that the water table has topography, measured by the "head" (difference in elevation of the water table
between two points). Know what a perched water table is.
4) Know the definition of hydraulic gradient, and be able to use Darcy's Law to determine the discharge of an aquifer (volume of
water flowing through a cross-sectional area per unit time)
5) Know the difference between a confined and an unconfined aquifer,
and the definition of the potentiometric surface. Be able to predict places where springs are likely to occur, and the best place for
drilling a well, based on a geologic cross-section. Know the difference between
a dry well, a seasonal
well, and a flowing well, and also how artesian wells work (both man-made and naturally occurring, e.g. oases)
6) Know that freshwater is a vital natural resource. Understand how pumping
produces a cone of depression in
the water table, and how this can affect groundwater flow.
7) Be able to explain why over-pumping can lead to the following four problems,
depending on local geology: (i) regional lowering of the water table, (ii)
reversing the flow direction of groundwater, (iii) saline intrusion, and (iv)
subsidence.
8) Know the difference between soft and hard water, and the definition of saturated,
unsaturated, and oversaturated solutions.
Understand how caves and karst
landscapes are formed by dissolution of limestone, and how speleothems are produced by precipitation from solution. Be
able to relate these processes to features you observed at Rock Bridge State
Park.
Learning objectives for topic 12 (Ice and Climate):
Read chapters 22 and 23
1) Know that climate change has
occurred many times in the past, including periods of time when there were no
ice caps (e.g. the Cretaceous) and periods of time when the whole Earth may
have been covered in ice ("snowball Earth").
2) Understand the greenhouse effect,
and feedback relations between fossil fuel emissions, global warming and the
Earth's albedo.
3) Know that concentrations of greenhouse gases are increasing rapidly due
to human activities, and that global warming is known to be
occurring at the present time.
4) Be able to explain why the effects of present-day atmospheric emissions will
continue for decades to come (using the concept of a "residence time"
for chemical substances in a reservoir such as the atmosphere)
5) Understand that future climate change is not known with certainty, but
sea-level rise and desertification are likely to occur, and that global warming
may lead to localized cooling in some areas (e.g. western Europe) due to
changing oceanic circulation.
Learning objectives for topic 13 (Energy Resources):
Read chapter 14, especially sections 14.3 through 14.8 on oil, gas, and
coal, and section 14.12 on energy crises and environmental issues.
1) Know the five sources of energy that we can exploit (solar, gravitational, nuclear, chemical and Earth’s internal energy. Understand that Earth surface processes, and the
biosphere, are driven by solar energy. Know that the fossil fuels contain
stored chemical energy that can be released by combustion.
2) Understand the definition of renewable and non-renewable
resources, and be able to characterize each of the five main sources of energy
in these terms. Realize that many of the Earth’s resources are non-renewable
(minerals, groundwater)
3) Know how petroleum forms from
plankton buried in anoxic environments. Understand the successive formation of
kerogen, oil, and natural gas with increasing burial depth, and the meaning of
the "oil window" (~80 to 160 _C) and the "gas window" (~80
to 220 _C).
4) Know the meaning and characteristics of source rocks, reservoir rocks, and seal rocks. Be able to name and describe the four main kinds
of oil trap, and to predict the
location of oil and gas within these structures.
5) Know the definition of resources
(the existence of a particular material) and reserves (can be profitably
extracted in today's market)
6) Know that >85% of US energy consumption comes from fossil fuels,
that about 60% of oil consumed in the US is imported, and that this percentage will continue to increase
in the future because US oil production has been declining since
1975. Understand arguments pro and con
drilling for oil in ANWR. Know that ~65% of world oil reserves are
found in five countries in the middle East,
including ~25% in Saudi Arabia alone, and understand how the uneven location of
energy resources around the world has influenced foreign policy.
7) Understand the concept of "Hubbert's Peak" (or the
"depletion midpoint") in global oil production, know that this will
occur in the next 1 to 15 years, and that
the "Age of Oil" will end in <100 years. Be able to explain why
the question "when will we run out of oil?" is irrelevant, because
oil will become unaffordable before supplies are exhausted.
8) Know how coal forms from dead plant remains, buried in anoxic
environments. Understand the concept of coal rank, increasing from lignite to bituminous coal to anthracite with
increasing temperature.
9) Understand the environmental issues associated with coal mining (including
the meaning of strip mining, backfilling, and reclamation) and with coal burning (including CO2 and SO2
emissions, and the value of low-sulfur
coal).
Learning objectives for topic 14 (Geologic Structures):
Read chapter 11 (pages 318-348)
1) Know the meaning of orogen
(mountain belt) and orogeny
(mountain building), and be able to name the major mountain belts of North
America. Know the difference between cratonic areas of the continental crust (and the difference
between shield and platform areas) and younger mountain belts. Be able to
explain the occurrence of mountain belts at plate boundaries (either
present-day or past plate boundaries).
(2) Understand that strain is
the change in shape of rocks caused by deformation (a combination of squeezing, shearing or
stretching). This produces geologic structures such as folds, faults,
joints and foliation
(3) Recognize the different structures formed by brittle and ductile deformation, and understand the factors that can lead rocks to behave
in a brittle or ductile manner (heat, pressure, deformation rate and
composition).
(4) Understand that strain is
caused by stress, which is the
force per unit area in a material. Stresses may be compressive (squashing), tensile (stretching) or shear stress (one side sliding past another).
(5) Know the difference between joints (cracks on which no sliding has occurred) and faults. Be able to identify the hanging-wall and footwall blocks on a fault. Be able to identify dip-slip faults (both normal and reverse / thrust), strike-slip faults (both dextral / right-lateral
and sinistral / left-lateral) and oblique-slip
faults. Be able to predict the resulting offset or displacement that results
from movement on each type of fault.
(6) Understand how anticlines
and synclines form, and be able
to recognize each from the map pattern of older / younger rocks exposed in the
core of each.
(7) Be able to interpret the stress environments that lead to the formation of fold-thrust
belts (compression) and horst-and-graben structures (extension). Be able to interpret the
orientation of compressive stress from the orientation of the resulting
tectonic fabric.
(8) Understand the concept of isostasy, and that mountain belts have high surface elevations because they are
(usually) balanced by a thick crustal root. Know that crustal heating during orogeny can lead to crustal melting
(producing granites) that greatly weakens the crust and may lead to orogenic
collapse
(9) Be able to relate the formation of the Andes and North American Cordillera
to convergent margin tectonics; of the Himalayan-Tibet orogen and the
Appalachians to continent-continent collision; and of the Basin-and Range to
continental rifting.
(10) Know that mountain belts may record more than one episode of orogeny, for example
the Appalachians record three different Paleozoic orogenic events.
Learning objectives for topic 15 (Earthquakes):
Read chapter 10.
1) Know the definitions of fault, fault
trace, fault scarp, focus,
epicenter, and seismology. Review types of fault (normal, reverse, thrust, strike-slip, oblique-slip) and definition of hanging wall and footwall.
2) Understand why stick-slip behavior is often observed on faults (frictional resistance
eventually overcome, results in slip and earthquake)
3) Know the difference between body waves and surface waves, which travels
faster, and which causes damage to buildings.
4) Know the difference between P waves (compressional body waves) and S waves
(shear body waves), and which travels faster.
5) Understand how a seismometer works, and how three (or more) stations are
required to locate the epicenter of an earthquake.
6) Know the difference between the Mercalli and Richter scales for measuring
earthquake "size", and that each unit increase on the Richter scale
represents ~33 times more energy released.
7) Be able to relate the worldwide distribution of earthquakes to plate
tectonics, particularly plate boundary processes. Be able to explain why most
earthquakes occur at less than ~15 km depth, except around subduction zones.
Know the meaning of the Benioff zone (Wadati-Benioff zone).
8) Know the major effects and hazards associated with earthquakes, including
ground shaking, landslides, sediment liquefaction, and tsunamis
9) Know that earthquakes have a recurrence interval, but that is is poorly
known for many fault systems. Understand how paleoseismology can help to
determine recurrence intervals on faults that have not been very active in the last
50 years.
10) Be able to explain why California and Alaska are seismically active. Know
that New Madrid, MO experienced three magnitude ~8 earthquakes in 1811-1812 and
be aware of the threat that future earthquakes pose to large cities such as
Memphis.
Learning objectives for topic 16 (Volcanoes):
Read chapter 9.
1) Know the main types of volcano, how they form, and their relative size:
cinder cone, shield volcano, stratovolcano, and caldera.
2) Know the main factors that determine the viscosity of a magma (temperature,
silica content and volatile content). Understand why basaltic magma is
typically very fluid, while andesitic and especially rhyolitic magma are more
viscous.
3) Know different lava flow features and how they relate to composition: aa,
pahoehoe, and columnar jointing are typical of basalts, while andesites and
rhyolites often form domes.
4) Know how air-fall tuff and ignimbrites (pyroclastic flow deposits) form.
5) Know the type of magma and underlying plate tectonic cause for volcanoes at
Iceland, Hawaii, and Mt. St. Helens. Know that major eruptions produce several
(and sometimes hundreds) of cubic km of pyroclastic debris.
6) Understand the major volcanic hazards: lava flows, ash falls, pyroclastic
flows, lateral blasts, landslides, lahars, earthquakes, tsunamis, and poisonous
gases. Understand why lahars can occur at any time, not just during eruptions.
7) Understand the concept of active, dormant and extinct volcanoes, and the
concept of a recurrence interval. Be aware of several types of precursors that
can be monitored in an attempt to predict eruptions: changes in heat flow,
changes in shape, earthquakes, and increases in gas / steam emissions.
8) Understand the potential effects of volcanoes on climate, including an
increase in the Earth's albedo from small ash particles that can remain
suspended in the stratosphere for months (e.g. following the eruption of
Tambora in 1815, Europe had virtually no summer in 1816).