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This website features work from the completion of Phase 1 of the SCALES Project.

We are currently seeking partnerships for Phase 2.

Content Knowledge

  • Exercise 3: Stereonets

    This exercise is designed to familiarize you with the basic structure and use of a stereonet, which we use to draw our projections. In this exercise we will actually use equal-area projections rather than true stereographic projections, because they are easier to draw while being just as useful for most purposes

    Read more: Exercise 3: Stereonets

  • Lab 5: Earthquakes Parts 1 and 2

    The purpose of today’s lab is to explore the relationship between the velocity of seismic waves and the properties of the materials they travel through (Temperature, pressure, stiffness, density…). We will focus on seismic shear-waves (S-waves), which are elastic vibrations in the direction perpendicular to their direction of propagation.

    Read more: Lab 5: Earthquakes Parts 1 and 2

  • Lab 4: Plate Tectonics

    Lab on plate tectonics. 

     

    You have been assigned to one of four scientific specialties and to one of four plates or plate groupings.

    The scientific specialties are:

    1. Seismology
    2. Volcanology
    3. Geomorphology
    4. Geochronology

    The plates or plate groupings are:

    1. North American Plate
    2. Pacific Plate
    3. African Plate
    4. Eurasian Plate

    Each scientific specialty group has been provided a world map showing data relevant to locating plate boundaries and understanding plate boundary processes. Each student will be provided two blank maps. You will mark these as described below and turn them in at the end of the exercise.

    Read more: Lab 4: Plate Tectonics

  • Lab 3: Geochronology

    An introductory lab on geochronology from the course Introduction to Geology.

    Read more: Lab 3: Geochronology

  • Exercise 2: Rock Structure and Deformation

    This exercise is aimed at giving you some practical experience with rock structures and how they appear on the earth’s surface as well as in cross section. 

    Read more: Exercise 2: Rock Structure and Deformation

  • Lab 2: Rock Identification

    This lab constitutes four parts. In the first three sessions, you will familiarize yourselves with the characteristics of – and learn to describe, identify and interpret – the three main types of rock: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.

    Read more: Lab 2: Rock Identification

  • Lab 1: Mineral Identification

    Although more than 2,000 different mineral species have been identified, only 25 or 30 are abundant constituents of rocks. The purpose of this exercise is to acquaint you with these common rock-forming minerals. The most diagnostic physical properties of these minerals are listed in the Mineral Identification Index.

    Read more: Lab 1: Mineral Identification

  • Exercise 1: Composition of the Mantle

    Calculate the composition of the Earth’s Mantle as estimated from the sun’s composition.

    Read more: Exercise 1: Composition of the Mantle

  • Assignment 1 The Earth’s Radiation Budget

    The global energy balance is important for Earth's climate. When visible radiation from the Sun reaches the Earth, some of it is reflected or scattered directly back into space as shortwave radiation (the percent reflected is known as albedo) and some of it is absorbed. In the absence of clouds, absorption happens mainly at the surface. The absorbed energy warms the Earth's surface, which, in turn, emits this energy at a longer wavelength (infrared rather than visible light).

    The purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about the Earth's radiation budget and the sorts of phenomena which may influence that budget. The description of the datasets is taken from a class taught by Schlosser, Pfirman and Ting at Columbia University.

    Read more: Assignment 1 The Earth’s Radiation Budget

  • Paper Three

    For this paper, you may choose your own topic, so long as it is about the cultural, political, religious, and / or economic dimensions of biological science—in short, so long as it is about matters we have discussed in class. 

    Read more: Paper Three

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