Old World Archaeology (ARCH/ANTH 4620

Geology of Texas (GEOL 3000.001) Fall 2013 Wednesdays, 2:00-4:50 PM, 190 ENV Course Outline

Week Topic August

28 Introduction: Tectonics, Time, Fossils and Environments

September

4 Precambrian Texas: Paleogeography; The Grenville Accretion; Llano, Franklin

11 Paleozoic Tectonic Cycle; Rifting, The Cambro-Ordovician Transgression

18 Cambro-Ordovician environments; petroleum resources; Middle Paleozoic

25 Ouachita Orogeny and Formation of Pangaea; Marathon geologic record ;The Fort Worth Basin

October

2 EXAM I

9 Pangaea and Permian environments; The Delaware Basin; Permian Mass Extinction

16 Triassic-Jurassic; Dockum Fm; first dinosaurs; Breakup of Pangaea

23 Cretaceous Transgressions – Edwards Plateau

30 EXAM II

November

6 Cretaceous of North Texas; rock types and environments; basis for modern landscape; groundwater hydrology

13 K/T Boundary and the Trans-Pecos Basins

20 Tertiary Texas: Llano Estacado and Gulf Coastal Plain

27 THANKSGIVING – No class

December

4 Pleistocene Texas and Paleoindians

9 FINAL EXAM (1:30-3:30 PM) GEOLOGY OF TEXAS

Geology 3000.001 - Fall 2013

Instructor: Dr. Reid Ferring

Office Hours: 12-1:30 Tu and 12-1:30 W; or by appointment; Office: 242 ENV

Phone:Office: 565-2993

Home : 387-4874

email: [email protected]

Course Requirements:

1. Class attendance. The nature of this course is such that attendance is essential for satisfactory performance. The class meets only once a week, and, much (most) of the course material will be presented through lectures and handouts.

2. Brief (5 minute) quizzes will be given over the previous week’s lecture material. These will be objective (multiple choice, true/false) and perhaps simple fill in answers. These will be given before most, but not necessarily all lectures, in lieu of calling roll. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped, and the quiz average counts 10% of your course grade.

3. There will be three exams. The first two will be one hour exams given in class. The final will be non-cumulative, and will be given at the university scheduled time (Monday, December 10, 1:30-3:30 PM). Each exam counts 20% of your course grade.

3. Each student will prepare either a) term paper on an appropriate subject; or b) a geology project on a chosen area of the state (county or region). Guidelines for each of these will be distributed soon. The project/ paper counts 30% of your course grade. These are due at the beginning of class on December 5th. A late delivery penalty of 5 points/day will apply.

NOTE: Students taking this class for graduate credit must do a project and a paper. These two products will count 40% of the course grade.

Course grading:

The course grade will be based on:

Quizes 10%

three exams (equal value): 60%

geology project / paper 30%

No suitable text is available for this course, but the listed below are recommended and required materials: Required:

“The Geology of Texas” (by me) which is a chapter in Physical Geology: Exploring the Earth, The Geology of Texas Edition (Monroe, Wicander, Hazlett and Ferring) Thomson, 2007. I will pass this out, free.

Recommended (especially for projects):

1. Roadside Geology of Texas contains much useful information. This is accompanied by The Geologic Map of Texas (1:1,000,000). American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Tulsa, Oklahoma. Order from them on the web and/or use abebooks.com or other used book sources.

2. The Geology of Texas, Vol. 1, Stratigraphy. by, E.H.Sellards, W.S. Adkins and F.B. Plummer. The University of Texas Bulletin, No. 3232. 1932. Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas, Austin. Cost: about $12.00 (?) (includes State Geology Map- very dry reading, but still a good deal).

3. Geologic Map of Texas (1:500,000) Fantastic Map in four sheets- good for papering a wall- psychedelic in scope and effect. About $12-16. Bureau of Economic Geology, Austin

4. Fossils of Texas. Bureau of Economic Geology, Austin. Cost: about $2.00 (cheap, but quite good for common fossils)

5. A Field Guide to Fossils of Texas- by Chuck Finsley. $16.95. Nice pictures, good descriptions. Compare to other fossil books such as Petersons or Audabon.

6. Sheets from the Geologic Atlas of Texas, Bureau of Economic Geology, Austin. Excellent details in each of the 15 or so that cover the state. Use in your projects, available in Willis Library, documents section. Cost: $6 each.

7. Numerous publications of the Bureau of Economic Geology- Circulars, Reports of Investigations, etc. See Library Holdings, or the beg.ut website.

Classroom Rules:

I expect all students to behave in a manner that is considerate of others at all times. Except for reasons of health, leaving the class early without my prior notification will be counted as an absence. If you use a cell phone (including text messaging) during the class, you will be counted absent.

Laptop Rules:

Because this is an upper level course, I will allow you to use your laptop, for the sole purpose of taking notes. To ensure that this is the case, I will periodically ask to see your new notes at the end of a lecture. If they are not there, you will be counted absent and also lose your laptop privileges for the remainder of the course.

Academic Dishonesty

Cheating and/or plagiarism (see UNT Undergraduate Catalog for definitions) in any part of this course will result in a grade of F for the course and will be referred to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities for possible further penalty. NOTE: All information presented in the class, orally in writing or by any other means, is copyrighted, 2007, by C. Reid Ferring. Any recording of the class information by any electronic means requires specific written permission from me. Any use of this material beyond your individual participation in this class, for the Fall 2007 semester or later in time, without my explicit written permission is strictly forbidden.

The Department of Geography, in cooperation with the Office of Disability Accommodation, complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act in making reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. Please present your written accommodation request before the 12th class day so that I can make any necessary arrangements.