Geology and Natural History of Hawaii
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Sites to be visited include: GeologyGeology Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island andand NaturalNatural Haleakala National Park on Maui HistoryHistory ofof Na Pali Coast and Waimea Canyon On Kauai HawaiiHawaii Other sites visited include: snorkel trips to study the January Term 2012 coral reef and hikes in the Gustavus Adolphus College rain forest “Our classroom is Prerequisites: http://www.kanuculture.com/ the field” At least one of GEO 111, Instructor: James Welsh Office: NHS 124A “The k BIO 102, or GEG 105 ey to life Phone: x7335 is to live Email: [email protected] ALOHA every day.” Please note that the instructor of this course will not be on cam- pus this spring and can therefore only be contacted by email. Inside Hawaii Lodging will include vari- About the Course ous hostels along the The Hawaiian Islands are way geologically quite young, emerging from within the Fees will include most Pacific Ocean basin within meals the last few million years, and about as far away from continental landmasses as Course Requirement: possible. keeping a daily field notebook, compilation How did the islands de- To study these changes we of a species list, and a velop? Where did the life written final paper forms come from? Many of will visit the islands of Hawaii these life forms are unique to (Big Island), Mauiand Kauai, the islands. with a brief respite in Honolulu And ultimately where did the humans come from? (Oahu). We will look at both Islands afford an excellent terrestrial and marine environ- opportunity to study evolu- ments. tionary change in a micro- cosm. Here we use the term “evolution” in its broad- est context, that of change examiner.com through time. The Hawaiian Islands are especially good examples to study these kinds of changes on a vari- ety of scales: geological, biological, and human. paulsreef.blogspot.com .