San Juan Mountains, Colo.
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GES1010 Landforms and Soils
Welcome!
Syllabus
Powerpoints
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Labs
Lab #1: Map Lab (in class)
Lab #2: Rock Weathering Lab (in Canvas)
Lab #3: Mass Wasting Lab (in Canvas)
Lab #4: Google Earth (in class)
Lab #5: MetEd 1/2
Lab #6: MetEd 2/2
Semester Schedule - NOTE: AS OF SPRING 2019, BRANDON HAS MOVED ALL COURSE MATERIALS INTO CANVAS
Week 1: Date
- What is geography? What is physical geography? What are some of the geospatial tools of geographers?
- Some definitions
- Why Colorado, and especially the southern Front Range, is an ideal location to study physical geography
- Goals and learning objectives of GES1010
- Games: What processes change this landsurface? Thinking spatially: Which way is which? How can you tell? Why should you care?
- For DATE: Read Ch. 1 and Ch. 2
Week 2: Date
- Ch. 1: Introduction to Earth (seasons)
- Ch. 2: Portraying Earth (maps, map scale)
- LAB #1: Map Lab (in-class; due by 5:00 pm Aug. 28)
- For DATE: Read Ch. 14
Week 3: Date
- Ch. 14: The Internal Processes
- Hawai’i, Yellowstone National Park
- Video: Supervolcano (2005) 1 hr. 58 min.
- For DATE: Read Ch. 12 and Ch. 15 (focus on weathering)
Week 4: Date
- Ch. 12: Soils
- Ch. 15: Weathering and Erosion (focus on weathering)
- LAB #2: Four Corners Rock Weathering (web-based lab; due Sunday, Sept. 23, 12:59 pm)
- For DATE: Read Ch. 15 (focus on mass wasting)
Week 5: Date
- Ch. 15: Weathering and Erosion (focus on mass wasting)
- LAB #3: Mass Wasting and the Marcus Landslide (web-based lab; due Sunday, Sept. 30, 12:59 pm)
- For DATE: Read Ch. 13
Week 6: Date
- Ch. 13: Introduction to Landform Study
- Important Earthly concepts (rocks, minerals)
- Short video: Yule Marble Quarry
- In-class: review sheet for Test One
- For DATE: Study for Test One
Week 7: Date
- For DATE: Two readings not in your textbook: A journal article and a book chapter (both in Canvas):
- Blake, K.S. 1999. Peaks of Identity in Colorado's San Juan Mountains, Journal of Cultural Geography, 18(2): 29-55.
- Benedict, A.D. 1991. A Sierra Club Naturalist’s Guide: The Southern Rockies. San Francisco: Sierra Club, Chapter One: 1-37.
Week 8: Date
- Review Test One
- Talk about next week's field trip to Heller Center grounds
- Physiography defined
- Colorado physiography: intermountain basins, major mountain ranges, vast plateaus, glaciated valleys, major rivers
- Discuss readings: Blake 1999 (cultural landscapes) / Benedict 1991 (Southern Rockies)
- LAB #4: Student presentations in Google Earth (in-class, due by 5:00 pm, DATE)
- NOTE: Next week, DATE, we are NOT meeting in the classroom - we are meeting in Lot 580 (se corner) and will then walk to the Heller Center
Week 9: Date - Heller Center During-Class-Time Field Trip
- No class next week, DATE
- For Nov. 6: Read Ch. 16 and Ch. 20
Week 11: Date
- Ch. 16: The Fluvial Processes (we did not finish this)
Ch. 20: Coastal Processes and Terrain(we did not start this)- Videos: 1976 Big Thompson flood / Waldo Canyon Fire burn scar-related flood events; 2013 Larimer + Boulder County flood event
- For DATE: Read Ch. 17 and Ch. 18
Week 12: Date
- Ch. 16: The Fluvial Processes (finish this up from last week)
- Ch. 20: Coastal Processes and Terrain
- Ch. 17: Solution Processes: Karst Topography and Hydrothermal Features
- Ch. 18: The Topography of Arid Lands
- What is going on at Racetrack Playa, DVNP, CA?
- For DATE: No readings due
Week 13: Date
- Snow / snowpack processes (material not in your book)
- LAB #5:Snowpack and Its Assessment COMET / MetEd Module (due DATE by TIME)
- For DATE: Read Ch. 19
Week 14: Date
- Ch. 19: Glacial Modification of Terrain: What is a glacier, snow accumulation / ablation, mtn. glacier types, mtn. glacier landforms – erosional and depositional
- LAB #6: Complete ANY geosciences-related COMET / MetEd Module (due DATE 2 by TIME)
- For DATE: No readings due
Week 15: Date
- Technologies used in physical geography: Focus on LiDAR / Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS)
- Kon Tiki (1951)
- In-class final exam review
- For DATE: Study for Final Exam