Geology 494LI - Livng on Erth:Real-world Is

In this course, students take advantage of the breadth of their shared experiences in the Geosciences Department from human dimensions to physical sciences, drawing from geography, earth systems science and geology. The platform of the course uses real-world Geoscience problems facing societies and cultures, incorporating the themes of Water, Air, Energy, Climate and Sustainability. Using readings, print and on-line media, students are encouraged to work through the ways in which integration of their diverse educational experiences leads to new levels of understanding. The semester culminates in team-based projects in which students investigate connections between current Geosciences issues, their education in their major and their experience as UMass undergraduates, with structured opportunities for reflection on both their discipline and themselves as life-long scholars. This course satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BS-Earth, BA-Geog, BS-Geog, BA-Geol, and BS-Geol majors, as well as a subset of BS-EnvSci majors. For Seniors and Juniors only.

Open to Seniors & Juniors only. This semester, we focus on the topic of a possible new geologic epoch - The Anthropocene. In an article that appeared in 2000 in the IGBP Global Change Newsletter Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen, and Eugene Stoermer argued that Earth had recently crossed a threshold into a new epoch, for which the coined the term Anthropocene, the Age of Man. They argued that human impact on the environment had risen to such a level that it would be preserved in the sedimentary record as a profound change similar to those that occurred at other geologic boundaries. Rapid changes in earth surface processes, in marine sedimentation rate and type, in species abundance and distribution, in sediment, ocean and atmospheric chemistry and in earth temperatures combine to herald a new geologic epoch. More recently, Water et al., (2016) suggested that the designation of the Anthropocene as new epoch be formally considered.

In this course we investigate the how, what and why of human impacts on the environment through the Holocene and since the industrial revolution. These include biological, chemical and geologic impacts on the atmosphere, ocean and land. Finally, we consider the question of whether we have truly entered the Anthropocene in a formal sense and how a boundary of a new epoch might be defined. We will use readings from the primary literature together with secondary sources. Assignments will include literature summaries, several short essays and a term paper. Grades will be based on quality of written assignments, attendance and participation in discussion.