GEOL 333 - Principles of Geomorphology

Offered every Spring Semester

Dr. Matthew S. Lachniet

UNLV Department of Geosciences

2012 Syllabus

 

Download GoogleEarth

 

Topic List:

  1. Process Geomorphology (Chapter 1)
  2. Internal Forces and Climate (Chapter 2), includes faulting and tectonic geomorphology           
  3. Chemical Weathering and Soils (Chapter 3)
  4. Physical Weathering and Mass Wasting (Chapter 4)
  5. Wind processes and landforms (Chapter 8) and Arid Land Geomorphology (Handouts)
  6. Drainage Basins (Chapter 5)        
  7. Fluvial processes (Chapter 6)
  8. Fluvial landforms (Chapter 7)
  9. Glaciers and Glacial Mechanics (Chapter 9)
  10. Glacial erosion, deposition, and landforms (Chapter 10)
  11. Karst processes and landforms (Chapter 12)
  12. Coastal processes and landforms (Chapter 13)
  13. Periglacial processes and landforms (Chapter 11; Time permitting).

 

Valley of Fire Field Trip (2/10/12): For finishing the lab, review the Google Earth Route and Stops made on the field trip.

Red Rock Canyon Field Trip (2/24/12): Review the Google Earth Route and Stops

March 6 Dust Storm: During and After Photos

 

Geomorphology (GEOL 333) is a 4-credit course with laboratory, and an introduction to the common landforms on the Earth's surface. The course is relevant to many disciplines including geology, biology and ecology, engineering, water resources, agronomy, anthropology, archeology, and many others. Landforms are the interface between humans and the Earth – everywhere you are or will be is a landform – and understanding the processes and myriad forms of the Earth's surface provide a sense of place. This course is offered every Spring Semester at UNLV.

 

This courses satisfied the UNLV science requirement.

 

Pre-requisites: Geology 101 with lab, or equivalent. (Previous mineralogy and optical mineralogy courses are no longer pre-requisites)

 

Book information.

Text: Ritter et al., 2011, Process Geomorphology, 5th Edition. Waveland Press, 652 pages. $79.95. Waveland Press, ISBN: 1-57766-669-0; http://www.waveland.com/browse.php?t=420&r=a|552   

Lab manual: Interpretation of Landforms from Topographic Maps and Air photographs, by Easterbrook and Kovanen. $31.95. Waveland Press Inc., ISBN: 1-57766-481-7;  http://www.waveland.com/browse.php?t=577&r=a|752   

 

Last updated 5/14/12

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