Welcome to the
Geology I
Home Page!
Fall Term, 2009


What's New?
- Changing
of the Guard, Again: Prof.
Abrajano will be lecturing for the last time Thursday this week. Next week, Prof. Steve Roecker will
be back, with great stories about the Andes,
the world’s second highest orogenic belt! Given that your second Exam next
week will cover much of what Prof. Abrajano lectured on, feel free to
email (abrajt@rpi.edu) or visit him in
his office (Science Bldg, Room 2C04) if you have any
questions/clarifications on any of the subject matter.
- After
seeing that the class average for the 1st Exam was lower than
expected (48/69), we decided to give you a chance to earn as much as 5 extra Exam
points on a little Assignment. You can apply these 5 points on
Exam I, but if you happen to have done reasonably well on Exam I, you can
use the 5 points on any of the latter two major Exams. So, if you do the assignment to our
satisfaction, and you got 50/69 on Exam I, your new Exam I grade will be
adjusted to 55/69! If you
don’t do this Assignment, you just won’t get the extra points
– that’s all.
- What
is the assignment? (1) Visit the Indian Ladder Trail
in Thatcher Park (visit http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/Thacher_Park_0160.asp
or
http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=HGN205-060 or any other urls for guidance on
how to get there), (2) get your
photo taken with an outcrop on
the trail as the background (best if dates show on the photo, but not
required), and (3) write a few
statements describing what you saw on the trail (half-page typed qualitative description at most, but
in your own words!) (e.g., type of sediments, any structures,
fossils, qualitative bedding orientation, structures and any other
observations relevant to our class discussion). Submit the half pager (with
picture) in class to Prof. Roecker by Monday,
November 16 for full credit.
Dr. Abrajano visited the trail just this past weekend, and it was
lovely out there (see pictures). You are strongly encouraged to
visit the Indian Ladder Trail as a group, and group pictures will be
acceptable! Be safe and have fun!!!!!
- Your
Laboratory TA’s have decided that a make-up session will be arranged
for missed laboratory with prior
permission towards the end of the semester. ASAP, you need to (1) arrange with
your respective TA’s which specific laboratory you missed, and (2)
present a valid excuse/permission (e.g., email from Professor or TA or
Student Services) for the absence. All exams and quizzes have
been graded and returned (during your respective lab sessions). If you don’t have
yours, you probably missed the lab.
- Despite the very clear schematics and
diagrams in your Marshak textbook, I thought I’d call your attention
to some helpful animations available in http://www.wwnorton.com/college/geo/earth3/animations.asp.
- The course syllabus link has an html
version of the syllabus. A PowerPoint version of the syllabus is available
here . The schedule link has the current class
schedule.
SWINE FLU NOTICE

According to a lot
of people who know about these things, the H1N1 virus (a.k.a. Swine flu) is a very
serious threat to our collective health. Please if you find yourself
experiencing flu-like symptoms, do not come to class or lab and seek medical
attention as soon as possible . It is important to keep exposure to an
absolute minimum. Also, please do not attempt the activity pictured above at
home - the child in the photo is a trained professional.
Look for previous
entries in this page in the Previous News
Items section.