Introduction to

EARTH SCIENCE
Course Information
 Resources
Textbook: Tarbuck, E.J., Lutgens, F.K., Tsujita, C.J., and
Hicock, S.R., 2015. Earth: An introduction to
physical geology, 4th Canadian edition. Pearson,
Toronto, 552 pp.

Course website: facultyweb.kpu.ca/~jkoch/geog1120.htm

ME!: in class OR during office hours

Office: Fir243
Email: Joe.Koch@kpu.ca
 Yours truely

Research interests are climate change and

glacier history.
Have taught numerous courses, including this
one, before.
Worked on an icebreaker as staff geologist
along the westcoast of South America,
in Antarctica, and the North Atlantic.

Want to make this your course, so I listen to

constructive criticism and suggestions.
Everything’s possible, but cheating and
plagiarism are where the fun ends!
I try to be laid-back, but you will have to do
the work to get a good grade!
 What do you expect?

Why did you sign up for this course?

What do you want to learn?

Have you background in geology/geography?

To make my life easier, I’d like each of you to come to my office and
introduce yourself during office hours.
Course Information
 Earth Science Log
•  Throughout the semester (May 6 - August 3, 2019), students will be asked to collect
information about earth science that is reported in the news. The log should include
stories related to earth science as covered in class (e.g., new research findings, air
pollution, climate change, etc.). You should probably have one entry per week, and
make it the top story of that week. For example, if an earthquake hits Chile and a
volcano erupts in Indonesia in the same week, the only entry in your summary should
be the one with the bigger impact. The typewritten log will be handed in on July 31,
and should be submitted by email as electronic file.
 Earth Science Log
The final typewritten earth science log should include the following information:
–  Topic (earthquake, flood, hurricane, etc.)
–  Date (be specific; if there is a start and end date, list both; if there is a time,
mention it)
–  Location (be specific; countries like ours are big, so a country name may not be
a sufficient location)
–  Why was it reported in the news? (impact on ecology, economy, humans, etc.;
provide specific information, such as total economic loss due to property damage,
casualties; or for topics not related to hazards, think of events like climate change
talks, policy decisions on tar sand exploration, etc.)
–  Sources of information (newspaper/magazine articles, television/radio reports,
internet URLs; they need to be reliable, so someone’s twitter, blog, instagram, etc.
should not be your source of information; be specific here, cbc.ca is not enough)
 Earth Science Log
Entries in the log should be in chronological order and part of the grade will be based
on its organisation. Make the instructor's life easy...appearance does count!

While teamwork is encouraged, the log must be yours, written in your own words.
Logs that are exact copies will not be marked.

Cutting and pasting information straight from the Web is not acceptable!!!

Grading the Earth Science log

In order to grade the logs, I will go through each log and identify all entries. Every entry
will count if there was enough information for me to reasonably assume that the entry is
valid, or if you provided a source that I can go to verify the information. Up to 70% will be
awarded for selecting relevant events, up to 20% will be awarded for the description for
each entry, and up to 10% for the presentation and appearance of your log.
 Earthquake – What would you do?

An earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (Mw=9.1) strikes at 7:30am on

January 26, 2019. The shaking lasts for three minutes. Put yourself in the place of three
of the characters (handout with different scenarios will be handed out before the
assignment), and briefly describe their main questions and actions from 7:33-7:35am in
a written short summary. We will then go through this in lab on June 19, and you can
volunteer to present your summary .
 Fieldtrip

There is a mandatory, fieldtrip on Saturday, July 20. We will meet at 11am outside the
Museum of Anthropology on the UBC campus and then go to the shoreline of Point Grey
around UBC to talk about coastal processes, hazards, etc. The fieldtrip will end sometime
between 2 and 3pm. It will be a great experience to actually see what we will have talked
about in class. If you cannot partake in this fieldtrip due to other obligations, please inform
me within the first two weeks of the semester. There will be more information as we
approach the date.
Overview
 Basics of Earth Sciences
•  Plate tectonics
•  Rocks and minerals
•  Geological time
 Minerals: Building blocks of rocks

•  Definition of a mineral:
•  Naturally occurring
•  Inorganic solid
•  Ordered internal molecular structure
•  Definite chemical composition

•  Definition of a rock:
•  A solid aggregate or mass of
minerals. (The mineral grains are
cemented or interlocked together.)
 Igneous Rocks

Volcanic
Rhyolite Andesite Basalt

Plutonic
Granite Diorite Gabbro
Sedimentary Rocks
Geological Time
Early Earth (4.6 – 4.0 billion years ago )
– Prisocoan Eon

• Very hot – liquid rock for much of this

time – magma oceans!

• Heavy bombardment phases – many

water-rich comets and iron-rich
meteorites, including very large impacts
probably
Proterozoic Earth (2.5 billion to 540
million years ago)

•  Still just bacterial life until about 700

million years, then more complex
lifeforms evolve (though still soft-
bodied, leave impressions only)
•  Ediacara fauna
Plate Tectonics
Subduction zones
 Volcanism along subduction zones
–  Partial melting of ocean
crust & overlying sediment
–  Water helps to lower
melting temperature

–  More silica rich than

basalts
•  intermediate to
felsic
 Fissure Eruptions
•  Often extend radially from volcano centre
•  Related to regional tectonics

•  Krafla volcano, Iceland

 Earthquake terminology
•  Focus (hypocentre) - source of the EQ on the fault
•  Faults - fractures along which displacement occurs
•  Epicentre - point on Earth’s surface directly above the focus
 Weathering
•  the set of exogenic (physical, chemical and biological) processes that
alter the physical and chemical state of rocks at or near the earth's
surface
•  intensity of most weathering decreases with depth, because variations
in temperature and moistures decrease with depth
•  therefore biochemical weathering is generally confined to the
uppermost few metres of soil and rock
 Soil profiles and horizons
•  A cross section of the soil blanket
between bedrock and atmosphere
usually reveals a series of zones of
different colors, chemical
compositions, and physical
properties
•  A Horizon
–  Rock material is exposed to
heavy leaching
•  B Horizon
–  Zone of accumulation (zone of
deposition)
–  Zone of leaching
•  C Horizon
–  Very coarsely broken-up
bedrock
–  Below this is R horizon: bedrock
or parent rock material
 Podzolization
•  Soils and coniferous forest
–  Forms in humid-temperate climates
–  Coniferous forest surface litter is acidic
–  Removal of iron, aluminum, organic mater from
A to B-horizon
–  Most soluble ions (Ca, Mg, Na) are leached in
upper layer
Mass wasting: gravity at work

•  3 main factors:
–  Nature of slope
–  Amount of water
–  Steepness &
instability of slope
 Coasts
•  Types and processes
Hurricanes
 Sea-level change
•  Recent trends
Floods of the Mississippi River system
Water as a resource
Ice & Glaciers
Glaciers
1978
Water as a resource

2000

Glaciers in the tropical Andes: La Paz - Zongo Glacier

75% of electric power from hydropower plants in the Zongo Valley
During dry season (April - November [monthly precipitation: 10 - 40
mm) Zongo Glacier provides 50 to 120 l/s of water.
 Natural hazards vs. Natural resources
•  A geophysical process/event can be beneficial
–  a Natural resource
•  But at extreme levels ! Natural hazard ! Natural disaster
e.g., rainfall
Physical element

Damage
threshold
flood
hazard

resource

Tolerance drought hazard

band

time
  e.g., avg. rainfall vs flood; snowfall vs blizzard; winds vs hurricane
 Sensitivity trends

•  Worldwide sensitivity is increasing:

–  Increased vulnerability
•  increasing population in vulnerable areas
•  increasing urbanisation and growth of Megacities
•  Increased exposure
–  increasing frequencies of climate-related hazards
–  anthropogenic impact (deforestation & urbanisation)
•  In 2000, 1 in 30 people worldwide were affected by natural hazards
 1950 2010

Increasing Vulnerability:
Megacity growth
 Global Geohazards in 2010
Fatalities Economic loss
Quake & volcano 4% Quake & volcano 1%
Flood 67% Flood 53%
Windstorm Other 14%
15%
Other
14%

Windstorm 32%
Total: 9,270 deaths Total: US$ 31 billion

Insured loss
Windstorm 75% Other 4%
Flood 21%

Total: US$ 8.3 billion

 Geohazards 1975-2001

Number of Natural
Disasters by region

Number of fatalities
by region
Global Geohazards trends

•  Since ‘50s numbers of major

natural disasters have increased
fourfold

•  Resulting economic losses have

risen by factor of 14

•  Due to increasing insurance

density in vulnerable areas,
insured losses up 28 times
 Is it becoming more dangerous?
•  Rapidly growing populations (megacites) in hazard prone areas
–  coastal areas ! both tropical cyclones & earthquakes
–  Asia!

•  Poor planning and construction in high risk regions

•  Poor enforcement of building codes
•  Inadequate public awareness and education
•  Limited financial and technical resources
•  Environmental degradation & climate change

•  During ‘70s and ‘80s ! 820 million people affected

•  Population in 2020 ! ~8 billion

•  20% of the world’s population currently live in MEGACITIES

(populations in excess of 8 million)