Geology 100 Extra Credit Research Paper (maximum 25 points)
RESEARCH TOPICS
The purpose of this extra
credit project is to investigate how geologists answer questions. You should
choose such a question and then research it. Many examples are given below of
questions you can use for your specific paper topic. You can come up with your
own, but you must OK it with me first to make sure it is workable or I will not
accept it! Below are just a few topic
ideas:
Given an unknown deposited
layer of sand sediment, how can you tell if it has been transported by wind,
water or ice?
How might you measure
long-term erosion rates of a mountainous area?
How would you figure
out how much material a river moves?
How do you figure out
how sea level has changed for a portion of coast line?
How can you decipher how
closely one fossil organism is related to another by an evolutionary linkage?
How do you decipher
movement patterns within glaciers?
How do you determine
if a slope is unstable or stable?
How do you link a
volcanic ash deposit to its volcanic source?
How can you estimate
mineral and chemical make-up of Earth's surface material from a satellite
platform (remote sensing)?
How can you estimate past
atmospheric temperatures from ice cores and obtain a climatic record?
How can you estimate
sedimentation rates (how fast different types of sediments pile up in different
areas)?
How do you estimate
the volume of ash and gases an eruption gives off?
How do you estimate the
pressures and temperatures a metamorphic mineral grows at in the earth's crust?
For hydrothermal
precipitates (minerals that grew from hot waters) how do you what temperature
(and sometimes pressure) the waters were at when the minerals grew?
How do you measure how
much heat is conducting through the crust in a given area, i.e. determine the
heat flow?
How do we know what
the earth's core is made of?
How would figure out
how fast a fault has moved?
How do you work out rates
of plate motion, e.g. how fast
How do you work out
the configuration of past supercontinents?
How do you figure out if a
fault is geologically active, i.e. if it has moved in the past 20,000 years?
How do you find and map
salt domes, petroleum, and mineral ore bodies that are below the surface?
How do you find gold?
How do you compute
the size, and worth of an ore body?
How do you determine the
magnetic history of a rock?
How do you figure out how
fast in what direction water flows through the ground?
How do you determine the
causes and rates of shoreline erosion?
How can you determine when
an active or temporarily dormant volcano might erupt again?
How can you determine when
an active fault might rupture again?
How can you tell the
relative age of portions of a planetary surface?
Content of Research
Proposal: For full credit, your paper must include:
1) Purpose and introduction: e.g. a statement
of the geologic question, and some general
background
information on the topic, including why you chose this particular topic.
2) Discuss the established
means (field/lab techniques) of answering the question.
3) Concepts and theories concerning the
phenomena in question.
4) Some examples of where this has been done
before and what the results were.
5) A personal analytical synthesis (some of
your very own scientific thought) about the
information you
collected on your chosen geologic topic.
Include yours and others
ideas,
hypotheses, answers, and/or solutions to the proposed geologic (topic)
question.
6) Conclusion
7) A format-correct bibliography
Paper must be a minimum of
5 pages ; typed and double spaced . Your audience for
the paper is the educated layperson and the paper should be informational. This extra credit paper is worth a maximum of
25 points.
Information sources: Minimum of 4
scientific research articles.
Grading: Your
effort will be graded on content, spelling and grammar. . Good luck.
Due Date - Last class meeting - Papers must be handed to me in person
or E-mailed to me
at this time. No late papers will be accepted.