Topic for Winter 2016: Paradigm Shifts in the History of Geology
Seminar focusing on major intellectual watersheds in the geosciences from the 19th century to the present, including recognition of evidence for the Ice Age, arguments about the age of the Earth, controversies over the origin of granite, the emergence of plate tectonic theory, and the more recent embrace of neocatastrophism. We will study both original scientific publications from the times of these paradigm shifts as well as analyses by historians of science.

Topic for Spring 2016: Paleoenvironmental Proxies
While we cannot directly measure environmental parameters of the geologic past, the geologic record full of clues that allow us better understand the Earth’s environment through time. Geochemical proxies have been used to understand a wide variety of paleoenvironmental parameters including: climate, CO₂. concentrations, ocean pH, atmospheric O₂ concentration, and much more. This seminar course will explore a number of these proxies, seeking to understand why they occur, what they tell us, and how we can interpret them.