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Instructors: Phone: E-mail: Office: Office Hours:
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Cliff Riebe 766-3965 criebe@uwyo.edu Room 2008 ESB W, Tu, F 11:00–12:00 (& by appointment)
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Neil Humphrey 766-2728 neil@uwyo.edu Room 320 GEO T 11:00–13:00; W 15:00–16:00 or try anytime in the afternoons (but not in the mornings)
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Course Description and Objectives:
Geomorphology is the study of landforms and the processes that modify them over time. It encompasses spatial and temporal scales that range from the instantaneous motion of sand grains in rivers during floods to the uplift of entire mountain ranges over millions of years. It synthesizes information about the internal geologic processes that create topography and the external surface processes that erode and move material across the landscape. Earth surface processes have been operating since the first rocks solidified, and most geologic processes and deposits are intimately linked to earth surface processes of the past or the present. It has even been argued that surface erosion processes can control plate motions. Thus the study of geomorphology is essential to a full understanding of geology.
In this course, we will study the landforms of the earth, and discuss in some detail the processes that regulate their growth and development, as well as theories and experiments that shed light onto our understanding. Your primary objective in this course is to develop a foundational knowledge of geomorphology. This knowledge should serve as a valuable tool throughout your career, whether it lies in environmental consulting, earth science education, or pretty much any other subfield of geology. Another big goal is to develop your problem solving skills; you will have an opportunity to do so in regular problem sets, labs and tests.
Prerequisites: Please note that this course takes a quantitative look at many of the earth surface processes, and therefore involves calculations. You will be expected to be competent at basic math, including basic algebra and trigonometry. Although not a prerequisite, a first course in Calculus will add to the student’s appreciation of this course as it tends to involve many concepts in rates of change. Likewise a first course in Physics will help in understanding some of the concepts of mass and energy conservation.
Lab and/or Discussion Section: The Monday afternoon session will be used for laboratory exercises, or for discussion of homework. We anticipate an approximately even distribution of homework discussions and laboratory exercises. In essence the laboratory exercises are just homework sets that require some resources that are more conveniently used during class time. During discussion sessions, you will be free to participate in discussions with us on the homework sets. You will be informed if any sessions are optional.
Disability Statement: If you have a physical, learning or psychological disability and require accommodations, please let the instructor know immediately and please also document your disability with UW Disability Support Services, (UDSS) in SEO, room 330 Knight Hall, 766-6189, TTY: 766-3073.
Web Page: The web page for the course can be found at http://faculty.gg.uwyo.edu/neil/index.htm. Follow the links to “teaching” and “Geomorph.” This web page will be the location of information such as readings, homework and due dates.
Text: Process Geomorphology, 4th ed. Ritter, Kochel and Miller. There will be some outside readings placed on reserve in the Geology Library. Please be aware that we may not always have time in class to cover all of the material in the assigned readings. You may nevertheless be held responsible (in labs and/or tests) for material we don’t cover in class.
Course Requirements/Assignments and Grading Standards: This course requires learning facts, concepts and quantitative techniques. This course requires learning facts, concepts and quantitative techniques. We are much more interested in the concepts and the techniques than the facts, and our assessment of your progress will be biased by our desire to teach concepts and to improve your ability to do simple, but careful, numerical analyses of geomorphic problems. If you simply learn the facts from the textbook, you can expect no better than a C for a grade. If you demonstrate a grasp of geomorphic concepts, beyond what one might simply recall by memory from a book, then you can expect a B. To receive an A, your grasp of the concepts needs to be consistently solid, and you also need to show an understanding of how to correctly employ quantitative techniques to problems in geomorphology.
Grades will be based on in-class participation and performance on assignments and tests. There will be a term project for which you will present a 20 minute synthesis and discussion of a geomorphic process (or set of processes) that has been featured prominently in recent news. Your presentation will count as your last homework and will occur during lab period in the last two weeks of class. The details of the project (goals and expectations) will be made clear during the week before spring break. You should read all of the assigned reading (see syllabus) before class, so that you are adequately prepared. We will administer unannounced reading quizzes (roughly 1 per week collectively worth 10% of your grade) to ensure that you are keeping up with the reading. We reserve 5% of the grade for in-class participation and attendance. The grade breakdown is as follows:
5% attendance and in-class participation
10% in-class reading quizzes
20% Midterm (March 2, 9:35–10:50 am in class)
35% Final (May 4, 10:15 am–12:15 pm)
Note: The timing of your final exam is dictated by the University. For further details, please see http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/REGISTRAR/Spring2010/sp10final.pdf. Students who have two final exams at the same time or more than two final exams in one day and who wish to ask for an exception must complete the Final Exam Conflict form available from the Office of the Registrar no later than April 27. A document identifying exam rooms will be published approximately 30 days prior to the first day of final exams.
Attendance Policy: University sponsored absences are cleared through the Office of Student Life. The policy for make-up tests and late lab assignments is as follows: Make-up dates for tests are not part of the schedule, and, if necessary (due to University-sponsored absences only), must be arranged in advance, whenever possible, and must occur within one week of a student’s return from an excused absence. To receive credit, all make-up work must be completed by the last day of class. It is the student’s responsibility to approach the instructor to request a makeup exam. All assignments are due at the beginning of class on the due date unless otherwise noted. Late lab assignments will not receive full credit, except when students are officially excused. Credit for late work will be scaled down by 25% for each day of class it is late (work turned in >3 classes late will receive 0 credit). Please note that each period of lab and lecture counts in determining how to downgrade an assignment’s value when it is late.
Acceptable Conduct: University Regulation 29, change 1, states that the instructor can “establish reasonable standards of conduct”… “which should be made known at the outset” of each course. I encourage you to download and read A&S—Students and Teachers Working Together, available at: uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/a&s/Current/students_teachers_work.htm It lays out guidelines for course syllabi, attendance, classroom deportment, phone and email protocol, office hours, and how to make appointments outside of office hours. Please note: We stress an interactive approach to learning—we expect regular attendance, in-class participation, and respectful interaction among students (and with us) at each meeting. That means no sleeping, no iPods, no video games, no cell phones, and no smartphones/PDAs/PPCs in class.
Academic Dishonesty: Ethical integrity is one of the foundations of science. Without it, the framework of scientific inquiry—which is based on objective measurements and analyses—would be lost. The need for integrity extends to every scientific endeavor, including education. University Regulation 6-802, revision 2, defines academic dishonesty as “an act attempted or performed which misrepresents one’s involvement in an academic task in any way, or permits another student to misrepresent the latter’s involvement in an academic task by assisting the misrepresentation.” This pertains to aid from classmates as well as former students of the class and anyone else for that matter. UW has well-defined procedures for judging cases of suspected academic dishonesty, and serious penalties may be assessed to offenders. Please do not cheat and avoiding any behavior that might be misconstrued as cheating. Unauthorized help from classmates (or anyone else) will not be tolerated. However, it is authorized (and in fact encouraged), for you to work together with classmates on problem sets and labs. The work you turn in must, nevertheless, always be your own. Showing all of your work will be critical to demonstrating that your work is your own. This means (for example) that anything you print from a computer needs to be uniquely yours. It would be a serious breach of the University regulations to turn in an assignment after inspecting a graded version of it. Note also that use of data storage/retrieval functions on calculators, phones, PDAs, PPCs (for equations and other information) and anything else that gives you an unfair edge over your classmates is prohibited during tests and quizzes unless otherwise noted.
University Regulations can be found at: http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/legal/universityregulations.htm
Changes in the Syllabus: The instructors may make changes to the syllabus as the course proceeds. If such changes are necessary, they will be announced in class. Substantive changes to the syllabus shall be communicated in writing to the students.
Tentative Course Schedule—to be expanded and revised (Reading assignments should be completed before class on the day listed):
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Week |
Dates |
Topic |
Lab |
Notes and Homework |
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1 |
Jan 11-15 |
Big-picture concepts: Scale, thresholds, system state; (steady vs. transient/changing), conservation laws |
Ch. 1 |
Jan 11: no lab |
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2 |
Jan 18-22 |
Intro to hydrologic cycle, rock cycle & interrelationships |
Ch. 2 |
Jan 18: no lab (MLK Day) |
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3 |
Jan 25-29 |
Glaciers |
Ch. 9 |
Jan 25: Lab 1 Paper towel watershed |
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4 |
Feb 1-5 |
Cold region processes |
Ch. 10 & 11 |
Feb 1: Lab 2 Fluxes and conservation of mass |
Lab 1 due Feb 1 |
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5 |
Feb 8-12 |
Glacial and periglacial processes |
Ch. 10 & 11 |
Feb 8: Lab 3 Maps and Google Earth: Glaciers & Cold Regions Pt 1 |
Lab 2 due Feb 8 |
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6 |
Feb 15-19 |
Drainage basin morphometry |
Ch. 5 |
Feb 15: Lab 3 Maps and Google Earth: Glaciers and Cold Regions Pt 2 |
no lab due |
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7 |
Feb 22-26 |
Fluvial and groundwater processes |
Ch. 6 |
Feb 22: Lab 4 TBD: Measuring flow in rivers or flood recurrence lab |
Lab 3 due Feb 22 |
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8 |
Mar 1-5 |
Fluvial processes |
Ch. 7 |
Mar 1: Review for midterm |
Lab 4 due Mar 1 Midterm Mar 2 |
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8 |
Mar 2 |
Midterm |
in class |
day: Tuesday |
time: 9:35-10:50 |
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9 |
Mar 8-12 |
Rivers synthesis |
Ch. 7 |
Mar 8: Lab 5 River long profiles |
Hand out term project on Mar 11 no lab due |
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10 |
Mar 15-19 |
Spring Break |
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11 |
Mar 22-26 |
Hillslope processes, mass wasting and weathering |
Ch. 3 |
Mar 22: Lab 6 Tombstone weathering lab |
Lab 5 due Mar 22 |
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12 |
Mar 29-Apr 2 |
Hillslope processes, mass wasting and weathering |
Ch. 4 |
Mar 29: Lab 7 Effect of man on erosion pt 1. |
Lab 6 due Mar 29 |
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13 |
Apr 5-9 |
Hillslope processes, mass wasting and weathering |
Ch. 4 |
Apr 5: Lab 7 Effect of man on erosion pt 2. |
no lab due |
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14 |
Apr 12-16 |
Wind and desert processes |
Ch. 8 |
Apr 12: work on term project |
Lab 7 due Apr 12 |
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15 |
Apr 19-23 |
Biotic and abiotic landscapes |
TBD |
Apr 19: Term projects: Geomorphology in the News |
presentations |
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16 |
Apr 26-30 |
Synthesis and Review |
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Apr 26: Term projects: Geomorphology in the News and Final Exam Review |
presentations |
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17 |
May 4 |
Final Exam |
room: TBD |
day: Tuesday |
time: 10:15-12:15 |
The instructors reserve the option to make changes to the schedule (particularly lab due dates and readings) throughout the course. Changes will be announced, with plenty of lead time, either in class or via e-mail. “TBD” is short for “to be determined.” “Ch” is short for “Chapter.” Unless otherwise noted, readings are from the Ritter et al. text. Additional readings may be assigned and will be put on reserve in the library.