EARTH 8. Africa: Climate and Human Evolution (4)
Prerequisite: None, Offered: Spring Quarters
Our human ancestors (hominin) originated from Africa.
This course addresses both major climate changes and steps in hominin evolution over the last 5 million years in Africa
and discusses how climate and landscape changes interacted to modulate hominin evolution.
EARTH 124I/224I. Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry (4)
Prerequisite: Chemistry 1C; Mathematics 3A, Earth 2 or 3 or 4 or 4S.
Enrollment Comments: Concurrently offered with EARTH 224I. Introduction to stable isotope biogeochemistry, including kinetic and thermodynamic fractionation of stable isotopes during evapo-precipitation, photosynthesis, and biogenic calcification. Applications of stable isotope in environmental sciences, Quarternary geology, paleoclimate, archeology.
Introduction to mass spectrometry
EARTH 276. Geological Oceanography (4)
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Morphology, formation, and evolution of ocean basins; crustal structure and composition of ocean margins; source and composition of marine sediments; marine sediment as repository of paleoclimate and paleo-ocean circulation records. Paleoceanographic changes in relation to tectonics and changes in orbital parameters, links between changes in ocean circulation and climate changes.