GEOLOGY 3013 - Tectonics III

North Terrace Campus - Semester 1 - 2020

This course will develop knowledge of the Earth as a four-dimensional dynamic system. The megascopic structure of the earth - oceanic and continental crust and lithosphere, and the asthenosphere, will be introduced and compared. The basic dynamic potentials acting on the Earth (heat, gravity) will be examined, and their diverse first order effects explored (isostasy, convection, exhumation, pluming). The concepts of rifting and ocean formation will be examined, as will those of subduction and mantle plumes. Processes of orogenesis will be examined in depth. Recent and Mesozoic evidence (structural, geochemical, geophysical, sedimentological) for the operation of these processes will be examined. We will examine evidence and constraints on interpretation of these processes operating in past geological eras: the Palaeozoic, Proterozoic and Archaean. Emphasis will be placed upon understanding examples from the tectonic evolution of the Australian Plate. Details of field trip will be communicated at start of the course.

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Course Details

Course Code	GEOLOGY 3013
Course	Tectonics III
Coordinating Unit	School of Physical Sciences
Term	Semester 1
Level	Undergraduate
Location/s	North Terrace Campus
Units	3
Contact	Up to 5 hours per week, plus field trip. Other students may apply to Head of Geology for exemption
Available for Study Abroad and Exchange	Y
Prerequisites	GEOLOGY 2501 or equivalent
Assumed Knowledge	GEOLOGY 2500 & GEOLOGY 2502
Assessment	Exam, practical assignments, seminar, field trip reports

Course Staff

Course Coordinator: Associate Professor Stijn Glorie

Course Timetable

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from .

Course Learning Outcomes

	A succesful student should be able to:
1	Demonstrate proficiency in common practical skills in tectonics and structural geology;
2	Understand the tectonic processes that operate at plate boundaries and their effects on the plate interior;
3	Understand the main forces that impact the Earth's surface and subsurface, what drives them and how the Earth responds;
4	Describe models for the lithosphere and asthenosphere including their phycial properties;
5	Combine appropriate structural, metamorphic, geophysical, geochemical evidence to interrogate tectonics operating in the past;
6	Work in a team to produce a presentation about a current tectonics research topic.

University Graduate Attributes

This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attribute(s) specified below:

University Graduate Attribute	Course Learning Outcome(s)
Deep discipline knowledge informed and infused by cutting edge research, scaffolded throughout their program of studies acquired from personal interaction with research active educators, from year 1 accredited or validated against national or international standards (for relevant programs)	1-5
Critical thinking and problem solving steeped in research methods and rigor based on empirical evidence and the scientific approach to knowledge development demonstrated through appropriate and relevant assessment	1-6
Teamwork and communication skills developed from, with, and via the SGDE honed through assessment and practice throughout the program of studies encouraged and valued in all aspects of learning	5,6
Career and leadership readiness technology savvy professional and, where relevant, fully accredited forward thinking and well informed tested and validated by work based experiences	1-6
Intercultural and ethical competency adept at operating in other cultures comfortable with different nationalities and social contexts able to determine and contribute to desirable social outcomes demonstrated by study abroad or with an understanding of indigenous knowledges	6
Self-awareness and emotional intelligence a capacity for self-reflection and a willingness to engage in self-appraisal open to objective and constructive feedback from supervisors and peers able to negotiate difficult social situations, defuse conflict and engage positively in purposeful debate	5,6

Learning Resources

Required Resources

The following items are required resources for all practical exercises: paper, ruler, protractor, pencils (including colour pencils) and calculator. Some practicals will require the use of a (laptop) computer, basic software such as MS Excel and/or software (freeware) that will be given to you during or before the practicals. Bringing a laptop to the classroom for these practicals is strongly recommended, however the exercises can be completed at home as well and/or in team. Required reading will be issued from journal articles that will be available through the Library and/or MyUni. There is no recommended textbook for this course, although course materials are generally sourced from the textbooks listed below (pdf chapters will be made available if required). Course notes (recordings) and digital copies of all slideshows used in lectures and practicals will be readily available on MyUni.

This course will include a field component. The following Field Kit is compulsory for this component and items can be purchased at Unibooks:
- good quality (hardback) notebook
- compass/clinometer
- hand lens

Recommended Resources

Recommended Resource:

- Kearey P., Klepeis, K.A., and Vine, F.J. 2009. Global Tectonics. 3rd edition, Wiley-聙聬Blackwell (most recommended and available at Unibooks);

Other Resources that you may want to refer to:

- Plate Tectonics, Continental Drift and Mountain Building - Wolfgang Frisch, Martin Meschede and Ronald C Blakely Springer 2011 (availabel free as an e-book through the library);

- Stuwe, K. 2007. Geodynamics of the Lithosphere, an Introduction. 2nd edition. Springer. (hideously expensive, but unbelievably the library has electronic access to it – you can download pdfs of all the chapters);

- McClay, K., 1997. Mapping of Geological Structures, Open University Press – pretty hard to find, but a great little book

Online Learning

MyUni: Teaching materials and course documentation will be posted on the MyUni website (http://myuni.adelaide.edu.au/).

Learning & Teaching Modes

The course consists of two one-hour lecture sessions per week for 12 weeks plus accompanying practical work, most weeks. See section below for details on practical scheduling.

2 x 1-hour lectures/week - see timetable
1 x 3-hour practical work per week for most of the semester. The practicals are hands-on practice for the theory material covered in the lectures. Note that some practicals require further work at home. Some of the practical time will be used for student presentations (group work).
The course will include field work during the mid-semester break

Workload

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

A student enrolled in a 3 unit course, such as this, should expect to spend, on average 12 hours per week on the studies required. This includes both the formal contact time required to the course (e.g., lectures and practicals), as well as non-contact time (e.g., reading and revision).

Learning Activities Summary

**Schedule**
Week	Lecture	Practical
Week 1	Stress/strain, Strength of the Lithosphere, Probing the interior	Scotia arc/back arc exercise
Week 2	Gravity, Isostasy, Flexure, Rheology, Types of Crust	Scotia arc/back arc exercise
Week 3	Plate margins, Motion on a sphere, Euler poles, Palaeomagnetics	Mid-Ocean ridge cooling
Week 4	Mid-ocean ridges, seafloor spreading	No Prac - public holiday
Week 5	Continental extension	Extension models
Week 6	Subduction zones and arc-magmatism	Extension models
Field exercises during the mid-semester break
Week 7	Subduction processes	Tectonics in a Box
Week 8	Orogenic wedges, Non-collisional orogens	Tibet Stress Field
Week 9	Arc-continent and continent-continent collisions	Tibet Stress Field
Week 10	Continental transforms, Cratonization	Continental Geotherms and heat generation
Week 11	Early Earth, Continental Growth, Plate tectonic drivers	Assignment Seminars
Week 12	Plumes, superplumes, hot-spots, tectonics in the solar system	Assignment Seminars

Specific Course Requirements

Attendance is compulsory at all scheduled practical and field sessions

Small Group Discovery Experience

Most of the Practical exercises require intense team-work (group seminar presentations, hand-on analogue modelling in team, paired computer work, field exercises).

The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
Assessment must maintain academic standards.

Assessment Summary

Due to the current COVID-19 situation modified arrangements have been made to assessments to facilitate remote learning and teaching.
Assessment Task	Task Type	Percentage of total assessment for grading purposes	Outcomes being assessed/achieved	Hurdle	Due Date
Practical assignments	Formative & Summative	30%	1-6	No	One week after practical
Virtuial field trip	Formative & Summative	10%	1,5,6	No	Mid Semester Break
Seminar Assignments	Formative & Summative	15%	1-6	No	weeks 11, 12
Exam	Summative	45%	1-5	No	Mid year exam period

Assessment Related Requirements

Attendance at practicals and field exercises is compulsory and will be recorded. The learning outcomes for this course are substantially dependent on this hands-on experience and practice. Therefore, missing any practical class or field session in a semester without an allowed absence will result in a grade of FAIL being recorded for the course.

Students are able to apply for an allowed absence from a class by submitting the application form, with appropriate supporting documentation, to the Course Co-ordinator. However, it remains a requirement to complete that practical assignment in your own time and to submit at the regular dead line (or a different date, negotiated witht he course coordinator in case of extended allowed absence).

Assessment Detail

Practical exercises (30%): Six in-class practical exercises require a short report including results obtained during the exercises. More details will be given at the start of each Practical session.

Seminar (15%): A small group exercise (~4 students per group). Students are asked to research a topic (each group has a different topic, topics available in week 2) and present this as a short group seminar (15 minutes). Presentations will be held in weeks 11 and 12. The students get an individual mark based on their individual performance during their presentation + an overall mark based on the presentation itself.

Virtual fieldtrip (10%): Students work in pairs on virtual outcrops to measure and interpret structural data.

Final exam (45%): A final written exam will be used to summatively assess the course materials.

Submission

Late Submission
If an extension is not applied for, or not granted then a penalty for late submission will apply. A penalty of 10% of the value of the assignment for each calendar day that the assignment is late (i.e. weekends count as 2 days), up to a maximum of 50% of the available marks will be applied. This means that an assignment that is 5 days late or more without an approved extension can only receive a maximum of 50% of the marks available for that assignment.

Course Grading

Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
Grade	Mark	Description
FNS		Fail No Submission
F	1-49	Fail
P	50-64	Pass
C	65-74	Credit
D	75-84	Distinction
HD	85-100	High Distinction
CN		Continuing
NFE		No Formal Examination
RP		Result Pending

Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

Final results for this course will be made available through .

Student Feedback

The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.
Student Support
Policies & Guidelines
This section contains links to relevant assessment-related policies and guidelines - all university policies.
Fraud Awareness

Students are reminded that in order to maintain the academic integrity of all programs and courses, the university has a zero-tolerance approach to students offering money or significant value goods or services to any staff member who is involved in their teaching or assessment. Students offering lecturers or tutors or professional staff anything more than a small token of appreciation is totally unacceptable, in any circumstances. Staff members are obliged to report all such incidents to their supervisor/manager, who will refer them for action under the university's student鈥檚 disciplinary procedures.

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Authorised by:	Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic)
Maintained by:	Course Outlines Administrator

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