2.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This is a weekly reading seminar and fieldwork course focused on the bedrock geology and tectonic history of the Baltimore area. The course is majority fieldwork, with four local, half-day fieldtrips replacing four of the 1h classroom sessions. The course will consider the following four elements of Baltimore’s hard rock geology: (1) the Grenville-age basement gneisses; (2) Baltimore Terrane stratigraphy associated with rifting of Rodinia and subsequent tectonic activation of the passive margin; (3) Baltimore Mafic Complex record of subduction initiation in the ancient Iapetus Ocean; and (4) metamorphism and magmatism during the Appalachian Orogeny. For each of the four geological elements studied we will first read research papers on their age, origin and significance, before taking a fieldtrip to see associated outcrops.