Syllabus
1. Introduction - geosciences and their short history; Minerals - origin, characteristics and rockforming significance;2. Igneous rocks - their origin, rock constituents, rock bodies (magmatism and volcanism);3. Sedimentary rocks - their origin, rock constituents, sedimentary processes, structures, and environments;4. Metamorphic rocks - metamorphism (local and regional), metamorphic minerals;5. The Earth and its internal structure - origin and evolution, characteristics of geospheres (earth crust, mantle, and core);6. Plate tectonics - litospheric plates, driving mechanism, rates of plate motion, evolution of oceans and continents;7. Tectonic structures in the earth crust - ductile and brittle tectonics (folds and faults), their relationship to plate tectonics, geological maps;8. Groundwater and karst - hydrologic cycle, groundwater flow and its importance, karst landscape;9. Stream water - rivers, alluvial deltas, and lakes - erosion, transport, and accumulation;10. Glaciers - mountain and continental glaciers, glacial landforms;11. Wind and deserts - eolian erosional and accumulation landforms (dunes, a.o.), desert environment, origin and processes;12. Seas and oceans - shoreline to deep sea profile, marine processes and sediments;13. Stratigraphy - the rock record, dating methods (relative and radiometric time), geologic time scale.
Annotation
This course provides basic knowledge of the internal structure of the Earth, its chemical and mineral composition, and processes (plate tectonics, magmatism, metamorphism, deformation of earth crust). Lectures in exogenous geology concern litosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere interaction (weathering, erosion, transport, and accumulation of waethered rocks) with respect to evolution of landforms.
Practices are concentrated in the work with rockforming minerals and rock types, and methods of geological study and maps.