0. This will not be like most "Economic Geology" courses in that it is an introductory survey course taught in a liberal arts environment that covers both the physical geology of mineral and energy resources and the social, political, and environmental factors that govern their use.
1. The central themes of the course will be:
a. Geologic resources (materials of strategic interest (MSI)) form (or are concentrated) through natural geologic processes and understanding these processes (at least superficially) is essential to understanding their limitations, geospatial distribution, etc..
b. Geologic resources (MSI) are everywhere- not just where most people think about them (precious metals, gems, gas, etc.)
On Wednesday, we will continue with the central themes of the course and move on to the foundations of physical geology. The reading assignment is available as two .pdfs on Sakai. Both are excerpts from "Essentials of Geology," an introductory physical geology textbook by Stephen Marshak. One covers the concept of plate tectonics and the other covers the rock cycle and different rock types. If you have taken GEOL 100 or 101, this material should be review for you; nevertheless, these concept are fundamental to understanding some of the large-scale geologic processes that are essential to the formation and concentration of MSI.
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