Undergraduate Course: Volcanoes, Environment and People (GEGR10103)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course is addresses the origins, dispersal and environmental/cultural impacts of volcanic ash (tephra) and how tephrochronology, the identification, dating and mapping of these ash layers, can help us to understand both environmental change and human interactions with the environment. Global assessments of volcanic activity and the production of tephras provide the underpinning to a discussion of the principles of tephrochronology and its application in the 3-D environmental reconstruction. We discuss the local and global impacts of volcanic eruptions and how the tephra layers they generate can be geochemically analysed, correlated and dated within environmental records and archaeological sequences. Iceland provides the focus for the course as the island contains both examples of every type of volcanic activity known on Earth and world-class tephrochronologies. Case studies of both the use of tephrochronology to understand environmental change and the impact of volcanic activity on both the environment and people are considered in lectures and discussed in tutorials; theoretical understanding is married with a practical ¿hands-on¿ experience with tephras in the class room and a field excursion to assess geological exposures of tephra in East Lothian. |
| Course description |
Introduction: Course aims, structure and approach
Fundamentals: Volcanoes and volcanic eruptions: why there are different types of volcanic activity and the implications for tephrochronology
Volcanic eruptions and their environmental and cultural impacts: Case studies
Principles of tephrochronology 1: Using tephra layers to understand past environments. Tephra-producing eruptions and tephras as agents of environmental change: tephra deposits as a tool to evaluate environmental change; the definition of isochrones, intervals of time and environmental tracers.
Principles of tephrochronology 2: Analysing and identifying tephra layers
Hands-on tephra session: different types of tephra and pumice
Chronology: Dating tephra layers, environment and cultural change
Class exercise on tephrastratigraphy
Tephra and Environment 1: Applications of tephrochronology in volcanology
Tephra and Environment 2: Applications of tephrochronology to glaciology and glacial geomorphology
Field excursion
Tephra and People 1: Icelandic soils and the applications of tephrochronology in archaeology and environmental archaeology
Tephra and People 2: Applications of tephrochronology in archaeology and environmental archaeology
Tephra and People 3: Applications of tephrochronology in archaeology and environmental archaeology
Conclusions and Feedback: Summary, discussion on examinations and revision opportunities
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 42 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Fieldwork Hours 6,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
168 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
60 %,
Coursework
40 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Class assessment: As outlined in course handbook
Degree assessment: One two-hour examination (2 questions) (60%) AND One project (2000 words) (40%)
Overall mark for the course (ie degree coursework and examinations) of at least 40 to pass. |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
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| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
1. To develop a detailed understanding of the principles and practice of tephrochronology
2. To critically evaluate the use of tephras to reconstruct environmental change and to assess the role of tephras as agents of environmental change
3. To assess the significance of different types of change and recognise the causes of threshold-crossing events
4. To develop a detailed knowledge of how to use tephrochronology to assess volcano-environment interactions, environmental and cultural change, human-environmental interactions and impacts of volcanism on people
5. To enable you to seek out and comprehend the essential relevant findings from literature in unfamiliar fields which will also mean you gain an understanding of the ways in which the subject is developed
6. To develop analytical skills and undertake independent research to analyse a professional level problem
7. To develop and improve skills in the use of the internet, giving oral and visual presentations to informed audiences, and critical writing
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Reading List
Chester, D. (1993) Volcanoes and Society. Edward Arnold, London.
Decker, R.W. and Decker, B. (1989) Volcanoes. (2nd edition) Freeman, San Francisco.
Heiken, G. (2013) Dangerous Neighbours: Volcanoes and Cities. Cambridge University Press. http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1023%2FB%3AJOPL.0000013284.21726.3d.pdf
Marti, J. and Enrst G.G.J. (2008) Volcanoes and Environment. Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/10.1017/CBO9780511614767
Scarth, A. (2009) Vesuvius: a biography. Terra Publishing, Harpenden.
Scarth, A. (2002) La catastrophe: Mount Pele¿e and the destruction of Saint-Pierre, Martinique. Terra Publishing, Harpenden.
Scarth, A. (1999) Vulcan¿s Fury. Yale University Press, London.
Sheets, P.D. and Grayson, D.K. (eds.) (1979) Volcanic activity and human ecology. Academic Press, New York.
Sigurdsson, H., Houghton, B., McNutt S.R., Rymer H. and Stix, J. (2000) Encyclopedia of Volcanoes. Academic Press, San Diego.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | GEGR10103 Volcanoes, tephrochronology |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Andrew Dugmore
Tel: (0131 6)50 8156
Email: Andrew.Dugmore@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Beth Muir
Tel: (0131 6)50 9847
Email: beth.muir@ed.ac.uk |
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