GEOS3128 - Geologic Time

GEOS 3128 Geologic Time (1 semester hour) Notions of immortality and concepts of eternity--the struggle to understand human existence and the physical world. The geocentric universe--a Graeco-Christian compromise. The Renaissance and the slow acceptance of the Copernican universe. James Hutton's Earth machine and William Smith's strata--the progeny of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Biostratigraphy, the great stratigraphers, and Victorian reaction to the realization of Earth's antiquity. Lord Kelvin's arguments for a young Earth. Discovery of radioactivity and the refutation of Kelvin. Patterson and the age of the solar system. Modern rock dating techniques. A walk through geologic time. (0-1) Y