EART 206 -Great Papers in the Earth Sciences

(please notify webdunce Rob Coe of any problems encountered with this page)

Professors: Emily Brodsky, Rob Coe and Quentin Williams

Lecture: M,W 9-10:45 E&MS Room D258

Class website: http://es.ucsc.edu/~rcoe/eart206/206-05.htm

This course is designed to introduce students to a broad range of fundamental issues in Earth Sciences by reading and discussing classic papers that may or may not have been great, but certainly were key in the development of modern ideas in Earth Sciences. In many instances the classic paper is paired with a more recent paper for modern perspective. This class also provides a chance for students to practice their critical thinking and hone their scientific presentation and discussion skills.

Introduction: Age of the Earth

W 1/9

1. Kelvin, L., On the secular cooling of the Earth, Trans. Royal Soc. Edinburgh, vol. XXIII, 295-310, 1862. (Rob Coe)

2. Badash, L., The age-of-the-Earth debate, Sci. Am., Aug., 90-96, 1989. (Quentin Williams)

3. Stacey, F.D., Kelvin’s age of the Earth paradox revisited, J. Geophys. Res., 105, 13155-13158, 2000. (Quentin Williams)

Darwin and Evolution

M 1/14

1. Darwin, C., Chapt. 15, Origin of Species, 353-374, 1859. (?)

2. Gould, S.J., and Eldredge, N., Punctuated equilibrium comes of age. Nature, 366, 223-227, 1993. (?)

W 1/16

1. Patterson, C., Age of meteorites and the earth, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 10, 230 237, 1956. (?)

2. Wilde, S.A. et al., Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 Gyr ago, Nature, 409, 175-178, 2001. (?)

3. Watson, E.B. and T.M. Harrison, Zircon thermometer reveals minimum melting conditions on earliest Earth, Science, 308, 841-844, 2005. (?)

M 1/21

Holiday

Structure and Composition of the Earth

W 1/23

1. Williamson, E.D. and Adams, L.H., Density distribution in the Earth, J. Washington Academy of Sciences, vol. 13, 413-428, 1923. (?)

2. Washington, H., The chemical composition of the Earth, Am. Jour. Sci., vol. IX, 351-378, 1925. (?)

Origin of the Moon

M 1/8

1. Newsom, H. and S.R. Taylor, Geochemical implications of the formation of the Moon by a single giant impact, Nature, 338, 29-34, 1989. (?)

2. Benz, W., Slattery, W.L. and A.G. Cameron, Snapshots from a three-dimensional modeling of a giant impact, in Origin of the Moon (Hartmann, Phillips and Taylor, eds.), pp. 617-620, Lunar and Planetary Institute Press, Houston, 1986. (?)

3. Canup, R. and E. A*****g, Origin of the moon in a giant impact near the end of the Earth formation, Nature, 412, 708-712, 2001. (?)

Optional follow-up to article 3 (very interesting!!):

A*****g, E., C. B. A***r, and Q. W******s, Hit-and-run planetary collisions, Nature, 439, 155-160, 2005.

Mars Mysteries

W 1/30

1. Carr, M.H., Formation of Martian flood features by release of water from confined aquifers, J. Geophys. Res., 84, 2995-3007, 1979. (?)

2. Zuber, M.T., The crust and mantle of Mars, Nature, 412, 220-227, 2001. (?)

3. Bogard, D.D. and P. Johnson, Martian gases in an Antarctic meteorite?, Science, 221, 651-654. (?)

Nature of the Mantle

M 2/5

1. Ringwood, A.E., The constitution of the mantle—I Thermodynamics of the olivine-spinel transition, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 13, 303-321, 1958. (?)

2. Ringwood, A.E. and T. Irifune, Nature of the 650-km seismic discontinuity: implications for mantle dynamics and differentiation, Nature, 331, 131-136, 1988. (?)

Seafloor Spreading, Reversals, Subduction and Global Tectonics

M 2/18

Holiday

Earth Hotspots

W 2/20

1. Wilson, J.T., Evidence from islands on the spreading of ocean floors, Nature, 197, 536-538, 1963. (?)

2. Morgan, W.J., Convection plumes in the lower mantle, Nature 230, 42-43, 1971. (?)

3. Courtillot et al., Three distinct types of hotspots in the Earth’s mantle, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 205, 295-308, 2003. (?)

M 2/25

1. Ernst, R.E., Frontiers in Large Igneous Province research, Lithos, 79, 271-297, 2005. (?)

2. Xu, Y.G. et al., Geological, geochemical and geophysical consequences of plume involvement in the Emeishan flood-basalt province, Geology, 32, 917-920, 2004. (?)

3. Larson, R.L., Geological consequences of superplumes, Geology, 19, 963-966, 1991. (?)

W 2/27

Extinction of Life

1. Alvarez, L.W. et al., Extraterrestrial cause of the Cretaceous/Tertiary extinction: experimental results and theoretical implications. Science, 208, 1095-1108, 1980. (?)

2. Renne, P.R., Zhang, Z., Richards, M.A., Black, M.T., Basu, A.R., Synchrony and causal relations between Permian-Triassic Boundary Crises and Siberian flood volcanism, Science, 269, 1413-1416, 1995. (?)

3. Melosh, H.M., N.M. Schneider, K.J. Zahnle and D. Latham, Ignition of global wildfires at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, Nature, 243, 251-254, 1990. (?)

Crustal Fluids and Geological Processes

M 3/3

1. Hubbert, M.K., and W.W. Rubey, Role of fluid pressures in mechanics of overthrust faulting: Part 1, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 70, abs and 119-139, 1959. (?) —Note that only part of the paper is assigned, leaving out the experimental tests. Feel free to read the rest!

2. Sleep, N.J., and M.L. Blanpied, Creep, compaction and the weak rheology of major faults, Nature, 359, 687-692, 1992. (?)

Atmospheric Evolution

W 3/5

1. Sagan, C. and Mullen, G., Earth and Mars: Evolution of atmospheres and surface temperatures, Science, 177, 52-56, 1972. (?)

2. Melezhik, V.A., et al., Emergence of the aerobic biosphere during the Archean-Proterozoic transition: Challenges of future research, GSA Today, 15, 4-11, November 2005. (?)

3. Optional—difficult but truly classic:

Arrhenius, S. S., On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature on the ground, Phil. Mag., 41, 237-276, 1896. (Also, facsimile reprinted in Rodhe, H. and Charlson, R. (eds.), The Legacy of Svante Arrhenius Understanding the Greenhouse Effect, p. 173-212, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, MediaPrint, Uddevalla AB 1998.) (?)