Dr. Susan Bilek
Department of Earth and Environmental Science
Socorro, New Mexico
Office hours: Tuesdays 1:30pm - 3:30pm or by appointment
TA: Christina Forbes
Office: MSEC 190; email: cforbes@nmt.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 2-3 pm, Fridays 10 am - noon
1/22: Labs (for ERTH 150L) will begin on 1/31, the second week of class
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Example Disaster Log entry (from previous year's student logs):
February 8-14, 2005 - Flooding in South America
- Unusually heavy rains hit large area in South America over several weeks
- Venezuela, Columbia, and Guyana were hit
- Left 80 people dead, 100 missing, and over 100,000 homeless
- Wiped out bridges, damaged roads, highways, and destroyed farmland
- In Caracas, Venezuela, graves were uncovered, schools and universities were cancelled for 1 week
- From Interpress News agency. Ipsnews.net
Another good format is a spreadsheet, with columns titled "Date" "Disaster" "Magnitude" "Location" "Fatalities" "Damage/Details" "Source"
Meets Thursdays, 2-5 pm in MSEC 209
There will be one midterm (on March 6) and a final exam (TBA), covering material from the
lectures and readings. Both exams will be closed book, and the final exam will be cumulative. The midterm will be 25% of the final grade, and the final exam will make up 35%.
Other assignments for the course include several in-class exercises and film reviews. The in-class exercises will include working on problems (individually and in groups) relevant to lecture topics and will comprise 15% of your grade. These will be un-announced and make-ups will not be possible, so please plan to attend class regularly.
For film reviews (15% of final grade), you will be required to view 3 disaster-related movies outside of class from a set of 9 that I have chosen. The Earth Science Club here at NMT has agreed to hold viewings of these movies on campus in the evenings. After the viewing, you will write a 2 page review of the movie, with strict focus on 2 things: 1) what are the big science fallacies or problems in the movie? 2) within the movie, how does scientific information get transmitted to the public or policy-makers, and was it an effective way to communicate important scientific information? These reviews will be due in the next Tuesday class period after the viewing. No late reviews will be accepted, because we will discuss some of these issues in class on the due date.
The final component of your grade (10%) will be to keep a disaster log during the course of the semester. Record event, date, location, and details of effects (such as human and economic impacts), along with the source of your information. Your log will be compared with one kept by the instructor and graded for completeness.
Date Topic Readings 1/22 Class Introduction 1/24 Ch. 1 1/29 Plate Tectonics Science Communication – Dr. Walsh 1/31 2/5 Ch. 1.3 2/7 Ch. 2.1-2.5 2/12 Ch. 2.6-2.8 2/14 Ch. 2.9-2.10 2/19 Earthquake Case Studies 2/21 Ch. 3 2/26 Ch. 4.1-4.2 2/28 Volcanic Hazards Ch. 4.3-4.6 3/4 Volcano Case Studies & Hazard Mitigation Ch. 4.7-4.8 3/6 Midterm Exam 3/11 SPRING BREAK 3/13 SPRING BREAK 3/18 Mass Movement Processes Ch. 6.1-6.2 3/20 Mass Movement Processes and Hazards Ch. 6.3-6.7 3/25 Subsidence Hazards Ch. 7 3/27 Principles of Weather Ch. 8.1-8.4 4/1 Cyclones and Thunderstorms Ch. 8.5-8.8 4/3 Tornados Ch. 8.5-8.8 4/8 Principles of Hurricanes Ch. 9 4/10 Hurricane Case Studies 4/15 Coastal Processes Ch. 10 4/17 Stream Processes Ch. 5.1 4/22 Flood Hazards Ch. 5.2-5.6 4/24 Flood Mitigation and examples Ch. 5.7-5.9 4/29 Climate and Climate Change Ch. 11 5/1 Climate and Climate Change Ch. 11 5/6 Meteorites & Impact Hazards Ch. 13 5/8 Fire Hazards and Mitigation Ch. 12 Date Movie Location 2/6 (W) The Core MSEC 101 2/13 (W) 10.5 MSEC 101 2/20 (W) Tidal Wave: No Escape MSEC 101 2/27 (W) Volcano MSEC 101 3/26 (W) Lightning: Bolts of Destruction MSEC 101 4/9 (W) Twister MSEC 101 4/23 (W) Flood MSEC 101 4/30 (W) The Day After Tomorrow MSEC 101 5/7 (W) Deep Impact MSEC 101
ERTH150L: Catastrophic Earth Lab
Required Text
Natural Hazards by Keller and Blodgett 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2008
Exams and Assignments
Lecture Schedule
Film Viewing Schedule
Useful Links For Current Events