Geology 108 - Lecture 1 Summary

Geology 108 - Crises of a Planet

Course Information

• Instructor: Prof. John Vidale
• Date: January 8, 2025

Course Overview

• Class BrightSpace & Poll Everywhere (PollE)
• Class summary
• Outline
• Text books
• Assignments
• Instructor's background

Topics to Be Covered

• Earthquakes
• Forecasting and hazard mapping
• Early warning systems
• Tsunamis
• Volcano forecasting
• Landslide dangers
• Oil exploration
• Hazards from fracking
• Nuclear test monitoring
• Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Flooding
• Wildfires
• Big meteorite impacts
• Roles of:
  • Federal government
  • State and local government
  • General public
  • Universities (faculty, administration)
  • Foundations
  • Think tanks
  • Industry
  • Other countries and cultures

Course Focus

• Societal problems arising from natural processes.
• Science solutions or mitigations.
• Application of solutions.
• Planning and debate.
• Coordination and funding.
• Implementation.
• Effectiveness and obsolescence.
• Emphasis on science in service of politics, the military, and improving the standard of living.

Course Content

• Natural Disasters and Their Global Impact:
  • Science behind natural disasters and their impacts on society.
  • Focus on earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, landslides, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires.
  • Southern California-based examples.
• Impact of civilization on planet Earth:
  • Global warming
  • Acid rain
  • Groundwater depletion and pollution
  • Mineral and fossil fuel depletion
  • Formation of the ozone hole
• Field trip: One all-day or overnight field trip.

Poll Everywhere (PollE) Instructions

• Download the app on your phone or laptop.
• Do not use Poll Everywhere Presenter.
• Register with each instructor.
• Use one Poll Everywhere login and password.
• Register one-by-one with each instructor that requires registration.
• Check registered instructors in the Settings menu under "Participant registration."
• When class begins:
  • Launch the app (or use browser, or text).
  • Type in the instructor’s response name 'vidale'.
  • Join "PollEv.com/vidale".
  • Respond with the app in real-time when the instructor activates a poll.
  • Your name will be associated with your responses, except for anonymous questions.

LA Fires Example

• Dramatic example of natural hazard.
• Impact:
  • 100B+ in destruction.
  • Serious disruption.
  • Politics.
• Not yet clear:
  • Counterproductive grandstanding?
  • Inadequate existing plans?
  • Sign of climate change failures?
• Future implications:
  • Is the risk in LA and other cities underestimated?
  • Are massive investment or charges needed?
• Will revisit this fiasco.

Classroom Protocol

• Laptops and phones are allowed for notes and fact-checking.
• Class will start and end on time.
• Show up on time.
• Speak up to avoid instructor mumbling.
• Participation is part of grades.
• Feedback is welcome.

Course Approach

• Explain the general problem using:
  • Geophysics, chemistry, biology, math
• Case studies and discussion.
• Societal goals.
• Challenges.
• Science advances.
• How the US is trying to attack the problem.
• Other countries’ strategies.
• Assessment of effectiveness.
• Science exercises in laboratory.

Required Reading

• The Big Ones by Lucy Jones, 2018, 255 pages
  • How natural disasters have shaped us (and what we can do about them)
  • 12 chapters covering various topics
  • Paperback, Kindle, and hardback versions available
  • About the Author: LA earthquake lady, Columbia PhD, Longtime USGS scientist, Runs the Lucy Jones Foundation, Works to improve city and state zoning, Educates the public
  • Chapters:
    • Brimstone from out of Heaven : Pompeii, Roman Empire, AD 79
    • Bury the dead and feed the living : Lisbon, Portugal, 1755
    • The greatest catastrophe : Iceland, 1783
    • What we forget : California, United States, 1861-1862
    • Finding faults : Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan, 1923
    • When the levee breaks : Mississippi, United States, 1927
    • Celestial disharmony : Tangshan, China, 1976
    • Disasters without borders : the Indian Ocean, 2004
    • A study in failure : New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, 2005
    • To court disaster : L'Aquila, Italy, 2009
    • The Island of Ill Fortune : Tohoku, Japan, 2011
    • Resilience by design : Los Angeles, sometime in the future.
• Natural Hazards and Disasters by Hyndman & Hyndman
  • Main textbook
  • 6th edition, 2024, 576 pages
  • Previous editions are acceptable but may have slightly different chapter order.
  • Chapters:
    1. Natural Hazards and Disasters
    2. Plate Tectonics and Physical Hazards
       3&4. Earthquakes
    3. Tsunami
       6&7. Volcanoes
    4. Landslides and Other Downslope Movements
    5. Sinkholes, Land Subsidence, and Swelling Soils
    6. Weather, Thunderstorms, and Tornadoes
       11&12. Climate Change
       13&14. Floods
    7. Waves, Beaches, and Coastal Erosion
    8. Hurricanes and Nor'easters
    9. Wildfires
    10. Asteroids and Comet Impacts
• Natural Hazards by Edward Keller (supplemental)
  • Chapter each on many hazards.

Course Goals

• Clear view of applying science for society
• Applied science: how well and why it might not work.
• Worse vulnerability for underprivileged will often be apparent.
• Concept and process-based, not much math.

Schedule

• Jan 13: Introduction
• Jan 15: General natural hazards
• Jan 17: Emergency management
• Jan 20: Martin Luther King day
• Jan 22: Plate tectonics
• Jan 24: More plate tectonics
• Jan 27: More plate tectonics
• Jan 29: Earthquakes
• Jan 31: More earthquake details
• Feb 3: Earthquake early warning
• Feb 5: Earthquake prediction
• Feb 7: More prediction
• Feb 10: California earthquake mitigation
• Feb 12: More California earthquake mitigation
• Feb 14: Earthquake engineering
• Feb 17: Presidents' Day
• Feb 19: More EE
• Feb 21: EE and Volcanoes
• Feb 24: More Volcanoes
• Feb 26: Midterm exam
• Feb 28: More volcanoes
• Mar 3: More volcanoes
• Mar 5: More volcanoes
• Mar 7: Mount St Helens case study
• Mar 10: More MSH
• Mar 12: More volcano case studies
• Mar 14: Landslides
• Mar 17: Spring recess
• Mar 19: Spring recess
• Mar 21: Spring recess
• Mar 24: Landslide case studies
• Mar 26: Hurricanes
• Mar 28: Hurricane case studies
• Mar 31: Storms
• Apr 2: More storms
• Apr 4: Tornados
• Apr 7: Rest of Tornados, Wildfire
• Apr 9: More wildfires
• Apr 11: Rest of Tsunamis
• Apr 14: More tsunamis, 15 minutes for class evaluation
• Apr 16: Tsunami case studies
• Apr 18: More tsunami case studies
• Apr 21: Nuclear weapons and testing
• Apr 23: More nuclear
• Apr 25: Rest of nuclear
• Apr 28: Bolides from space
• Apr 30: L'Aquila earthquake prediction debacle, disaster odds
• May 2: Review session
• May 3rd to 6th: Study days
• May 7: Final exam (11am to 1pm)

Grading

• 35% lab exercises
• 25% midterm, 30% final exam
• 10% online questions
• 5% BrightSpace quizzes
  • Open book and can re-take
  • Only can take during the correct week
  • Starts this week
• 5% Poll Everywhere (PollE) responses
  • Correctness irrelevant
  • 80% is full credit (i.e., 40% answered earns a score of 50%)
• Grades will be visible quickly in BrightSpace.
• Hard to get worse than a B if you do the work.

Instructor Background

• High school in New Mexico.
• Undergraduate student at Yale.
  • Majored in physics, geology, and economics.
• Graduate student at Caltech.
  • Seismology!
• Research scientist at UC Santa Cruz.
• Geophysicist at US Geological Survey.

Seismology

• Rocks + Physics
• Moderating conflicts
• Finding oil

Research Interests

• Inner core:
  • Estimating rotation rate
  • Mapping structure
• Fault zones:
  • Pattern of shattering and healing in earthquakes
• Los Angeles basin:
  • Pattern of strong shaking

Earthquake Data (2023, Southern California)

• 13,112 earthquakes detected
• ~1000 every month
• 156 M3+
• 13 M4+, 1 M5+
• Report from Caltech + USGS

Action Items

• Acquire the two books
• Specified reading on BrightSpace
• Quiz on reading in BrightSpace, due next Monday
• Check out the BrightSpace layout
• Register for Poll Everywhere; contact with PollE questions