Course Objectives for Geology 1045 – Minnesota’s Geological History
Spring 2007
One of the main objective of this class will be to show how geologists can read the language of
the rocks and landscape of Minnesota to tell the fantastic story of how the core of North America
was created. It is a powerful and dramatic tale of exploding volcanoes rising out of primordial
oceans, of seas teeming with early life forms, of mountains of unrivaled height, of incandescent
lava fountaining out of mile-long fissures, of white sandy beaches lapped by azure blue oceans, of
tropical rainforests overrun by dinosaurs, and mile-thick glaciers slowly carving a new landscape.
In addition to attempting to satisfy our intellectual curiosity of how this place we call Minnesota
came to be, another objective of this class is to highlight the earth resources available to us in
Minnesota that we need for our everyday existence in our modern society. We will explore what
resources are here, how and when they were created, and how we use (or reuse) them. We will
also discuss how we should steward these inherently non-renewable resources.