Sea level change
Summary
Students calculate sea level change due to melting ice caps, thermal expansion and changes in ridge spreading rates.
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Context
Audience
Used in a Marine Geology course for marine science majors. Physical geology is the prerequisite for the course.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
Isostacy, spreading rates, graph reading.
How the activity is situated in the course
This is part of the lessons on sea level change. The exercise is started in class, to help students develop a strategy to solve the problems. It is completed as homework.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
To extend student understanding of sea level change to geological time scales.
To practice making simplifications so that a problem is solvable.
To practice making and using a sketch to solve problems.
To practice reading graphs.
To practice making simplifications so that a problem is solvable.
To practice making and using a sketch to solve problems.
To practice reading graphs.