[Petwksp] Hmmm

[Jodie Hayob]

Hi all,

     By the end of the igneous portion of the semester, I think my students could basically ID the general composition of all of the rocks except phonolite.  For tectonic settings, they should know andesite, kimberlite, granite, spilite, and the two basalts.  They may remember that the Moon has much anorthosite.  At year or two out, who knows!  We are a small liberal arts institution (now a university) and most of our students have interests that are more environmental and surficial.  Thus, I fear few of them would remember more than granite, andesite and basalt overall although they may be able to say something intelligent about spilite and kimberlite!  Cheers,  Jodie

NB - I think most students would remember some of these rocks better than they would anything from a geophysics course!  Just my bias, of course.

Jodie Hayob,
Assoc. Professor of Geology
Dept. Environmental Science & Geology
University of Mary Washington
Fredericksburg, VA  22401
Phone:  540-654-1425
FAX:  540-654-1081
jhayob at umw.edu


>>> Dexter Perkins <dexter_perkins at und.nodak.edu> 01/27/06 1:04 PM >>>
Petrofolks, my geophysics colleague says we are doing crummy job 
teaching petrology because he gave the following question -- just as 
written -- to his students and the most correct answers he got was 3 - 
5!  Can you comment on this result?  What would you expect of your 
students a year, mostly 2 years, after they completed petrology? 

What are the general compositions  of the following rocks and what are 
the tectonic settings (plutonic, volcanic, oceanic, continental) for 
their occurrence? 

    Phonolite *

    Anorthosite *

    Andesite *

    Kimberlite *

    Granite *

    Spilite *   

    Tholeiitic basalt *

    Alkaline-olivine basalt *

-- 
Dr. Dexter Perkins
Dept. of Geology
Box 8358, University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, ND 58202
701-777-2991 w; 701-746-1634 h

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