Discussion Session on brittle fault rocks and friction

Whitney Behr, University of Texas Austin

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection.

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are

Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
Pedagogic Effectiveness
Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page

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This page first made public: Jun 1, 2012

Summary

In this discussion session we focus on the field and micro-scale characteristics of brittle fault rocks, and on how these characteristics may significantly affect the frictional properties of rocks such that they deviate from the classic Byerlee's Law.

Folds/Faults/Ductile Shear Zones, Microstructures, Deformation ...(more)

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Context

Audience

Graduate level lab/lecture/field course on microstructure and rock rheology

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Basic structural geology; ideally some experience reading scientific literature;

How the activity is situated in the course

As part of a series of 4 'discussion sessions' held throughout the course.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

To teach students about the concept of fault weakening and dynamic friction using examples from field, lab and experiment.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

To give students experience reading, dissecting and digesting scientific literature.

Other skills goals for this activity

Oral presentation and participation in discussion.

Description and Teaching Materials

The students are given PDF's of the listed articles at least 2 weeks in advance. Discussion sessions are 1.5-2 hours long. One student per article is assigned to read their article in greater detail and is asked to present a 5-10 minute synopsis to the class.

Discussion Session on brittle fault rocks and friction (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 102kB May13 12)

Teaching Notes and Tips

Assessment

The primary way of assessing whether students have met the goals is to monitor each student's participation during the session. Also, the ease with which the discussion 'flows' is a good way of determining whether the students have grasped the concepts. If the discussion is stilted, it is likely the students struggled with the reading material, in which case it may be better to turn the discussion session into a teaching activity and take more time to explain the concepts to them in detail.