THIS IS NOT THE OFFICIAL ESS 211 WEB SITE FOR AUTUMN 2012**

Click here to go to the real ESS 211 web site for 2012

Welcome to ESS 211.

This course will introduce you to the physical processes that shift continents, build mountains and shape the Earth's surface. As you can tell from the title, the aim of the course is to teach you about the physical processes that work to modify the Earth's surface and upper crust. You will learn that elementary physical principles governing stress and strain, heat conduction, fluid flow and rock strength explain a wide range of geological phenomena - from earthquakes and glacier flow to why your basement floods in winter. We will explore examples from structural geology, sedimentology, tectonics, and geomorphology, united by their common underlying physics.

Autumn weather permitting, we will introduce the class with a voluntary weekend field trip to Eastern Washington early in the quarter. The trip takes in the spectacular geology of the Cascades and Columbia Plateau - products of mountain building, massive volcanism, giant floods and glacial erosion - giving us a chance to illustrate - with real rocks - material that we'll talk about later in lectures.