SC 215: Death Valley and Snowball Earth – Class pesentations available

Death Valley

Death Valley National Park is the driest and lowest place in the United States and officially the hottest place on Earth.  It is also a geologist’s paradise!  The 64 rock formations exposed in the Park date from about 1.7 billion years ago to the present.  Geologists are particularly interested in 1. Reading the rock record of the past 30 million years when large rivers and extensive lakes existed in the Death Valley region, and 2. Interpreting the rocks deposited 600-700 million years ago, a time when the Earth was sometimes completely covered in ice (“Snowball Earth”).   In this class we reviewed their conclusions and questions and will briefly consider the history of human occupation of the Valley.

Presenter/Developer: John Bush, Ph.D., Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley.  John is an OLLI member and has taught several classes for OLLI including lectures on the Grand Canyon and Colorado Plateau and on the geology of Scotland.

California Has Many Faults

Introduction – from the present to 30 million years ago

Thursday, January 9: Click this link to view the class presentation: SC 215 – Death Valley and Snowball Earth – Part 1

The evidence of Snowball Earth

Thursday, January 16: Click this link to view the class presentation: SC 215 – Death Valley and Snowball Earth – Part 2