• Outcomes for Week 5
• Tasks for Week 5
• Making Timely and Substantial Contributions to Discussion Threads
• Assigned Discussion Threads for Week 5

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Welcome to the fifth week in Pacific Northwest Geology online. The main topic for this week is exotic terranes, also known as accreted terranes.

(You should be aware that strictly speaking, the best term for them may be "suspect terranes," referring to sizable bodies of rock that have properties which bring them under suspicion of having come from elsewhere. To call them exotic or accreted terranes is to accept the interpretation that they did come from elsewhere.)

Outcomes for Week 5

Now let us take a look at what is happening this week. At the end of the fifth week, you should be able to:

• define accreted terrane
• develop a picture in your mind of how accreted terranes have added to the Pacific Northwest
• describe several types of evidence that indicate a terrane is exotic
• explain how terranes can be moved from far away by plate tectonics
• describe how a terrane can be accreted to another plate from a subducting oceanic plate
• describe the type of evidence which indicates that some Pacific Northwest terranes have been brought far north from where they formed, and some have been rotated
• explain why terrane accretion did not start occurring in the Pacific Northwest until the Jurassic Period
• label the sequence of rock types in an ophiolite, explain how each rock type of an ophiolite forms in oceanic lithosphere, and describe how ophiolites are important as accreted terranes
• describe and distinguish the Intermontane Superterrane from the Insular Superterrane
• describe how the Omineca Belt and the North Cascades Crystalline Core are related to the Intermontane Superterrane and Insular Superterrane
• relate the Olympic Mountains to accreted terranes

Tasks for Week 5

• Read Lecture #5 and the course content Web pages to which it is linked.
• Make timely and substantial contributions to the assigned discussion threads (see below).
• Discuss with the rest of the class the assigned discussion question.
• Complete Lab Assignment #5.
• This week use the table in Part I. to construct and organize your answers. Enter the answers into the Lab Assignment 5 Part I. Answers Form on your online classroom. Follow the instructions on the answer form carefully.
• Enter your answers to Lab Assignment Part II. In the Lab Assignment Part II. Answer Form on your online classroom.
• Take Quiz 5 online in your online classroom.
• Write your weekly summary on the last day of the week and post it to the classroom discussion area by the end of that day (see below).

Making Timely and Substantial Contributions to Discussion Threads

Each week you are assigned one (or several) discussion threads. You are expected, at minimum, to submit a comment of your own, and at least one response to another student's comment, as your contribution to that thread. You are also expected to provide substance to at least one of your postings. Substance means such things as descriptions of real geological examples that you have encountered, or references (with your own comments) to things you have read about, or references (with your own comments) to other Web pages that are relevant to the discussion thread.

You are also welcome to, and encouraged to, start your own discussion threads and respond to other students' discussion threads. The minimum requirement is to take part in the discussion threads that are assigned at the beginning of each week, in the agenda.

Assigned Discussion Thread for Week 5

Here is a listing of the fifth's week's assigned discussion thread.

1. Propose a field site for your term project and state why it is of interest geologically.
2. Pick another student's proposed field site and provide feedback about the location or geology. First, state what you like about the choice. Second, help steer your classmate from any potential problems you see. For example, if your classmate proposes going to a mountain top and you know it has already received snow, you could pass along that information. If a classmate proposes a site along a river, you could remind him or her to look for exposed bedrock instead of recent river sediments.

Choose a field site proposal that has not already been commented upon.

Your Weekly Summary

Your weekly summary is important. It is to be completed on the last day of the online week. It is to be sent to the Weekly Summary discussion thread.

Writing a summary helps you solidify in your mind what you learned that week. A high-quality summary clearly describes the main ideas you learned, with some specific examples. Demonstrate what you have learned and discuss your experience in learning it, in your own words.

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