• Outcomes for Week 7
• Tasks for Week 7
• Making Timely and Substantial Contributions to Discussion Threads
• Assigned Discussion Threads for Week 7
• Weekly Summary

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Welcome to the seventh week in Pacific Northwest Geology online. The main topic for this week is orogeny, or mountain building.

Outcomes for Week 7

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

• define the term orogeny
• explain the geologic processes that form mountain ranges at subduction zones, including accretionary complexes and volcanic arcs
• describe how a region far inland of a subduction zone can undergo orogeny
• describe how transform plate motion can affect the geology of mountain ranges
• relate each item in the following list to orogeny: volcanism; intrusion; regional metamorphism; contact metamorphism; clastic sedimentation; angular unconformities; nonconformities
• describe the following orogenies in the Pacific Northwest in terms of the geologic times in which they occurred, the regions that they affected, and the major structures and bodies of rock they formed: Sevier, Laramide, Basin and Range, North Cascades (Cretaceous), Cascadia (late Tertiary and Quaternary)
• relate selected rocks from your Pacific Northwest Geology Rocks collection to orogenies in the Pacific Northwest

Tasks for Week 7

• Read Lecture #7 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 #7. Send Lab Assignment #7 in by filling out the Lab Assignment 7 Written Answers Form in your online classroom. Follow the instructions on the answer form carefully.
• Take the weekly Pacific Northwest Geology quiz online.
• 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 7

Here is a listing of the seventh week's assigned discussion threads.

You are the geologic officer on the time-traveling starship Enterprise III and come to the earth millions of years in the future. It seems to you that another continent has accreted to what was western North America. To test your hypothesis you need to establish where the Cascade and Olympic Mountains were. They have apparently eroded to a flat plain.

1. What evidence of the Cascade Range you would look for?
2. What evidence of the Olympic Mountains you would look for?
3. What evidence of the Puget Sound basin you would look for?

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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