• Outcomes for Week 8
• Tasks for Week 8
• Making Timely and Substantial Contributions to Discussion Threads
• Assigned Discussion Threads for Week 8
• Weekly Summary

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Welcome to the eighth week in Pacific Northwest Geology online. The main topic for this week is the Cenozoic geology of the Pacific Northwest. The Cenozoic Era began about 65 or 66 million years ago, and continues today.

Outcomes for Week 8

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

• explain the relationship of geologic cross-sections to geologic maps
• determine the relative ages of rocks in cross-sections
• describe the relationship between geologic structures and their history
• describe how the structures of Eocene age in the Pacific Northwest indicate a time of crustal shear and tension
• describe how the shear and tension in the crust during the Eocene may relate to plate motions along the continental margin
• compare Pacific Northwest igneous rocks of the Eocene Epoch with those of a volcanic arc, and show how they do not match
• describe the geologic history of the post-Eocene subduction zone in the Pacific Northwest
• compare hypotheses for the origin of the Columbia River Basalts and Yellowstone-Snake River Plain volcanics, and explain why the hot spot hypothesis has become the leading hypothesis
• describe how climates have cooled in the Pacific Northwest since the mid-Tertiary period, including evidence from fossils before the Pleistocene Ice Age and evidence of the Ice Age itself

Tasks for Week 8

• Read Lecture #8 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 #8. Send Lab Assignment 8 on time in two forms
1. a printout on which you label cross-sections; mail this to the instructor at:
   Ralph Dawes PNW
   Wenatchee Valley College
   1300 Fifth Street
   Wenatchee, WA 98801
2. the Lab Assignment 8 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 8

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

More time travel this week. This week you are traveling back in time to the Eocene. Take part in one, two or all three of these threads as your Eocene travel budget allows.

1. On a visit to the Wenatchee area, what would you see? Remember to include life forms and depositional environments.
2. Still in the Eocene, you decide to travel west to visit the Chuckanut Coast area. What would you see there? Remember the distinctive fossils of the Chuckanut Formation.
3. You are enjoying this trip in the Eocene so much that you decide to head east to the area around Republic, Washington. Describe what you would see there. Remember the Stonerose Interpretive Center and the San Poil Volcanics.

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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