GEOL 230 - Natural Disasters

Units: 3 ; Breadth Area: GE-B1; Sustainability
Geologic processes and their effects on human populations. Topics include earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, coastal erosion, fire, floods, weather phenomena, atmospheric and water pollution.

Credit Restrictions: Not for Geology or Environmental Sciences major or minor credit.

Possible Instructional Methods: On-ground.
Grading: A-F or CR/NC (student choice).
Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-B1 - Lower Division Physical Science, Overlay - Sustainability
Course Typically Offered: Variable Intermittently

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Demonstrate an understanding of the fundamental principles of natural hazards by applying these core ideas and skills: Understand the energetics of natural disasters - earth-driven versus solar-driven processes.
Understand plate tectonics - the fundamental and underlying theory that accounts for and predicts all geological systems and is the specific cause of earthquakes, volcanoes and also gravitationally-driven mass-wasting events.
Geologic Time - appreciate the incredible magnitude of geologic time and its fundamental importance to all natural phenomena and the different timescales involved.
Understand solar-driven phenomena - weather and climate-related hazards, global-climate change and related fires and flooding.
Understand the fundamental difference between hazard and risk, and how to mitigate risk. Understanding the very real nature of the risks associated with living in the San Francisco Bay area and around the world.

B1. Physical Science Learning Outcomes

Demonstrate knowledge of scientific theories, concepts, and data about the physical sciences;
demonstrate an understanding of scientific practices, including the scientific method; and
describe the potential limits of scientific endeavors, including the accepted standards and ethics associated with scientific inquiry.

Sustainability Overlay Learning Outcomes

identify the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability, either in general or in relation to a specific problem;
analyze interactions between human activities and natural systems;
describe key threats to environmental sustainability; and
explain how individual and societal choices affect prospects for sustainability at the local, regional, and/or global levels.