GEOS 312
Mass Extinctions: Patterns and Processes
Last Offered Spring 2018
Division III Writing Skills
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Over the last 542 million years of Earth history, five major mass extinctions have occurred, each dramatically changing the makeup and course of life on our planet. During some of these events, over 75% of all marine animal species went extinct and groups like the dinosaurs vanished from the planet after over 100 million years of ecological dominance. This tutorial course will explore the idea of extinction from the evolution of the concept in human thought to current research on the mechanisms and patterns of extinctions through time. We will examine what makes an extinction “mass”, delve into the causes and consequences of the major mass extinction events of the phanerozoic, and discuss the potential human-induced “6th extinction” event occurring in the present day. This course is in the Sediments and Life group for the Geosciences major.