• Theme of the Week
• What you will accomplish
• How you will do it

Themes of the Week:

This week we will proceed through the geology of the entire Cenozoic era in the Pacific Northwest, the 66 million years from the extinction of the dinosaurs to the present.

To fully explore these themes you will:

• 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 hotspot 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.

By completing the following:

1. Read Lecture 8-The Cenozoic era in the Pacific Northwest and its linked Basics and Focus pages and refer to them in your assignments.
2. Participate in the Week 8 Discussion in the online classroom. See Weekly Discussion Rubric
3. Read Week 8 Lab Assignment. Complete Lab Assignment #8 by:
   1. submitting the online Lab #8 answer form in the online classroom
   2. completing and mailing, via postal mail, the map and cross sections that you have marked and labeled according to lab instructions
   See Lab Rubric
4. Take Quiz #8 online in the online classroom. See the Weekly Quiz Rubric.
5. At the end of the week, compose a summary of the main things you learned about the geology of the Pacific Northwest and post it in the online classroom Week 8 Summary. See the Weekly Summary Rubric.

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