COURSE UNIT TITLE

: ZIRCON : A TINY TIME RECORDER

Description of Individual Course Units

Course Unit Code Course Unit Title Type Of Course D U L ECTS
GEE 6010 ZIRCON : A TINY TIME RECORDER ELECTIVE 3 0 0 6

Offered By

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences

Level of Course Unit

Second Cycle Programmes (Master's Degree)

Course Coordinator

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OSMAN ERSIN KORALAY

Offered to

Economic Geology
Economic Geology

Course Objective

Zircon is a common accessory mineral in nature, occurring in a wide variety of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. Zircon is a powerful tool in geochronology and isotope geology and it is capable to solve geological problems in the Earth Sciences. For this reason, The aim of this lecture is to learn ability of zircon in geochronology.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

1   to know composition of zircon in igneous and metamorphic petrogenesis
2   to understand importance of zircon texture
3   to know geochronology methods using zircon
4   to use methods of zircon U-Th-Pb geochronology
5   to use zircon for age determinations of sedimentary, magmatic and metamorphic rocks

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Week Subject Description
1 The internal structure of atoms and decay mechanisms of radioactive atoms
2 Basic rules: Half-lives of radioactive isotopes, Closed system
3 Structure and chemistry of zircon and zircon-group minerals
4 The composition of zircon and igneous and metamorphic Petrogenesis-1
5 The composition of zircon and igneous and metamorphic Petrogenesis-2
6 Historical development of zircon geochronology
7 The importance of zircon textures
8 The methods of zircon U-Th-Pb geochronology
9 Lu-Hf and Sm-Nd isotope system in zircon
10 Ti-thermometry in zircon
11 Zircon age determinations of the magmatic rocks
12 Zircon age determinations of the metamorphic rocks
13 Detrital zircon and provenance analyses of the sedimentary rocks
14 Presentations by students

Recomended or Required Reading

Textbook(s): :
Hanchar, J.M., Hoskin, W.O., (Ed), 2003, Zircon, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Mineralogical Society of America, 500s.
Supplementary Book(s):

Materials: Zircon: Tiny but Timely, 2007,Elements: An International Magazine of Mineralogy, Geochemistry, and Petrology, Volume 3, Number, 1

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

The course lectures, class presentation and discussion format. All class members are expected to attend to both the lecture and seminar hours and take part in the discussion sessions. Besides the course lecture, group presentations are to be prepared by the groups assigned for that week and presented to open a discussion session.
Lectures: Interactive lectures
Assignment: Homework prepared by the student
Presentation: Presentation prepared by the student

Assessment Methods

SORTING NUMBER SHORT CODE LONG CODE FORMULA
1 ASG ASSIGNMENT
2 PRS PRESENTATION
3 FCG FINAL COURSE GRADE ASG * 0.50 + PRS * 0.50


Further Notes About Assessment Methods

None

Assessment Criteria

To be announced.

Language of Instruction

Turkish

Course Policies and Rules

To be announced.

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

Phone: 0232.3017331
email: ersin.koralay@deu.edu.tr

Office Hours

Wednesday 15:00 -17:00

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Activities Number Time (hours) Total Work Load (hours)
Lectures 14 3 42
Preparations before/after weekly lectures 14 1 14
Preparing presentations 1 57 57
Final Assignment 1 44 44
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours) 157

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

PO/LOPO.1PO.2PO.3PO.4PO.5PO.6PO.7PO.8PO.9PO.10PO.11PO.12PO.13PO.14
LO.155545
LO.2533
LO.3533555555
LO.45355555555
LO.53555555555