Project Requirements

1. The objective of this project is for each student to make a tectonic interpretation of some geological and/or geophysical data.
2. The data you interpret does not have to be original, and may have already been interpreted by others.
3. We have some new data sets that you may make a first-cut interpretation of, for your project. Such projects require more original work but less library research.
4. A project on a previously interpreted data set would require more examination of published literature, reviewing and comparing others' results.
5. Your written project report is due at the start of class on May 8, 2001.
6. On May 8 you will also make a 10-minute oral presentation of your report, including at least one visual aid.
7. Your written report might well be no more than 10 double-spaced pages in length, including figures. Terse and pithy reports will get a higher grade than wordy ones that cover equivalent material.
8. Organize your report into: abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusions, references cited, figure captions, and figures; like a lab report or scientific manuscript.
9. Any plagiarism will be severely penalized. Include proper citation of all sources that are not ``common knowledge'' to the scientifically literate reader. Use the scientific citation format, not footnotes. Arrange your references cited alphabetically by first-author surnames. Adhere to a consistent bibliographic style.
10. Professor Steven Dutch at the Univ. of Wisconsin, Green Bay has posted a helpful guide to finding proper references for college papers.
11. Figures should be consistent with good practices for graphs and other scientific visualizations.
12. Good use of written English will count toward 30% of the project grade.
13. An effective and well-timed oral presentation with clear graphic elements will count toward 30% of the project grade.
14. Accurately cited, complete, and appropriate literature review will count for 10-30% of the project grade, depending on the nature of the project.
15. The remainder of the project grade depends on the soundness of your interpetation and on your justification of it.
16. Some of each remaining lab period will be devoted to assisting all of you with pursuing your projects.
17. The instructors and TA will be available to discuss project topics, help set outlines, and critique draft reports and presentation materials until May 8.

Possible Projects

1. Create and interpret a 3-d gravity map of Warm Springs Val. using NBMG and Spring 2000 Geol 453/653 data.
2. Create and interpret a 3-d gravity map of the Sunrise Pass area using data collected by Abbott, Louie, and Cashman.
3. Model and interpret a 2-d gravity profile from Warm Springs Val., Virginia City, Reno, the Mt. Rose Fan, Sunrise Pass, Dixie Valley, or Pahrump Valley.
4. Create and interpret a 3-d magnetic map of the Steamboat Hills from Washoe County data.
5. Model and interpret a 2-d magnetic profile from the Steamboat Hills, Dixie Valley, or Pahrump Valley.
6. Assemble logs of recent, deep Sierra Pacific and Washoe County water wells from Reno together with geothermal well data in the NBMG files; create a basin map and tectonic interpretation.
7. Interpret tectonic patterns from a regional geophysical or topographic map.
8. Attempt a measurement of the vertical gravity gradient in a building on campus.
9. Survey the Quad or a parking lot with a grid of hand-carried electromagnetic measurements, create a map, and interpret locations of underground utilities.
10. Collect a refraction and microtremor survey on the Quad and interpret shear velocity.
11. Use geodetic GPS to survey the distance between two campus features to better than 1 cm accuracy.
12. Find the local magnetic declination to better than 1 degree accuracy.
13. Measure the amplitude and frequency of the Earth tide with a gravimeter.
14. Examine 7.5' topographic maps for Lake Manly (Death Valley) shorelines.
15. Construct a fence diagram of Lake Tahoe or Washington seismic-reflection interpretations.
16. Convert several seismic-reflection records to sound files, listen, and propose an interpretational technique.
17. Input Lake Tahoe or Washington topography and bathymetry to Bryce 4, construct a fly-through and interpret.
18. Input Reno topography and basin geometry to Bryce 4, construct a fly-through and interpret.
19. Construct a scientific visualization of pit-lake chemistry or resistivity measurements in 2- or 3-D.