Mark K Reagan

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Earth and Environmental Sciences

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Classes taught at the University of Iowa (since 2005)

EES:1400 Natural Disasters

How earth-atmosphere-hydrosphere-space systems produce events catastrophic to humans on the scale of individual lives to civilizations; root causes of earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, floods, hurricanes, tsunami, tornadoes, and asteroid impact, and their local, national, and global impact; spatial and temporal occurrences of these hazards; methods and processes for hazard preparedness, response, and recovery; social, economic, and policy aspects that affect and compound the magnitude of disasters associated with natural phenomena; case studies drawn from contemporary and ancient societies. GE: Natural Sciences without Lab.

EES:2410 Mineralogy

I teach this introductory class for the geoscience major every Fall semester. The goal of the course is for students to learn to recognize and understand the origin of minerals, which are the building blocks of nearly all geological materials. Students learn to identify approximately 100 of the most common minerals using a few simple field tests, a hand-lens, and a petrographic microscope. Students also learn where minerals are found, how they associate with each other and their economic value.

EES:3160 Field Trip

This course rotates between several faculty members and is taught each Spring. Each Spring Break, the course participants trave to an area of geologic interest, such as Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, the Grand Canyon (Arizona), Puerto Rico, Rio Grande Rift (New Mexico), Death Valley (California, Nevada), the Appalachian Mountains (Virginia), and China. The field trip is preceded by weekly discussions of destination's geology and postdated by a summary class.

EES:4520 Isotope Geochemistry

This course covers the basic principles of radioactive decay and isotope fractionation for most of the isotopic systems utilized in the Earth sciences. We focus on the application of radiogenic and stable isotope systems to address geochronological, geological, and environmental problems. It is taught Spring semesters. We cover all major isotopic systems and their applications for geochronology and tracing mass movements through different earth systems.

EES:6570 Tectonics and Petrology Seminar

This course is lead by a "hard-rock" faculty member, and is offered each each semester. The goal is to provide a forum for senior undergraduate, graduate students, and faculty to discuss topics of interest in Tectonics, Petrology and Geochemistry. It is an opportunity for students to read and critique current literature, as well as to improve their presentation skills. The format of the class is a presentation of paper(s) by a student, followed by a discussion of the papers lead by the presenter: all students are expected to participate in the discussion.