Course objectives

This course has two general objectives.  It will help you become comfortable with specific elements of hydrology; it will also allow you to develop skills that are more widely applicable.

Most broadly the course describes the ways water behaves on and in the shallow earth, and the conceptual and physical tools hydrologists use to study this behavior.  We will look at the following important concepts:

Water budgets : quantitatively describing the movement of water through an area, including precipitation, evapo-transpiration, groundwater recharge and discharge, and stream flow

The nature and movement of groundwater including characterization of aquifers, quantification of flow, and wells and well tests

The chemistry of groundwater including basic natural water chemistry and an introduction to principles of contaminant hydrogeology

The basic skills emphasized and developed include.

Introduction to hydrologic laboratory and field techniques including stream gauging, seepage measurement, piezometer installation, permeability and specific yield measurements, well design and installation, surveying, and simple well tests.

Field notes As a quantitative discipline, hydrology requires that detailed, accurate and accessible records be kept.  Notes will be graded on these characteristics as well as on content

Numerical modeling is at the heart of hydrology.  We will work at several levels, from “home-made” spreadsheet models to sophisticated professional programs.

Work with large data sets Some of the data we will generate (one reading per second for several hours) will require that you work with large amounts of data in spreadsheets and specialized programs

Work with numerical data requites that you think about sources of error, significant figures, and statistical validity.

Reading and understanding hydrogeology articles requires that you understand technical terms and techniques, the goals of the work, and the results.  Ideally, you will be able to understand the limits and potential flaws in the work as well as the author’s stated conclusion.

This 300-level lecture/lab course provides an overview of glacial geology theory and methods and an introduction to climate change science. Topics include: dynamics of glacier flow, origin of glacial features, events of the Pleistocene Epoch with emphasis on the Great Lakes area, Earth’s climate history, causes of ice ages, recent and future climate change. Lab includes several local field trips and a weekend trip to examine geology along the Lake Michigan shore.