The Alps
You may wish to print a copy of the lecture outline (minus the illustrations) and you have two options:
"IN THE FIRST PLACE PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT I do not expect you to believe this story. Nor could you wonder had you witnessed a recent experience of mine when, in the armor of blissful and stupendous ignorance, I gaily narrated the gist of it to a Fellow of the Royal Geological Society on the occasion of my last trip to London. You would surely have thought that I had been detected in no less a heinous crime than the purloining of the Crown Jewels from the Tower, or putting poison in the coffee of His Majesty the King." [Thought you might like to start off with something a little different.]
"The process by which the Lithospheric plates, which are "floating" on the Mantle, adjust vertically to achieve an equilibrium (the crust and upper mantle have a uniform density.) Because Oceanic Crust has a higher density than Continental Crust, it adjusts lower into the Mantle. This condition is augmented by the fact that Oceanic Crust is thinner and therefore has less mass to compensate for through buoyant displacement of the Mantle."
This is a good set of course notes for topics that we will cover by the end of our course.
Go to Earth Detective and select the Novice section. The animations should help explain structural features you have heard and read about.
Learning about geology from a computer screen is only half as fun as enjoying it in the field!
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Copyright by John C. Butler, July 29, 1995