Seminar Details

Seminar Lab Date: February 18, 2023

Seminar Lab Subject: Saturday Lab: Rock Cycle (Hand-identification)

Seminar Lab Presenter: Conducted by Jeff Thole, M.Sc., Geology Laboratory Supervisor, Macalester College

Seminar Lab Location:

Lab time is 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM 

Macalester College Geology Dept.,

SW area of basement of Olin-Rice Science Center (Building 14),
(south end of campus, by tennis courts) Meet in Room #100.

Campus Map     Road Map

Seminar Lab Detail:

Abstract: Participants will examine the various members of the rock cycle and learn to distinguish each type based on texture and composition. With careful examination, constituent minerals and textures in rocks can be identified facilitating proper classification.  Once correctly identified, each rock’s ‘story’ can be read allowing interpretations of emplacement or eruption, environments of deposition, pressure and temperature conditions, and ultimately, the tectonic setting where each rock was formed. With basic identification skills honed, hopefully participants will be able to predict expected changes in specific rocks as they travel through the rock cycle.

Biography: Jeff Thole is the Geology Laboratory Supervisor at Macalester College. He teaches laboratory sections of the Introductory Geology courses and runs the Keck Laboratory which includes a X-ray diffractometer, a sequential X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, and a low vacuum scanning electron microscope with EDS and WDS X-ray spectrometers. Jeff graduated from the University of Minnesota – Duluth and worked for the US Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia, before obtaining a M.Sc. in Geology at Washington State University. He worked as an environmental consultant for 5 years before joining Macalester College in 1996.