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| John Gosse created the popular Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Other Natural Disasters for non-science majors. |
Chiccckkkk!
Glug, glug, glug.
There鈥檚 nothing like cracking open a can of beer at 8:30 in morning to get the attention of university students.
John Gosse, associate professor with the Department of Earth Sciences, pours out the amber brew in a clear jug so it has a nice, thick head. It鈥檚 projected on the big screen so everyone in the auditorium can see clearly.
But he鈥檚 not about to drink it. Instead, he鈥檚 going to measure the thickness of the froth and the rate at which it dissipates over time. It鈥檚 just the coolest way to illustrate the concept of exponential relationships. The head disappears at an exponential rate, which is not unlike the decay of a radioactive mass or the rate of heat loss from the earth since its formation: many natural systems change rapidly at first and then more gradually with time.
鈥淥nce they see it illustrated this way, the concept will never leave them,鈥� says Dr. Gosse, who teaches Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Other Natural Disasters (ERTH 1060). 鈥淲hen I hear students talking about it when they leave the class, I know I鈥檝e got them interested.鈥�
Canada Research Chair in Earth System Evolution, Dr. Gosse created the popular class specifically for non-Earth Science majors. It explores all kinds of natural phenomena, including meteorite impacts, rapid climate change, hurricanes, landslides, solar flares and floods. Besides discussing the where, how and why of natural disasters, students delve into the human and economic impacts.
鈥淭he subject is really fun. We don鈥檛 get bogged down deeply into many equations for some wave 鈥� the material is active, current and very social. Examining the societal impact is very important.
鈥淲hen you take a look at something like the (Boxing Day) tsunami of 2004, for example, and see that 250,000 people died, you can really see the human impact.鈥�
Whenever he can, Dr. Gosse uses examples from Atlantic Canada and contemporary disasters to assess local risk and explore phenomenon. Last term, for example, students learned all about Post-Tropical Storm Noel: about how it began as Caribbean depression, pounded Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas and Jamaica, and then headed for the Atlantic provinces in a reduced state. Even so, Noel drenched Halifax with 53 mm of rain and whipped it with 113-km winds.
The first-year survey class is quite different from other classes taught in the Department of Earth Sciences, which tend to be much smaller and more hands-on. Dr. Gosse also teaches a fourth-year class, Geomorphology and Landscape Evolution (ERTH 4440) and classes for incoming graduate students, including Research Design and Scientific Presentation (ERTH 6300) and Geochronology and Thermochronology (ERTH 6400). That鈥檚 in addition to his research which focuses on geochronology and determining rates of glacial, fluvial (flowing water) and tectonic processes.
Being so much larger, with about 400 students, Natural Disasters calls for some imaginative teaching. As the course expanded, geophysicist Charlie Walls joined Dr. Gosse to co-instruct and improve the IT. They鈥檝e been known to play clips from disaster movies (Dante鈥檚 Peak and Supervolcano from the Discovery Channel), pass around chunks from meteorites and pull out a slinky and skipping rope to illustrate seismic waves generated by earthquakes.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been fascinated by major catastrophic events in the Earth鈥檚 record,鈥� says Dr. Gosse. 鈥淚 think we know only so much about the skin of the apple and the processes that are triggered by what鈥檚 going on well below the skin.
鈥淚鈥檓 just in awe.鈥�