Concordia University

Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering

CIVI-231 Geology for Civil Engineers

Fall 2014
Instructors:

Mr.P.Nekoovaght, Phone: 848-2424, Office EV006.183

Email: p.nekoovaght@concordia.ca

Office Hours:

Thursdays 16:00 - 18:00

Lectures:

Monday 17:45 - 20:15 in H-937

Labs:

Section LA
Section LB
Section LC

Required
Book:

Monday (20:30-21:30) in H-605

TA: Abdalla, Suliman (su_abda@encs.concordia.ca)
Tuesday (18:30-19:30) in H-1070
TA: Arabzadeh, Afshin (m_arabz@encs.concordia.ca)
Wednesday (19:30-20:30) in H-539
TA: Arabzadeh, Afshin (m_arabz@encs.concordia.ca)

Tarbuck, Lutgens, Tsujita and Hicock, Earth: An Introduction to

Physical Geology, 4th Canadian Ed., 2013 (Available in the bookstore)

Course Description:
Basic principles of physical and structural geology with emphasis on
topics related to civil engineering, study of minerals, rocks and soil
types, load formation, techniques of airphoto interpretations, and
geological maps.

Course Outline:
An introduction to geology and plate tectonics, Minerals, Igneous rocks,
Volcanoes and volcanic processes, Weathering and soil, Sedimentary rocks,
Metamorphism and metamorphic rocks, Geologic time, Crustal deformation,
Earthquakes and Earths interior, The ocean floor, Plate tectonics, Mountain
building and continental frameworks, Mass wasting, Running water,
Groundwater, Glaciers and glaciation, Deserts and Winds, Shorelines, Mineral
and energy resources.

Marking Scheme: (Complete details follow)

Lab quizzes
Course project
Midterm
Final
Notes:

Lab related
rules:

10%
20%
20%
50%

(tentatively Oct. 6th)

In order to pass the course you must obtain at

least 50% in the class.
All submissions (e.g. project report, lab reports, etc. if
applicable) must have a completed and signed originality sheet
attached. Without it, the submission is automatically rejected,
requiring re-submittal and incurring late penalty.
There will be no supplemental midterm. Students not writing
the midterm will be required to write a research essay on a
given topic.
Students receiving a poor grade on the midterm and not
writing the final will receive the grade of R-DNW.

It is expected that you use the lab time to work on your course
project; thus most of the labs are set aside so that groups can
work on their course project. Some of the lab time will be taken for the
lab quizzes to be held in. You must attend all your labs.
You have to attend the lab section that you are assigned to, no
switching, no exceptions unless with my permission.
If you miss a lab, you have to contact me as soon as possible
and provide a credible reason.

Late fees

Any late submission is penalized at a rate of 10%/day up to 100%.

Attributes

The attributes associated with this course are knowledge base for
engineering, use of engineering tools, individual and team works and
communication skills. These skills will be taught, practiced as follows:
Knowledge-base for engineering: the material covered in this course
will be useful in many subsequent courses.
Use of engineering tools, individual and team works and
communication skills: your ability to leverage the resources available
through libraries, governmental agencies, etc. will result in writing a
project report in form of an engineering report. Your skills of
gathering, analyzing and communicating technical information will be
developed along with teamwork skills. The communication skills
attribute will be measured in the course project comprising 20% of
the projects grade.

Note

In the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond the University's

control, the content and/or evaluation scheme in this course is
subject to change.

Course Project
Value:
The course project will weight 20% of the final mark (15% for the written final report and 5% for
a power point presentation on that report).
Outline:
All students of the class will be divided into groups of four people (a few groups of 5 people might be
created due to the number of students in class). Each group will be assigned a province within North
America in order to study the physical geology of that area respecting all the outline of the book studied
in class.
Written report (15% of the final mark):
It is required that the general scope of the report will investigate on the province in terms of geology. The
general physical geology of the sector respecting the outline of the book has to be studied regardless of
specifics of geotechnical aspects of a certain material.
Canadian Provinces:
1. British Columbia
2. Alberta
3. Saskatchewan
4. Manitoba
5. Ontario
6. Quebec
7. New Brunswick
8. Nova Scotia
9. Newfoundland
10. Prince Edward Island
American Provinces:
AL
Alabama
AR
Arkansas
CT
Connecticut
FL
Florida
ID
Idaho
IA
Iowa
LA
Louisiana
MA
Massachusetts
MS
Mississippi
NE
Nebraska
NJ
New Jersey
NC
North Carolina
OK
Oklahoma
RI
Rhode Island
TN
Tennessee
VT
Vermont

AK
CA
DC
GA
IL
KS
ME
MI
MO
NV
NM
ND
OR
SC
TX
VA

Alaska
California
Dist. Columbia
Georgia
Illinois
Kansas
Maine
Michigan
Missouri
Nevada
New Mexico
North Dakota
Oregon
South Carolina
Texas
Virginia

AZ
CO
DE
HI
IN
KY
MD
MN
MT
NH
NY
OH
PA
SD
UT
WA

Arizona
Colorado
Delaware
Hawaii
Indiana
Kentucky
Maryland
Minnesota
Montana
New Hampshire
New York
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Dakota
Utah
Washington

WV

West Virginia

WI

Wisconsin

WY

Wyoming

Table of content:
The table of content of the book is the main reference to be covered within the report; if not all are
applicable, at least the following table of content has to be respected and followed within the report. Some
content may have been missed within the following bullet points, which has to be added to the report.
Although all the following subjects are very general, it may not be applicable to one area; however, since
the goal is to evaluating the area chosen geologically in details, whatever subject missing has to be
included within the report.

Introduction to the geology and plate tectonics of the area, geographical location, size, population
Volcanic activities
Outline of the main natural resources available in the area, the geological activity that resulted the
natural resources
Outline and explain the geological formation that the area is located on, types of rocks and soil
available from construction, agriculture and mining point of view
History of the geological time of the area and its influence on current available resources and
formation
Earthquakes and their activity frequencies in the area, the types of volcanoes and their influence
of the people living in the vicinity to the volcanoes
Mountain building and continental frame works of the area and their influences on the peoples
lives in terms of constructions, transportations, cities, etc.
Running water and ground water available in the area including their influences on the geology of
the area, the economy as well as peoples lives living in the area
Glaciers available in the area and their influences on the geology and peoples lives living in the
area
Deserts and winds as well as natural activities available in the area including their influences on
peoples lives living in the area

Suggested websites:
1. www.worldatlas.com
2. www.nrcan.gc.ca
3. www.usgs.gov
Criteria:
20 to 30 pages (including pictures + references + cover page and originality form)
At least 5 references (Reliable websites, books and journal articles)
Have to respect Plagiarism
Respecting the table of content mention highlighted above
References (Proper standard referencing according to APA citation style)
Number of pages
Order, formatting and cleanness
Organization of the project
Sufficient and geological related content respecting the book outline
Flow and consistency of information
Originality Sheet (available online)

Deadline of course project report:

The deadline of the final report is the day assigned to present a power point presentation as a group.
Please refer to the time table of the PPT presentation
Each group in its relevant class should submit their final report no later than the deadline to their
assigned TA.
Power point presentation of the project report (5% of the final mark):
It is required that the groups present a power point presentation of their report respecting the criteria of a
technical presentation.
Criteria:
Respect a maximum time frame of 15-20 minutes per group (3-4 min per member in a group)
Demonstrate understanding of cognitive and conceptual differences between oral and written
presentation
Create appropriate scope for treatment of topic in oral presentation
Adapt written text to oral presentation
Identify audience needs, interests and level of knowledge
Plan, design and effectively utilize visual materials
Utilize effective presentation techniques
Identify strategies to overcome linguistic difference
Adapt presentation to heterogeneous audiences
Date of presentation:
All groups must be completely prepared to submit their final report and present their final presentation.
The presentations will tentatively start as of November 4th and the groups will be called randomly.

Lab Quizzes
Criteria:
There will be four (4) lab quizzes throughout the term.
Each lab quiz will contain 25 multiple choice, pictures, fill out and writing questions
Each quiz weights 50%.
All four lab quizzes will make 10% of the final mark.
Lab quizzes will be held in the tutorial classes.
Tentative schedule of lab quizzes:
LA
LB
LC
Quiz 1
September
29
30
Quiz 1
October
1
Quiz 2
October
27
28
29
Quiz 3
November 10th in the lecture class
Quiz 4
November
24
25
26