Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An advanced treatment of topics which may include processes of sedimentation, facies model concepts, applications of ichnology, and depositional environments with an emphasis on siliciclastic successions. Course content will be tailored to student interest, but generally will include both non-marine and marine processes of sedimentation and resultant depositional systems. The development of effective field criteria for the interpretation of the sedimentary record will be emphasized.

COURSE DETAILS:

General:
An advanced treatment of facies characteristics and their interpretations, facies model concepts, applications of ichnology to paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and genetic stratigraphic applications (mainly sequence stratigraphy) to facies analysis. Course content will encompass terrestrial, marginal marine (paralic), shallow-marine and deep-marine environments, in both siliciclastic and carbonate depositional settings. The development of effective outcrop and subsurface criteria for the interpretation of the sedimentary record will be stressed. The ethological (behavioural) classification of biogenic structures, as well as their applications to the ichnofacies concept and to paleoenvironmental interpretation of the sedimentary record will be discussed. Students will examine the utility of facies analysis in the various genetic stratigraphic frameworks and the viability of reconstructing the depositional history of sedimentary successions. Relative sea level changes and their effects on deposition will be discussed in relation to the preserved sedimentary record.

Course Topics:

1. Facies Characteristics and Paleoenvironmental Interpretation.
2. Facies Successions and the Role of Walther’s Law of the Correlation of Facies
3. Facies Model Concepts for Siliciclastic and Carbonate Successions.
4.  Ichnology, Paleoecology and Sedimentary Facies Analysis.
5. Sequence Stratigraphy, Relative Sea Level Changes, and Sedimentary Successions.

Course Organization:

One 2-hour lecture per week (pdf copies of lecture slides available on CANVAS).
One 3-hour laboratory period per week.
One field trip to Salt Spring Island (September 22-25, 2022).

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

EASC 611 constitutes an advanced treatment of the sedimentology and facies analysis of siliciclastic and carbonate successions, particularly as it relates to the rock record. Upon successful completion of this course, students will demonstrate a sophisticated comprehension and competency in the description and interpretation of sedimentary rocks. Using the scientific method, they will refine their skills to:

1) integrate physical sedimentology and ichnology to identify sedimentary facies and facies successions, recognize autogenic facies boundary types, and interpret facies successions;
2) identify stratigraphic breaks in the rock record and interpret their likely origin;
3) describe subsurface core and/or outcrop successions and construct graphic lithologs to characterize them;
4) describe and identify siliciclastic sedimentary successions that record terrestrial, marginal marine (paralic), shallow-marine, and deep-marine environments;
5) refine skills in the facies analysis of carbonate successions, and interpret these facies in terms of their depositional environments;
6) understand changes in facies and facies successions in the context of base level changes and sequence stratigraphy.

Students completing this course will have established key competencies in sedimentology and stratigraphy, both through instructor-student and student-student learning.  Laboratory and/or field trip assignments are all hands-on. Writing skills are expressed through subsurface core descriptions, geological interpretations and completion of a research term paper. Communication skills are honed through in-lab presentations and an in-class seminar.

Grading

Materials

RECOMMENDED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: