Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An introduction to the description and interpretation of sedimentary media. Topics include principles of sedimentology, the facies concept and facies analysis, depositional environments, stratigraphy and stratigraphic correlation.

COURSE DETAILS:

The course integrates principles of stratigraphy with principles of process sedimentology in order to develop techniques for the description and interpretation of sedimentary facies, prediction of facies architecture, reconstruction of paleogeography and resolution of depositional history.

Course Topics:

1. Introduction to sedimentology, including: chemical sedimentation, clastic process sedimentology, basis of flow regime theory, identification and interpretation of physical and biogenic sedimentary structures.
2. The character of facies, including: the facies concept, the use of facies associations, applications of Walther's Law, development of facies models, and the interpretation of depositional environments.
3. The character of facies associations in depositional settings ranging from terrestrial to deep marine environments.
4. Introduction to stratigraphy, including: stratigraphic principles, lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and chronostratigraphy.
5. Genetic stratigraphy, including allostratigraphy, genetic stratigraphic sequences, T-R sequences, and sequence stratigraphy, with an emphasis on relative sea level, base level, eustacy vs. tectonics, systems tracts and depositional environments, and reconstruction of depositional history.

Course Organization: Two 1-hour lectures and one 3-hour laboratory class per week

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

EASC 201 introduces students to the discipline of stratigraphy and sedimentation. Upon successful completion of the course, students will demonstrate a broad knowledge and understanding of sedimentary rocks, particularly of siliciclastic units. Using the scientific method, they will develop technical and analytical skills in order to:

1. Accurately describe sedimentary rocks.
2. Identify primary and syndepositional sedimentary structures and assign the process or processes responsible for their formation.
3. Identify the basic biogenic structures and their implications for depositional conditions.
4. Characterize sedimentary rock intervals in the context of facies successions and interpret possible sedimentary depositional environments.
5. Describe rocks successions in subsurface core and from these data, construct detailed graphic lithologs.
6. Be familiar with sedimentary depositional environments ranging from the continental realm, through paralic, shallow-marine and deep marine settings.
7. Develop familiarity with the main stratigraphic frameworks employed by the North American Code of Stratigraphic Nomenclature (NACSN).
8. Demonstrate stratigraphic correlation skills and an understanding of the implications of such correlations, both in depositional space and across depositional time.

EASC 201 provides students with the opportunity to begin developing key competencies in this subject area, both through instructor/TA-student and student-student learning. Laboratory assignments are all hands-on, with students working in groups of 2 to describe and interpret rocks and graphic lithologs. These working groups also permit students to develop collaborative and management skills required in a professional setting.  Writing skills are expressed through construction of an illustrated and annotated atlas of sedimentary structures, subsurface core descriptions, and geological history interpretation of a stratigraphic cross-section.

Grading

Materials

RECOMMENDED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: