Sedimentary Geology and Paleoenvironments

Catalog description

Sedimentary Geology involves the study of physical, chemical, and biologic processes that result in the formation, transportation and deposition of soils, sediments, fossils, and sedimentary rocks. These earth materials accumulate in a range of terrestrial, marginal-marine and marine depositional environments that experience processes that are often characteristic and unique to those environments. This course will engage students in an exploration of various earth materials (soils, sediments, and sedimentary rocks), sedimentary structures, and fossils, and the chemical, physical, and biologic processes that impact their formation. Students will also explore how soils, sediments, fossils, and sedimentary rocks record spatial and temporal changes in plate tectonics, earth system processes, and environments. An important focus will be on how geoscientists reconstruct ancient environments using earth materials and how they generate scientific models to help test short-term and long-term changes in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere through time. The course will entail lectures, local and regional field trips that make occur on the weekend, as well as laboratory assignments that are designed to provide students with substantial hands-on, field experience.