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12.110

Sedimentary Geology

Undergraduate · Historical course

Spring 2007

Survey of the important aspects of modern sediments and ancient sedimentary rocks. Emphasis is on fundamental materials, features, and processes. Textures of siliciclastic sediments and sedimentary rocks: particle size, particle shape, and particle packing. Mechanics of sediment transport. Survey of siliciclastic sedimentary rocks: sandstones, conglomerates, and shales. Carbonate sediments and sedimentary rocks; cherts; evaporites. Siliciclastic and carbonate diagenesis. Paleontology, with special reference to fossils in sedimentary rocks. Modern and ancient depositional environments. Stratigraphy. Sedimentary basins. Fossil fuels: coal, petroleum.

Fall 2004

Topics

  • Organizational Meeting
  • Sediment Production
  • Conservation of Mass and Momentum
  • Sediment → Deposit → Rock
  • Bedforms
  • Sedimentary Structures
  • Depositional Environments and Facies Models
  • Alluvial Fans
  • Rivers
  • Deltas
  • Eolian Systems
  • Shorelines and Nearshore
  • Continental Shelf
  • Shelf-Continental Slope
  • Continental Slope-Deep Ocean
  • Carbonates - An Overview
  • Shallow Marine Carbonates
  • Reefs (Guest Lecturer)
  • Stratigraphic Processes: Controls on Position of the Shoreline
  • Stratigraphic Incompleteness: Litho-, Bio-, and Chrono-Stratigraphy
  • Internal versus Externally Generated Signals in Stratigraphy
  • Interpreting Basin-scale Stratigraphy

Readings

  • Leeder, M. Sedimentology and Sedimentary Basins. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science Ltd., 1 October 1999, 592 pp. ISBN: 9780632049769.
    Listed reading
  • Boggs, S., Jr. Principles of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 15 December 2000, 774 pp. ISBN: 9780130996961.
    Listed reading
Sources