Field Course in Modern and Ancient Environments

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course, in its many iterations, has had consistent aims: to provide students with hands-on experience of the processes that produce sedimentary rocks, exposure to standard field methods and fieldwork safety, and experience in developing and conducting an original research project. We consider biological as well as physical processes of sediment production, dispersal, accumulation, and post-depositional modification, and methods of paleoenvironmental analysis. We give significant attention to humans as geological agents: field areas today almost always exhibit legacy and/or ongoing effects from human activities. This year we explore the theme of Coasts and Coastal Resilience, using Lake Michigan shorelines as exemplars of coastal responses to key forcers - water (wave) regime, water level, and sediment supply - on societally relevant time scales. The spectrum of environments will include built structures such as seawalls, jetties, and hardened shorelines, and both natural and engineered "soft" shorelines. We will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30-5:00, with approximately half devoted to lectures and discussion, and the other half to labs, which will be either indoors (using research wave tanks in Hinds) or outdoors (using nearby segments of the Lake Michigan shoreline). A day-long Saturday field excursion is also possible.