Time in Stratigraphy

Undergraduate / Graduate

This new version of "principles" focuses on (1) recognizing the elapse of time in local sedimentary records, (2) relative age-correlation of rocks across space, and (3) numerical calibration of geologic time scales, all fundamental to paleobiologic, paleoclimatic, and other geohistorical analysis. Issues include assessing the extent of erosional shredding, which removes record, versus simple omission of new record and condensation and/or time-averaging of geo-historical information; how these local processes figure into establishing the relative age relations of strata preserved in disjunct areas; and the evolution of ideas about boundary-defining attributes and the placement of type localities and golden spikes, with the Anthropocene as a good current example. The course will thus complement rather than overlap geochemistry, surface-process, and field courses on paleo-environmental inference. Entails two lectures per week, a one-day (weekend) field trip to learn methods of data collection, and weekly labs on analysis and interpretation, using the professional literature, and report-writing.