Fire Island, September, 2001.
An overview of sedimentology and stratigraphy, for majors and concentrators in Earth and environmental sciences, and for graduate students from other disciplines. Undergraduates in such related fields as Earth and environmental engineering, environmental biology and environmental chemistry are also welcome. Lectures/class discussion, labs. and field exercises are integrated, with emphasis on processes, the characteristics of sediments and sedimentary rocks, interpretation of the continental geological record, and practical applications.
Students will develop a basic understanding of sedimentary phenomena and Earth's stratigraphic record, along with a range of interpretive approaches.
The course builds upon material covered in Earth's Environmental Systems (EESC V2100, V2200, V2300) and comparable 1000-level courses. Completion of Mineralogy (EESC W4113) is useful, but not assumed, to accommodate juniors in Earth science as well as students on other tracks. Sedimentary Geology is offered in alternate years.
Saturday, September 15, to Fire Island (1 day).
Friday to Sunday, September 28-30 to the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains (3 days).
Departure from 116th and Broadway at 8 a.m., returning by 6:00 p.m. on the first trip. Departure from Lamont (Geoscience) at 8:45 a.m. on the three-day trip, with return by 8:00 p.m. Transportation to Lamont via shuttle bus (free with Columbia ID). We plan to camp out at North-South Lake and at Thompson's Lake State Park in the Catskill Mountains on the second trip (weather permitting). Logistical details to be provided. Participation is required (and well worth the time invested!).
Draft field projects are due on November 8.
Final field projects are due no later than December 6.
Prothero, D.R., and Schwab, F., 2004, Sedimentary Geology: An Introduction to Sedimentary Rocks and Stratigraphy: New York, W.H. Freeman and Company, second edition, 557 p. Additional references will be drawn from the literature.
Students are asked to complete assigned readings ahead of class. (Check Courseworks for details.)
Grades will be based on mid-term (25%) and final examinations (50%), field projects (20%), and an assessment of each student's contributions to the class (5%). Questions in exams will be based in part on lab and field activities. Graduate students may request R-credit (lectures and field trips only; no labs or exams.), or participate sporadically (no credit). Only full participation counts towards the required course point total.
Lectures: TuTh, 1:10a.m.-2:25 p.m., Schermerhorn 506
Lab: Th, 4:00-6:30 p.m., Schermerhorn 506 (*except as indicated)
*Lab will be extended to 8:00 p.m. (as required) for seniors enrolled in EESC BC3800 Senior Research Seminar (Th, 4:00-6:00 p.m.)
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Sedimentology |
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| Tu | Sept. | 4 | Overview of sedimentary geology. |
| Th | 6 |
Fluid flow and bedforms in sediments. |
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| Tu | 11 | Sedimentary structures and their origin. | |
| Th | 13 |
Shoreline sedimentation and development of barrier islands. |
|
| Sat | 15 |
Field trip 1 to Fire Island (sedimentary processes at a modern
barrier island). |
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| Tu | 18 | Origin of siliciclastic sediments and rocks. | |
| Th | 20 | Carbonate and other sediments and rocks. Lab. 3: Geology of Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains. |
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| Tu | 25 | Layering patterns and facies in sedimentary deposits (sequence stratigraphy). | |
| Th | 27 | Lab. 4 (both sessions): Review of optics and petrographic microscope. | |
| Fri-Sun | 28-30 | Field trip 2 to the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains (Fri.:
Ordovician marine turbidites at Poughkeepsie; Silurian braided fluvial
and shallow marine mixed siliciclastic/carbonate rocks at High Falls.
Sat.: Devonian meandering fluvial deposits near Haines Falls; Ordovician-Silurian
unconformity at Catskill; and bedding plane exposure of Ordovician marine
turbidites at Coxsackie. Sun.: Silurian shallow marine carbonate rocks
at Indian Ladder, John Boyd Thacher State Park). |
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| Tu | Oct. | 2 | Alluvial and alluvial fan sedimentation (Devonian, Hornelen basin, Norway). |
| Th | 4 | Lacustrine sedimentation and climate change (Triassic-Jurassic
Newark Supergroup, eastern U.S. and Canada). Lab. 5: Sandstone composition and textures (samples from Neoproterozoic Brigham Group, Utah). |
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| Tu | 9 | Sedimentation at deltas and clastic shelves (Cretateous nearshore deposits, Utah). | |
| Th | 11 | Turbidite systems and associated deep marine sedimentation (Amazon fan and Gulf of Mexico continental slope). | |
| Tu | 16 | Mid-term examination. | |
| Th | 18 | Shallow and marine carbonate sedimentation (Proterozoic Rocknest platform,
Canada). Lab. 6: Carbonate composition and textures (samples from Silurian Manlius Formation, Indian Ladder, Thacher Park). |
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Stratigraphy and Basin Tectonics |
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| Tu | 23 | Classical stratigraphy and correlation. | |
| Th | 25 |
Paleomagnetics and magnetostratigraphy (Eocene, south-central Pyrenees,
Spain). |
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| Tu | 30 | No class. Please use this time to complete your field projects! | |
| Th | Nov. | 1 | Downhole logging. |
| Tu | 6 | No class (Election Day). |
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| Th | 8 | Seismic stratigraphy. Lab. 8: Stratigraphic interpretation of electric logs (data from Oligocene-Miocene of Maracaibo basin, Venezuela). |
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| Tu | 13 | Advanced topics in sequence stratigraphy I. | |
| Th | 15 | Lab. 9 (both sessions): Seismic stratigraphy of the Woodbine (Cretaceous, Texas). | |
| Tu | 20 | Advanced topics in sequence stratigraphy II. | |
| Th | 22 | No class (Thanksgiving holidays). | |
| Tu | 27 | Origin of sedimentary basins. | |
| Th | 29 | Extensional basins and passive continental margins (Gulf of Suez, Egypt and U.S. Atlantic margin). | |
| Fri | 30 | * Lab. 10: Examination of cores from the New Jersey continental
margin and Tyrrhenian Sea (Italy), Ocean Drilling Program East Coast Repository
(Lamont), 10:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m. Shuttle leaves Columbia at 10:00 a.m. Departure from Lamont at 2:00 p.m. |
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| Tu | Dec. | 4 | Sedimentation in orogenic settings (Alberta basin, Canada) |
| Th | 6 | Sedimentation along strike-slip faults (Ridge basin, California). Lab 11: Stratigraphic and structural maps. |
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| Fri | 7 | Review session TBA (for those interested). | |
Nicholas Christie-Blick is a Professor and former Chair of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and has been at Columbia University since 1983. He holds degrees in geology from the University of Cambridge, U.K. (B.A., 1974) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (Ph.D., 1979), and prior to joining Columbia was for three years a research geologist with Exxon in Houston, Texas. He teaches courses in sedimentary and field geology, and was awarded the faculty teaching prize in Earth and Environmental Sciences in 1996. An article co-authored with Steve Pekar and others in 2003 was awarded Outstanding Paper in the Journal of Sedimentary Research in June, 2005. He returns to Columbia in 2007-08 after a one-year sabbatical leave at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Andrew Madof is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He received a B.A. with High Honors from Oberlin College in 2000, and an M.S. from the University of Kansas in 2006, with a thesis on the sequence stratigraphic analysis of Cretaceous nearshore sandstones in the eastern Book Cliffs of western Colorado. He has undertaken internships with Exxon (2003-2004) and Chevron (2005, 2006 and 2007), and co-leads a field trip to the Book Cliffs for the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in November. His current research focuses on non-eustatic mechanisms for the modulation of sedimentation in salt-withdrawal intraslope mini-basins in the Gulf of Mexico.
Nicholas Christie-Blick
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
Palisades, New York 10964-8000
Tel. 845-365-8821 (95-8821 on the tie line from Columbia campus).
E-mail: ncb@ldeo.columbia.edu
Web page: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~ncb
Office hours: after class or by arrangement, to match varied schedules.
Updated
August 27, 2007
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