Sedimentology and Stratigraphy 303

Fall 2005 Syllabus

Scheduled class time

Lecture meeting times: Tuesday and Thursday 10:50-12:05

Lab meeting time :Tuesday 12:15-2:05

The reason that lab has been scheduled immediately after lecture on Tuesday is to maximize our field time. On Tuesdays, we will not be restricted to “lecture” during a specific time, nor will we constrain the time scheduled for “lab.” On every Tuesday, you should be prepared for the field.

What is it to be prepared for the field? You should have boots or closed-toe shoes, a field notebook, pencil, eraser, rock hammer, hand lens, acid bottle, water, lunch, and insect repellent (early in the season). Collecting bags and paper for labels are desirable. A digital camera is desirable but not required.

Instructor Information

Dr. Ann Holmes

Office: 101 Bretske Hall

Telephone: 425-1704

Cell phone: 423-413-7595

Email:

Course website:

Office Hours: T, W, Th 9-10 a.m., or by appt.

Required Text

Boggs, Jr., Sam, 2001, Principles of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, 3rd edition, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 726 pp. ISBN 0-13-099696-3

Greetings, scientists.

Pretty much all of you have had a class from me at one time or another. You are about to enter the class that I care about the most: Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. I am a stratigrapher and a paleontologist by training. I have spent about 30 years of my life in these fields, working as a coal company lackey, as a petroleum geologist, doing Master’s thesis work at the Univ. of Alabama on reef-builders (stromatoporoids) of the Silurian/Devonian and doctoral research on sedimentary basin evolution at Columbia University in Australia and the Canadian Rockies. Throw in experience in the desert SW, a side project in Chiapas, MX and short jaunts to many places, and it starts adding up.

I have taught this class several times, all in the same format: I lectured, you did labs, we went on field trips. I hoped that this would ground you for future stratigraphic work, for graduate school, for whatever. I hoped you would go away with an understanding and appreciation for how Earth’s history (big picture) and depositional environments (small picture) can be deciphered from clues recorded in sedimentary rocks. It really hasn’t turned out that way. So, I’m redesigning this course, based on the efforts of another professor who has had experience successfully redesigning a similar course.

I plan to anchor this course primarily in Paleozoic strata of our area, and have you explore strata and the depositional environments through problem-based learning, not listening to me natter on about things and places you’ve never seen; well, at least not too much nattering.

Annie Holmes

Purpose of the Course

Broadly speaking, the purpose of the course is to teach you to think like a geologist and - more specifically, like a stratigrapher and sedimentologist. You make careful observations of the sedimentary strata around you. This is followed by making well-constrained, detailed descriptions of the sedimentary rocks. Finally, you stitch these interpretations into an internally consistent interpretation of the environment in which rocks formed (a depositional environment). Given that more than 70% of the exposed rocks on Earth’s surface are sedimentary, it would be fair to say that your ability to interpret them plays an important role in your abilities as a geologist in general.

More specifically, you will learn how to interpret sedimentary rocks. This is a beginning for you, not the result of 30 years’ experience studying rocks (in my case). Keep that in mind; I certainly will do the same.

You might also want to keep in mind that

  • Most of the world’s petroleum and natural gas is found in sedimentary rocks.
  • The lion’s share of groundwater also resides in sediments or sedimentary rocks.
  • Many natural ore deposits (gold, copper, silver, mercury, iron, uranium, etc.) are hosted in sedimentary rocks, and the shape of these ore bodies is controlled by the stratigraphy.
  • The fossil record of biological evolution is preserved primarily in sedimentary rocks.
  • The record of Earth’s past climate resides almost exclusively in sedimentary rocks.

So an understanding of sedimentology and sedimentary rocks is not just academic……

Here is a list of things that will help you succeed in this class.

  • Be neat. Sloppy work is almost offensive and most certainly affects your grade.
  • Revise your writing; don’t hand me a first draft.
  • Have someone else edit your work.
  • Talk to your classmates about things you don’t understand. Use the course discussion board to ask questions of the whole class.
  • Bring your hand lens to class every day.
  • Be prepared for the field every Tuesday, complete with gear, lunch and water.
  • Use your textbook as a reference tool, not just the place to go to read assigned readings. (If I asked you the question “What is seismic stratigraphy?’ you could go to the book and figure it out. So if find yourself asking a sedimentology-related question, go to the books or web to answer it.) This will help you learn to go the “extra mile” to produce quality work and help you to practice independent learning.
  • In the field, take careful notes.

Course Description

Sedimentology is the study of sediment, particularly focusing on how it is transported and deposited. Stratigraphy emphasizes the analysis of sedimentary strata, the layers of sedimentary rocks that cover about 3/4th of the Earth’s surface. Sedimentary rocks illuminate many details of Earth’s history: effects of sea-level change, global climate, tectonic processes, and geochemical cycles are all recorded in the sedimentary strata of the earth. This course will cover the basics of fluid flow and transport, sedimentary structures and textures, and depositional environments.

Following the lead of Dr. Tom Hickson, St. Thomas University, I have redesigned this course to be “learning-centered”. I have specified 3, very well-defined objectives that I want you to attain. I created 4 projects that are designed to give you practice at doing the things I want you to be able to do by the end of the course. Finally, I decided on the content that I needed to provide you in order for you to complete the projects. In the end, whether you remember the specific content or not is not the question, but whether you can do what I set forth as objectives.

Course Expectations

This is a junior-level course in Geology. In order to do well in this course, the department advises that you have previously taken Physical Geology, Historical Geology, Mineralogy and Petrology. I will assume that you know the following:

  • the 3 main types of plate margins, and within this, the three types of convergent margins. You should be able to draw a reasonable cross-section through these margin types and have a pretty good idea of the rock types that form in them.
  • how to tell the difference between intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks and know what those terms mean. You should be able to identify the major igneous intrusive and extrusive rocks in hand specimen and in thin-section – basalt, rhyolite, gabbro, obsidian, granite, andesite, and diorite.
  • how to recognize metamorphic rocks in hand specimen and in thin-section – slate, phyllite, schist, gneiss, quartzite and marble.
  • the difference between a chemical and a clastic sedimentary rock.
  • how to recognize 3 different sandstones (arkose, arenite and greywacke), shales, siltstones and conglomerates in hand specimen.
  • differentiate between a limestone and a dolostone in hand specimen.
  • how to identify quartz (massive and microcrystalline), feldspars (K/orthoclase and Ca/Na plagioclase) and micas in hand specimen.
  • how to tell the difference between a rock and a mineral. (Sometimes there isn’t a difference; e.g., gypsum, halite, etc.).
  • what is meant by strike and dip.
  • given a reasonably simple geologic map, be able to outline a geologic history of the mapped region.

During the first week of classes, I will ask you to take a short survey/assessment to see where all of you stand in terms of your sed/strat knowledge. It will not count toward your grade.

Course Objectives

1. Given an outcrop, 1D/2D section, correlation diagram or another representation of a stratigraphic section, interpret the depositional history of the sequence and develop an internally consistent hypothesis about the relative importance of sediment supply, subsidence and/or base level in creating the sequence.

2. Become familiar with regional Paleozoic stratigraphy. Many of you will likely work professionally in this region at least for part of your careers, and will be helpful to know the strat. column.

3. Given a tectonic setting, predict what types of sedimentary processes and depositional environments would result and what their stratigraphic/sedimentologic signature would be.

Look at the overarching goals for this class. I want you to be able to accomplish these goals and the path we take will determine what I cover in class. I do not have a certain amount of material that I must cover. I also do not have a fixed set of labs vs. lectures. What I do have are sets of 3 to 4 projects designed to achieve the goals outlined above. These 3-4 opportunities will provide practice to develop skills. Along the way, we will tackle smaller, lab-like tasks and exercises that are designed to give you the tools you’ll need to complete the projects effectively.

Resources

The course website on Blackboard

I will post links to web sites relevant to the course here, as well as datasets that you will need for some/all of the projects and exercises. Sometimes, I may not be as efficient at getting to you with an answer as one of your colleagues, so I will also open up a “discussion board” on the site so that you can post questions/comments to each other. You may also email all of the students in the course from the website.

Books on Reserve

I have/will place several books and papers on reserve in the library that can be used to provide you with greater depth on your research projects. I would recommend perusing some of these on an “as needed” basis when you are working on your write-ups.

  1. Principles of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, Sam Boggs
  2. Facies Models, ed. Roger G Walker and Noel P James
  3. Depositional Sedimentary Environments, Reineck and Singh.
  4. Origin of Sedimentary Rocks, Blatt, Middleton, and Murray
  5. Sedimentary Petrology, an introduction, Maurice Tucker
  6. Sedimentary Petrology, Harvey Blatt
  7. Sedimentary Structures, vols. 1 and 2, John Allen
  8. The Appalachian-Ouachita orogeny in the United States, eds. Robert D Hatcher, Jr., William A Thomas, George W. Viele

Textbooks, hard copy and online

Every textbook has its strong and weak points. The main weak point is that every book tries to cover far too much, in order to make them attractive to all instructors. New information is created on a daily basis, making textbooks ever more comprehensive. I will assign readings from the required text for this course but do not expect to follow the textbook in a linear way. I expect that you will use Boggs and the other resources as references. You may choose to share the cost of Boggs with another student; it is a reference book you will use throughout your career, so owning it is a good thing.

Free, on-line text: Folk, R.L., The Petrology of Sedimentary Rocks, Hemphill Publishing, Austin, TX.

1. In the Library Web Site search box, type Folk

2. Click on the Petrology of Sedimentary Rocks, and it will download as a .pdf file.

This is an oldy-but-a-goody! This book is meant to accompany a book like Boggs, with some really fundamental stuff in it.

Evaluation

Short Assignments

Most of the short, in-class assignments that we work on will require you to hand in some type of worksheet or write-up. These short assignments are designed to give you practice with the techniques you’ll need to accomplish these projects, so I will look over them to make sure that you “got” it, that you understand the point of the exercise. I will also use these assignments to see where misconceptions might be and try to correct them. I will assess these on the basis of the following criteria:

  • Did you put in the effort that was necessary to do the assignment?
  • Did you take some care in completing the assignment?
  • Did you get the main point?

Don’t look for fine-toothed-comb grading. I will assess using the following rubric:

Grade / Meaning
5 / Put in more effort than required to complete the assignment. No grammatical/spelling errors; work is neat and professional; computations correctly done/answered; work is easy to follow; clearly understands the main point; contains unusually insightful or in-depth commentary or analysis.
4 / Put in sufficient effort to complete the assignment; no grammatical/spelling errors; work is neat and professional; computations correctly done/answered; work is easy to follow; clearly understands the main point; shows a degree of insight and effort beyond the average.
3 / Put in just enough effort to complete the assignment; work is neat and professional; one or two grammatical/spelling errors; computations correctly done/answered, but work is difficult to follow; appears to have understood the main point, but some doubt remains in my mind
2 / Didn’t quite complete the assignment as outlined; many grammatical/spelling errors; work is somewhat sloppy and unprofessional; computations incorrectly done/answered; evidence suggests that the main point was mostly missed
1 / Assignment essentially incomplete; many grammatical/spelling errors; work is sloppy and unprofessional; computations incorrectly done/answered; little evidence that the main point was understood
0 / Didn’t turn in assignment, or turned in late.

Some lab-like assignments require more effort on your part. These assignments have the same general goal as the short, in-class assignments: to give you practice with specific techniques you’ll need. In most cases, I will use the rubric above, unless the assignment requires its own.

Major Projects

The four projects form the core assessment tools of the course. A lot of class work will be toward completing these projects, and you will work on these projects outside of class. One project product will be presented orally/visually (e.g., PowerPoint), the other three will be written products. The write-ups/presentations for these projects will be assessed on the basis of the same rubric and additional feedback from me. However, perhaps more important than the grades on these projects, is the assessment of how you have progressed through the semester.

Project Schedule

Week 1-4
Aug 23-Sept 19
Project Due Date: 19 Sept / Project 1: virtual field trip to the Cret. Book Cliffs, UT
Content: observation and interpretation of basic clastic lithologies, bedding geometry, and sedimentary textures (mainly grain size, rounding); sedimentary facies; basic sedimentary petrography
Objective 1
Week 5-10
Sept 20-Oct 31
Project Due Date: 31 Oct / Project 2: depositional environments of Silurian Rockwood Fm
Content: Observation and interpretation of primary and secondary sedimentary structures; measuring a section; trace fossils; correlation; Walther’s Law and introduction to stratigraphy
Objectives 1, 2
Week 11-13
Nov 1 – Nov 21
Project Due Date: 21 Nov / Project 3: regional stratigraphy and facies interpretation
Content: observation and interpretation of the regional Paleozoic strata; basic lithologic determination, bedding geometry and sedimentary structures (grain size, rounding); fossil content; sedimentary facies interpretation; basic sedimentary petrography; regional tectonic setting
Objectives 2, 1
Week 14-15
Nov 22 – Dec. 1
Project Due Date: 1 Dec / Project 4: sedimentation and tectonics jigsaw
Content: provenance analysis; paleocurrent analysis; sedimentary facies and plate tectonics
Objective 3
5 Dec., / Portfolio due
8 Dec., 11-1p.m. / Final Exam

Fall Break holidays24-25 Oct (M-T)

Thanksgiving holidays23-27 Nov (W-Sun)

Portfolio due Monday, Dec 5

Final Exam Thursday 8 Dec, 11-1 p.m.

You will create a portfolio of your original write-ups or presentations for all four projects and turn it in by the last day of classes on a CD or a pin-drive (will be returned). This is in addition to handing in each of these in separately on specified due dates. I will use this portfolio to assess your progress toward achieving the objectives I provided. You may improve the grade on any individual project write-up or presentation by revising it and turning it in as an appendix to the project portfolio. In this revision, you may use information from the entire course to improve the write-up for an earlier project.

There are no midterms in this course, but there will be a final exam. This exam will be in a take-home format and you can depend on the fact that it will test whether you can perform the objectives outlined above. How else can I assess whether you achieved the goals if I don’t put you in a new situation and let you loose?

Final Grade Calculation / Weight
In-class and homework assignments / 10%
Longer, lab-like exercises / 10%
Project 1 / 15%
Project 2 / 20%
Project 3 / 20%
Project 4 / 10%
Portfolio review of all four projects (including revisions, if any) / 2%
Field notebook / 3%
Final exam / 10%
TOTAL / 100%

Grading Criteria for Field Notebooks

Taking good notes in the field is an art that is developed over a long period of time and now is a good time to begin. It is important to take notes that can be read and understood by others as well as yourself.

Document what you observe and separate your observations from the interpretations you make using these observations. You should record your hypothesis concerning these data, whether using a null hypothesis or testing multiple working hypotheses, or some other scientific strategy.

Note-taking in the field is not always numerical. It almost always includes sketches/drawings, details about some aspect of your work that should be remembered when evaluating your data or to help you image your data. You have plenty of space in your field notebooks; use it.

Listed below are the criteria around which you will organize your field notebooks. Various entries in your field notebooks will be graded, and the whole notebook will be assessed for adherence to the following criteria as a portion of your grade. This notebook may be used as a journal as well, though it won’t be graded on that aspect. It's yours to put in what you want, but be sure to include what will be graded.