GEOL 462: PRINCIPLES OF STRATIGRAPHY AND SEDIMENTATION

Lecture 01: Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Topics
1. Introduction to class, syllabus and semester schedule
2. Sedimentology and stratigraphy: scopes and relationships
3. Sedimentary environments and Sedimentary facies
4. Stratigraphic concepts
5. Changes of sedimentary environments: controlling mechanisms
6. Revealing the Earth history from the sedimentary record: unconformities, isotopes, stratal patterns

Introduction
Introduction to Instructor and TA
Ganqing Jiang: office SEb 3241; Tel. (702)895-2708
Email: jiangg@unlv.nevada.edu;
Office hours: 2:30 to 5:00 pm, Thursday

Lab Instructor: Jonathan Baker, TEC 109
Email: bakerj61@unlv.nevada.edu
Office hours: Jonathan will give in the lab section

Overview of syllabus, semester schedule and questionaire
see handouts and slides

Sedimentology and stratigraphy: scopes and relationships
• What is sedimentology?
• What is the purpose of sedimentology?
• What is Stratigraphy?
• What is the purpose of stratigraphy?

Sedimentary Environments and Sedimentary Facies
• What is a sedimentary environment?
• What is a sedimentary facies?
– What are sediments?
– what are the major geological processes for sediment formation, transportation and deposition?
• What are the common types of sedimentary rocks?

Sedimentology
• Tools of sedimentology
• Field Work
– Measuring and mapping
– Stratigraphic context
• Lab
– Petrography, paleontology, geochemistry (isotope and organic)

Stratigraphic Concepts
• What is Stratigraphy?
• What is the purpose of stratigraphy?
• Time and Space
• Predictions
• Reconstruct History - exploration

Tools of Stratigraphy
• Bistratigraphy
• Sequence (seismic) stratigraphy
• Chemostratigraphy
• Cyclostratigraphy
• Magnetostratigraphy
• Geochronology

Changes of sedimentary environments: controlling mechanisms
• What are the major controlling factors for changes in sedimentary environments?

Revealing the Earth history from the sedimentary record: unconformities, isotopes, stratal patterns
• The combination of C, O, S, and Sr isotopes provides important information on the earth systems change through time
• Unconformities provide information on sea-level changes, tectonic reorganization, and basin evolution
• Stratal patterns are the key towards the understanding of the sedimentary basins and controlling mechanisms of sediment accumulation