LABORATORY OF STRATIGRAPHY AND SEDIMENTOLOGY
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2021/2022
- Teacher
- GIANLUCA FRIJIA
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- GEO/02
Training objectives
- The course aims to introduce students to the study of the characteristics of sedimentary rocks and rock masses, and what they represent or what is the depositional environment to which they are related. Moreover, the course will provide essential implements to analyze and understand the spatial organization of sedimentary successions in the geologic record, in order to eventually understand the complex evolution of depositional systems in time and space.
At the end of the course, the student should get the ability to better understand the space-time distribution of sedimentary rocks and formational units, thus to have smoothed the way for better appreciate the following Geological Survey course, and interact with Petrography and Structural Geology (Geology II) as well. Prerequisites
- It is crucial that the student has already followed the course of Geology I (prerequisite) and passed the relative final test, because it is often basic for understanding several topics of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy.
In order to better understand some of the concepts discussed in the course, it is also suggested that at the beginning the student has acquired basic knowledge on Chemistry (e.g. redox, isotopes), Physics (e.g. vectors, dynamic) and Mathematics (e.g. sinusoidal functions, statistics), and positively attended the course of Physical Geography and Geomorphology. Course programme
- The course includes 54 hours of teaching and is organized in lectures and practical trainings. Particularly planned lectures-hours are 27, as the planned practice-hours (27 h).
A) 8 h lectures + 12 h labs
Origin and classification of sedimentary rocks. From the source to the deposition of the sediment. Basic textural elements. Size, sorting and morphology of grains, fabric. Size grain analysis and statistical parameters. Terrigenous-, carbonate- and other chemical- ore biochemical- rock classifications. Basic pyroclastic rocks classification.
Diagenesis. Physicochemical diagenetic processes at a micro-scale, diagenetic environments and post-depositional deformations.
Outlines of hydrodynamics. Confined- and not confined- fluid dynamics, transport and deposition processes, bedforms, massive flows, hyper-concentrated flows. Waves and tides.
Sedimentary structures. Causes, classification and identification. Stratal geometries and terminology. Depositional, erosive and biogenic structures
B) 8 h lectures + 7 h labs
Sedimentary environments. Facies and facies associations, depositional environments (continental, transitional, marine and carbonate env.).
C) 11 h lectures + 8 h labs
Stratigraphy. Basics of stratigraphic geology.
The relative- and absolute-time concept, chronostratigraphy and chronostratigraphic units.
Lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy: application examples, correlations.
Magnetostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy, stable and unstable isotopes analysis, application examples, correlations.
Sequence stratigraphy: relative sea level, transgression and regression, systems tracts and s.s. surfaces. Didactic methods
- The course is organized as follows:
lectures on the topics of the course program. During lessons it is expected a continuous interaction with students, and general knowledge- discussions on geological subjects will be made.
practice in Laboratory of Sedimentology and Laboratory of Microcopy. Depending on the number of attending students, two or more student- groups could be formed, in order to ensure to everyone the access to facilities and instruments, under the supervision of an adept (technician or teacher; it is however suggested to attend previously the seminar on Safety in the Workplace).
practical training in the classroom with hand-specimens of sedimentary rocks. Trainings will occur at the end of the discussion of main topics on sedimentology. It is the responsibility of students to get some additional analysis tools (like the magnifying glass 10X) which will integrate the equipment offered by the university. Subdivisions in groups are not planned. After the official practices, upon request to the authorized staff (teachers, doorkeeper, etc.), the access to samples- collections is allowed. Finally, filed trips may be organised. Learning assessment procedures
- In order to check the achieving-level of educational goals described above, two different examination modes are offered:
Mode A
Students that regularly attend the course can access an ongoing examination in written form. Quiz and essay questions about topics taught in the first part of the course will occur. The test is selective and it is aimed to evaluate the study of topics and learning of basics: students that will not show an adequate knowledge of topics will not be admitted to the final reduced-examination (see below). A score of 18 points on 30 is needed to pass the test. Use of books, notes, notebooks, tablets and smartphones is forbidden, whereas calculators are admitted.
Students that pass the ongoing examination are required to take a final reduced-examination, in oral form, scheduled after the end of the course. Questions will mainly focused on the second part of the course, i.e. the architecture of sedimentary facies of different depositional environments, as well as on different branches and applications of Stratigraphy (e.g. Sequence Stratigraphy). However, if the teacher recognizes specific deficiencies related to learning difficulties of topics belonging to the first part of the course, he will ask the student to re-explain basic concepts, even if the ongoing examination has been passed. A score of 18 points on 30 is needed to pass the test.
The final vote is the average of the two scores. However, if a student that has passed the ongoing test with small errors shows, during the oral examination, that difficulties about topics of the first part of the course are fully solved, the final vote could be increased above the arithmetic average (e.g.: ong. ex. score 25/30+ red. fin. oral score 30/30 = 27,5/30; the final vote could be increased to 29/30).
The result of the ongoing examination is considered valid until the end of the second semester, after that it will result unusable and the student should directly access to the final full-test (see Mode B).
Mode B
Students who do not regularly attend the course and those who have not dealt with or passed the ongoing test, can directly access to a final full-test, planned at the course end. The test will be oral. Questions will concern all the topics covered by the course (basics of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, their applications and further insights). Note that the examination is not only focused to verify that the student learned base elements, but also to check his ability to apply these elements in different case histories. The result of the examination is in thirty, and 18/30 is the minimum vote needed to pass the test. Reference texts
- Files and notes provided by the teacher.
Gary Nichols. Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. Wiley-Blackwell Ed., 2009.
Maurice E. Tucker. Geologia del sedimentario. Dario Flaccovio Ed., 2010.
