Objectives and Content
This course first gives a comprehensive review of sediment mobility under unidirectional, bidirectional and gravitational currents. It is explained how depositional processes are recognized and interpreted from the characteristics of sediment texture, bedform geometry and sedimentological structures. Next, a brief overview of how the various processes operate and their sedimentary products (facies) are spatially distributed in diverse depositional systems, such as fluvial and coastal environments, shallow- and deep-marine environments, and glacial environments is given. The subsequent lectures are combined with practical exercises to give a comprehensive background for facies analysis of sedimentary successions, including elementary principles of sequence-stratigraphic interpretation. The course as a whole gives students a good knowledge of physical sedimentology and a solid foundation for further work within the field of sedimentology.
Learning outcomes
On completion of the course the student should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:
Knowledge
The student can:
- explain the physical processes behind transport and deposition of sediment
- explain fundamental processes within fluid dynamics relevant for sediment transport
- understand how processes within fluid dynamics lead to formation of different sedimentary structures
- explain physical processes behind different types of mass movement
- explain different processes which act in fluvial environments, and explain different models for such deposits
- explain different processes which act in fluvial environments, and explain different models for such deposits
- explain different processes which act in shallow-marine environments, and explain different models for such deposits
- explain different processes which act in shelf-, slope and deep marine environments, and explain different models for such deposits
- explain different processes which act in glacial environments, and explain different models for such deposits
Skills
The student can
- interpret sedimentological observation as expressions of different physical processes
- accurately describe sedimentological successions
- utilize many different data types in order to understand sedimentary deposits, such as outcrops, landscapes, aerial imagery, seismic data and cores
General competence
The student
- gets a foundation for independent work and learning in sedimentology
Files/Documents
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