This course will cover:

• The weathering of rocks, and the development of Regolith.
• Development of soils.
• Sediments, cations and anions will be tracked into various depositional environments, from rivers, to deserts, to marginal marine environments to the deep sea.
• Fundamental concepts for deciphering depositional environments such as sedimentary textures and structures.
• Treatment of modern Stratigraphic disciplines: Lithostratigraphy, Magnetostratigraphy, Seismic Stratigraphy, Chronostratigraphy and Geologic Time.

Laboratory: Practical work will be designed to help students recognise sedimentary structures in hand specimen and microscopic thin section. Students will be taught to recognise depositional environments in the field during a field trip to the NSW South Coast.

Note: Graduate students attend joint classes with undergraduates (EMSC2014) but will be assessed separately. including a requirment to co do a research paper.

1. Observe and compare sedimentary depositional environments from outcrops, drill cores and diagrams.

2. Apply stratigraphic methods to analyse the evolution of past environments .

3. Explain the basic principles, chemical and physical processess at the surface of the Earth.

4. Describe the debates and history of the early thinkers in Geology and explain how that has influenced modern Earth Science.

5. Recognise and examine fundamental weathering processes.

Assessment will be based on:

• Theory Exam (50%, LO 1-5)
• Laboratory and field work reports (30%, LO 1 - 3 & 5)
• Research paper (20%, LO 1 - 3 & 5)

3 hours of lectures, 2 hours of laboratory per week, total 65 contact hours. 

Bachelor degree; with either first year Earth Science/Geology or first year Chemistry.

Bachelor degree including Earth Science/Geology or Chemistry to a first year level

EMSC2014