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This course will focus on depositional facies as a result of sediment transport processes and on the techniques used in facies analysis. Examples of topics include debris flow vs. fluvial transport in alluvial fans; the role of avulsion; fluvial vs. wave vs. tidal transport in deltas and along coastlines; turbidity currents vs. debris flows in shallow to deep marine settings; biogenic controls on sediment transport and sediment production; aeolian vs. fluvial in arid environments. The balance between sediment supply, tectonic subsidence rate, and sea level change affects all of these.
This course will be run as a series of seminars in which class participation is encouraged. Responsibility for running the class will alternate between Dr Bassett and students. Students will each be responsible for organizing the reading and running at least one of the class lectures. The remaining students will come prepared to take part in a discussion. We will have two two day trips on the weekends in the 1st term.The field sites are the Pleistocene/Holocene cliff exposures at the mouth of the Conway River, North Canterbury and the Tertiary sedimentary sequence at Mr Somers. Seminar topics will vary depending on student interests and on the field site.
The students will contribute to the running of weekly seminars, will write a manuscript in the style of a research journal article and will gain experience in reviewing each others’ manuscripts. There will be field examples of research in basin analysis that we will draw on as a focus for discussions into tectonic settings. Students will gain experience in literature searches, giving lectures, and writing, revising and reviewing manuscripts. These skills are all useful for conducting research for and writing a thesis.
Kari Bassett
GEOL477 was previously offered in 2006, 2008 and 2011 and is generally alternated with GEOL478.
Allen, P. A; Earth surface processes ; Blackwell Science, 1997.
Dalrymple, Robert W. , James, Noel P., Geological Association of Canada; Facies models 4 ; Geological Association of Canada, 2010.
Posamentier, H.W. and Walker, Roger G; Facies Models Revisited ; Publication 84; Society for Sedimentary Geology.
Reading, H. G; Sedimentary environments : processes, facies, and stratigraphy ; 3rd ed; Blackwell Science, 1996.
Seminars: will meet once a week for 2 hours.Prerequisites, corequisites, recommended preparation: GEOL243 or its equivalent is a prerequisite for this course.
Domestic fee $874.00
International Postgraduate fees
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Geological Sciences .