GEOL 5520 - Depositional Environments

• Attain a working familiarity with the processes operating in a broad spectrum of marine and nonmarine sedimentary environments of deposition in siliciclastic and carbonate systems ranging from alluvial fans to coastal deposits to submarine fans.
• Be able to investigate and analyze an instructor-approved topic of interest in the realm of depositional environments.
• Graduate student term papers will be longer (20 pages) than undergraduate term papers (10 pages), and the depth of analysis should be greater than that undertaken by undergraduates in the 4000-level component of the course.
• Graduate students are expected to take on a leadership role in the course by being scheduled to speak before the undergraduates are scheduled in each round of student presentations.
• Graduate students will present an additional round of talks relative to the undergraduates to serve as examples to their younger colleagues. Written abstracts of these talks will be distributed to classmates and the instructor.
• Know the essential criteria for recognizing the environments of deposition listed above.
• Orally present the essential aspects of specific depositional environments as assigned by the instructor in short (10 minute) or longer (30 minute) formats so as to learn to focus on concepts at both punch-line and more detailed levels.
• Write a term paper and orally present those results.
• Write focused summaries of the essential aspects of specific depositional environments as assigned by the instructor.