Welcome to 'Sediments'. They also provide an unparalleled record of the history of the Earth. This course provides an introduction to the geology of sediments and sedimentary rocks. The main objective of the course will be to show how ancient environments can be interpreted on the basis of features preserved in sediments and sedimentary rocks.
All sediments originate from the weathering and erosion of older rocks.
Early in the course we shall look at the weathering process and show how it makes sedimentary materials. In the program of lectures and labs we shall look at objectives 1 and 2 early on, in sections dealing with the classification of sediments and sedimentary rocks and with the weathering process. Objectives 3 and 4 will be addressed together. We shall deal with the most common sedimentary structures early on in the course, but will introduce more as we need them, to understand specific environments. GEO 325 is taken by students majoring not only in geology, and also by geographers, environmental scientists, etc. for whom the study of environments and their influence on sedimentation is highly relevant.