Analysis of the processes and products of sedimentation, including flow mechanics and sedimentary structures, depositional systems, methods of description and classification of sediments and sedimentary rocks, and preparation of sedimentologic field reports. Two lectures and two laboratory hours per week. Description, classification, and interpretation of stratified sedimentary rocks. Emphasis on principles and methodology. Survey of the fossilized remains of the principal animals that lived during earth history.
Emphasis is upon paleontologic principles, especially as applied to invertebrate fossils.
Topics include population dynamics, taxonomic principles, functional morphology, paleoecology, evolution, and biostratigraphy. Lectures will be supplemented by field trips to various coastal systems. An analysis of modern coastal systems including their diversity and distribution, the complexity and dynamics of the interacting processes and responses, their origin and evolutionary history, and the role of man as a major modifying force. Geology of the world's ocean basins. Two lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week.