Geological Sciences
The study of our planet and its neighbors, from their deep interiors to the surface, and through their multi-billion year history.
Geolsci 106 - Sediments: The Book of Earth's History
Winter Quarter
The history and evolution of our planet is not a repeatable experiment. There is only one story and it is written in the sedimentary rock record. It tells us how our planet formed and evolved, how it hosted a changing cast of physical settings and biological characters, and how it responds and will respond in the future to geological and environmental change. This course introduces students to the fundamentals and techniques for interpreting the sedimentary record. Through lectures, field trips, lab exercises, and working with real rocks and data, students will learn how to link sediments and sedimentary rocks to past, present, and future processes and events such as climate change, mountain building, plate tectonics, storms, and floods.