Tentative syllabus and grading scheme

Date	Lecture Topic	Reading
8/27	Introduction to architectural analysis Fluid types, shear stress & strain	Reading, Ch. 1 & 2
8/29	Reynold’s and Froude numbers; Velocity profiles, boundary layers; Problem Set 1 assigned
9/3	NO CLASS – Labor Day Holiday
9/5	Burst and sweep events; Secondary flow; Flow visualization; Bernoulli’s equation, bed roughness; PROB. SET 1 DUE;
9/10	Grain movement; Stoke’s Law, sediment transport; LAB 1 assigned (Intro to Bedforms 2.0)
9/12	Sedimentary textures; Unidirectional flow bedforms
9/17	Bidirectional flow bedforms; LAB 1 DUE
9/19	Bedforms in cohesive sediment; Review Lab 1
9/24	Sediment gravity flows	Lowe, 1982
9/26	Sedimentary gravity flows (cont.); Alluvial systems
10/1	Alluvial processes, cont.; Lab 2 assigned	Reading, Ch. 3
10/3	Alluvial processes, cont.; LAB 2 DUE
10/8	Lakes and Deserts; Lab 3 assigned; Review lab 2;
10/10	Lakes and deserts, cont.
10/15	Clastic Coasts (intro);	Reading, Ch. 4 & 5
10/17	Clastic Coasts, cont.; Lab 3 DUE Evening talk – glacial Lk. Missoula floods (L. Smith)
10/22	Catch up and review of lecture material; Review lab 3;
10/24	MIDTERM EXAM – through clastic coasts	Reading, Ch. 6
10/29	NO CLASS – GSA MEETING
10/31	Review midterm exam; intro to shallow clastic seas
11/5	Shallow clastic seas, cont.
11/7	Clastic sequence stratigraphy; FINAL PROJECT TOPIC DUE
11/12	NO CLASS – VETERAN’S DAY HOLIDAY	Reading, Ch. 7
11/14	Marine evaporates, arid shorelines and basins
11/19	Shallow-water carbonate environments; FINAL PRESENTATION READING DUE	Reading, Ch. 8
11/21	NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY	Reading, Ch. 9
11/26	Deep Sea sedimentation
11/28	Student final presentations I	Reading, Ch. 10
12/3	Student final presentations II
12/5	Student final presentations III

We will have one field trip (TBA) for this class in late September or during the first half of October.

THE FINAL EXAM WILL BE Friday, December 14 from 8:00-10:00 AM.

Grading Scheme and other commentary:

Web Page: I will be maintaining an active web page for this class throughout the semester. The site address is: http://www2.umt.edu/Geology/faculty/hendrix/g432/g432.htm

Reading:

You will be required to do a significant amount of reading for this class. The majority of reading in this class will be from H. G. Reading’s Sedimentary Environments: Processes, Facies and Stratigraphy. In addition to the reading in Reading, I will assign some specific published papers as required reading throughout the semester.

Grading Scheme:

The grading scheme will be based on the following:

Exams = ~50% (approximately equally weighted at 25% each)

Labs = ~30% (3 at about 10% each)

Problem set = ~5%

In class presentations and papers = ~15% (presentation ~5%; paper ~10%)

Penalty for late work:

Late assignments drag down the entire class and make it difficult to move forward with the material at a constant pace. Therefore, late assignments will not be accepted. Any assignments turned in after the due date will not be graded and will automatically receive a zero.

Final paper/presentation:

At the end of the semester, each student will give one in-class presentation on a subject of interest and write a short paper (5-7 pages of text maximum) summarizing their findings. All presentations will be the final week of regular class meetings and all students are required to use Powerpoint to give their presentation. Class presentations are designed to promote a curiosity-driven approach to learning using a seminar style format. To prepare the class for each presentation, each presenter should identify one published sedimentology paper that the entire class reads. In order to maintain some degree of uniformity, you must select this paper from one of the main published sedimentary geology journals, including Journal of Sedimentary Research, Sedimentary Geology, or Sedimentology. This paper must be made available to the class by Monday, November 7, so it will be necessary for each person to figure out their topic prior to that date. In addition to the one paper that the entire class reads, I expect each presenter to find and read at least two additional papers and discuss them during their oral presentation. These two additional papers must be from the peer-reviewed published journal; web-based information can supplement your presentation, but you must include results from the three peer-reviewed published papers. Presentations are to last no more than 15 minutes with 5 minutes of discussion. As with talks given at professional meetings, each talk will be timed, with ‘warnings given at the thirteen and fourteen minute marks. Note that the student talks count for approximately 10% of the overall course grade – I strongly recommended that each student practice their talk prior to giving it for the class. All papers will be due at class time on Wednesday, December 5. In addition to their content, papers will be graded on their writing quality.

Following is a list of potential topics; you may certainly elect to discuss something other than the items listed below:

playa lakes sedimentation on the abyssal plain

gilbert deltas of Lake Bonneaville contourites

non-marine sequence stratigraphy paleosols

lahars tidal rhythmites

alluvial fans in humid vs. arid environments

An important note about academic misconduct:

All students must practice academic honesty. Academic misconduct is subject to an academic penalty by the course instructor and/or a disciplinary sanction by the University.

All students need to be familiar with the Student Conduct Code. The Code is available for review online at http://www.umt.edu/SA/VPSA/index.cfm/page/1321.

Tentative syllabus and grading scheme

Reading

MIDTERM EXAM – through clastic coasts