Sed-Strat Term Paper assignment

Sed-Strat Term Paper assignment

Due dates

Field Trip Summaries: October 14th

Topic – Your Formation from the Field Trip.

Reference list (at least 10) – October 21

Thin sections done and described – November 28th

Term Paper due – November 11th

Redraft Due – November 30th

 

Assignment

Write a 10 page report that is about your formation from the field trip.  Three of those pages will be the detailed data pages on your thin section samples, so it’s really only a 7 page paper.  Seek out and include information about how sedimentation was greatly influenced by tectonic activity or sea level change. This report will be a survey of the literature and a focus on your formation and the influences of tectonics and sea level change on sedimentation and stratigraphy.  You will include the descriptions and documentation on the samples you collected.  You will describe your samples as different facies that represent different subenvironments or parts of facies successions in your formation and explain how they fit in.  Your main thesis will be that your formation is primarily a (you name the environment) environment with several facies and is the result of the tectonic and or sea level history that you describe.

Library research

Peer reviewed primary sources

Journal of Sedimentary Research (Journal of Sedimentary Petrology)

Sedimentology

Palaios

Journal of Paleontology

Palaeontology

Lethaia

Palaeo Palaeo Palaeo

American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin

Geological Society of America Bulletin

Geology

USGS Bulletin

USGS Professional Paper

Journal of Geology

Nature

Science

Biogeology

Memoirs of the Geological Society of America

And Much Much More

 

Internet research – You may use the internet as a method to track down data, but peer reviewed publications including published journals, field guides, memoirs of societies, books, and other official publications of geological societies, schools, and government surveys.  Websites ARE NOT valid sources.  Imagine picking up a loose scrap of paper hand-written on a table at Izzy’s and using it to defend the thesis.

GeoRef – Your main source for information on geological articles.  A comprehensive database of everything ever published in geology.  Available through OhioLink.

Replaces Bibliographic Index of Geology – monthly lists of publications

 

References should use the format in Geology, GSA Bulletin, USGS Bulletin, or Journal of Paleontology.

Author, Date, Title: Journal, volume, number, pages

Within text (Author, date)   or …as noted by Author (date)

 

General Outline

Introduction

Description

Interpretations

Conclusions

 

More detailed outline

Introduction

Formation and age

Basin Setting

General stratigraphy

Formation specifics, rock types, thickness trends, extent, etc…

Tectonic history

Formation description from literature

Sedimentary Structures

Paleontology

Stratigraphic trends and correlations

Facies associations

Diagenesis

Description of three samples

Rock Types, give range of rock types

Describe samples collected

Description of outcrop

Description of thin sections

Interpretations

Three facies from thin sections

How they fit into your Environment of Deposition

In what way did tectonics influence sedimentation

Paleolimatic and paleogeographic implications

Other Discussion

Conclusions

What are the main take home points

What big problem did you solve and give the implications

Why should we care

References