With implications for groundwater and surface water resources, fossil fuels, agriculture, earth materials, climate changes, land use, and the record of life, the earth's sedimentary system intersects nearly every human endeavor. We will explore the production, transport, and deposition of sedimentary materials from an environmental perspective that focuses on modern and ancient landscape systems. By applying a descriptive vocabulary of sedimentary particles, hydrodynamic structures, and physical form, we will investigate the processes and products of sedimentary environments in space and time. Principles of stratigraphic interpretation will be used to map long-term changes in tectonic architecture and climate states. Local examples of glacial, fluvial, and coastal deposits, and ancient continental rocks will be used to practice fundamental methods of descriptive and interpretative sedimentary geology. |