Integrated Course: GEOLOGY and marine botanyModule MARINE GEOLOGY
Academic Year 2023/2024 - Teacher: Agata DI STEFANOExpected Learning Outcomes
The aim of the course is to provide students with knowledge of the main geological phenomena occurring in the marine environment.
Therefore at the end of the course the students will acquire notions regarding the following topics:
a) different types of ocean basins and the geological phenomena that generated them;
b) techniques of investigations of ocean basins;
c) different types of marine sediments;
d) sampling and analysis techniques for marine sediments;
e) characteristics of the ocean masses;
f) superficial and deep ocean circulation.
Course Structure
The course is organized as follows:
- Traditional lectures, carried out using a participative approach in order to obtain the maximum
involvement of the students;
- Practical exercises. Such exercises are supervised in order to be sure that all the students will learn
during the class-time how to apply the most important concepts and methods to be used in the field of
Marine Geology;
- Periodic tests, aimed to verify the level of understanding of the topic of the course and the problemsolving
capacity of the students;
- Excursion in the field with practical application of methodologies learnt during lectures.
If the teaching is given in mixed or remote modalities, the necessary changes may be introduced with
respect to what previously stated, in order to respect the program envisaged and reported in the
syllabus.
Exams can also be carried out in remote modality, should the conditions require it.
Required Prerequisites
Attendance of Lessons
Detailed Course Content
Part I: formation of ocean basins and geological processes.
Introductions and purposes of Marine Geology. Classification of ocean basins. Types of margins and
associated structures. Current examples (Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean
Sea).
Ocean basin investigation techniques with particular reference to acoustic waves and seismic waves.
Part II: marine sedimentation.
Terrigenous, mixed, carbonate sediments. The "ooze". Use of marine sediments for paleoecological and
paleoenvironmental purposes. The stable isotopes of Oxygen
and Carbon. Evaporitic sediments and the Mediterranean salinity crisis.
Methods of sampling of marine sediments.
Part III: Oceanography.
Characteristics of ocean masses. Shallow and deep ocean circulation. Water sampling methods.
Textbook Information
1. Pinet P.R. 2003 – “Invitation to Oceanography” 3rd Ed., Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 556 pp. (www.jbpub.com/oceanlink)
2. Thurman, H. V. – Burton E.A. 2001 - “Introductory Oceanography”, 9th Ed., Prentice Hall, 554 pp. (www.prenhall.com/thurman)
3. Dispense e “slides” fornite dal docente
Course Planning
Subjects | Text References | |
---|---|---|
1 | • Characters of the seafloor | 2,3,4 |
2 | • Types of margins | 2,3,4 |
3 | • Physiography of ocean basins | 2,3,4 |
4 | • Tectonic features of present-day ocean basins | 2,3,4 |
5 | • Sediment characteristics | 2,3,4 |
6 | • Sediments and terrigenous rocks | 2,3,4 |
7 | • Sediments and carbonates | 2,3,4 |
8 | • Biogenic oozes | 2,3,4 |
9 | • Sampling methods of marine sediments | 2,3,4 |
10 | • Salinity and evaporitic rocks | 2,3,4 |
11 | • The Mediterranean Messinian Salinity Crisis | 4 |
12 | • Isotope stratigraphy | 2,3,4 |
13 | • Sedimentary features of present-day ocean basins | 2,3,4 |
14 | •Characteristics of water masses | 2,3,4 |
15 | • Stratification of water masses | 2,3,4 |
16 | • Water masses dynamics | 2,3,4 |
17 | • “Wind-driven” circulation | 2,3,4 |
18 | • Thermohalyne circulation | 2,3,4 |
19 | • Oceanographic characters of present-day ocean basins | 2,3,4 |
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
1) Example of a passive margin;
2) Oceanographic characteristics of the Pacific Ocean;
3) Sedimentation in Atlantic Ocean;
4) Circulation in the Mediterranean;