TETTONICA E SEDIMENTAZIONE

Academic Year 2019/2020 - 1° Year
Teaching Staff: Rosanna Maniscalco
Credit Value: 6
Scientific field: GEO/03 -
Taught classes: 42 hours
Term / Semester:
ENGLISH VERSION

Learning Objectives

  • Knowledge and comprehension of: past geological processes and their location in space and time; rock deformation; mechanisms of sedimentary basin formation;
  • Abilities: to outline the geometry of geological bodies; to analyze sedimentary basins in their plate tectonic environment; to collect and analyze reliable surface and subsurface geological data; to interpret collected data.

Course Structure

The course will consist of lectures, active and cooperative lectures also using interactive platforms, practical work and exercises, work in small groups, field excursions, individual or small group research on defined topics, seminars, essays on selected topics. This will enhance knowledge and comprehension of course contents and acquisition of abilities.


Detailed Course Content

Plate tectonics. Makeup of the Earth: compositional division, rheological division. Basins in their plate tectonic environment. Classification schemes of sedimentary basins. The mechanics of sedimentary basin formation. Basins due to lithospheric stretching: pure shear, simple shear. Basins due to flexure. Isostasy. The dynamics of orogenic wedges. Foreland basins. Basins associated with strike-slip deformation. Tectonic control on sedimentation. Basin stratigraphy. Relative sea level change and accommodation. Driving mechanisms for stratigraphic patterns. Sequence stratigraphy and seismic stratigraphy. Seismic interpretation concepts. Basin analysis. Subsidence and thermal history. Application to petroleum play concepts.

Laboratory

The use of bathymetric maps and Google Earth to understand and classify sedimentary basins. Exercises on isostasy principle. Seismic stratigraphy: construction of chronostratigraphic diagrams (Wheeler). Exercises on geohistory and backstripping of sedimentary basins. Introduction to the interpretation of seismic profiles.


Textbook Information

1. Allen, P.A. & Allen J.R., 2005 2edition. Basin analysis, Principles and Applications. Publ., Blackwell

Scientific Publications.

2. Bally, A.W., Catalano R., Oldow J., 1985. Elementi di tettonica regionale. Evoluzione dei Bacini

sedimentari e delle Catene montuose. Pitagora Editrice.

3. Fossen, H., 2016. Structural Geology (second edition). Cambridge University Press.