INNOVATIVE METHODS IN MARINE GEOLOGY

Academic Year 2024/2025 - Teacher: Agata DI STEFANO

Expected Learning Outcomes

The course aims to provide students with in-depth knowledge of specific topics in Marine Geology, with practical applications and statistical data processing through the use of appropriate software.

Therefore, at the end of the course, students will acquire notions regarding the following topics:

1. Marine sediments and relative sea-level changes at small and large scales. Cyclostratigraphy and astrochronological dating of marine sediments. Statistical methods of signal analysis.

2. The coastal marine environment and its dynamics. Techniques for quantitative assessment of coastal erosion rates in a GIS environment.

3. Evolution of sedimentary bodies in relation to eustatic variations, with special reference to the shelf environment; 2D and 3D analysis of offshore seismic profiles and reconstruction of sedimentary bodies.

Course Structure

Teaching will be given in the classroom, with the aid of the projection of slides in power-point format.

The laboratory part will involve the processing of seismic data and profiles, through use of PCs and specific software.

Required Prerequisites

Students are required to have acquired the general concepts of Geology taught in the three-year B.S. degree and preferably to have taken the Marine Geology course taught in the first semester of the third year of the three-year B.S. degree in Geological Sciences or Environmental and Natural Sciences.

Attendance of Lessons

MANDATORY

Detailed Course Content

Part I. Milankovitch cycles and cyclostratigraphy. Effects of changes in insolation on marine sedimentary successions. Indicators of cyclicity in marine sedimentary successions. Astrochronological dating methods. Statistical methods of cyclic signal analysis in sedimentary successions.

Part II. Characters of the coastal marine environment. Marine waves and related coastal processes. Elements of coastal dynamics. Techniques for quantitative assessment of coastal erosion rates in a GIS environment.

Part III. Evolution of sedimentary bodies in relation to eustatic variations with special reference to the shelf environment; elaboration of bathymetric data; 2D and 3D analysis of offshore seismic profiles and reconstruction of sedimentary bodies.

Textbook Information

1 Schwarzacher W., 1993. Cyclostratigraphy and the Milankovitch Theory. Developments in Sedimentology 52, Elsevier, 225 pp.

2. Hilgen F., 2003. Astronomical Solution: from Solar System to Insolation; Astronomical Time Scale: from Cycles to Geological Time. In “Paleoceanography: Theory and Field 3. evidence”, Paleoceanography School, Naples 25 September-2 October 2003, pp. 2-16.

3. Komar P.D., 1998. Beach processes and sedimentation. Second edition. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ (USA). 544 pp.

4. French P.W., 2001. Coastal defences. Processes, problems and solutions. Routledge, London (UK). 366 pp.

5. Masselink G., Hughes M.G., 2003. Introduction to coastal processes & Geomorphology. Arnold, London (UK). 354 pp.

6. Reading H.G., 1996. Sedimentary Environments: Processes, Facies and Stratigraphy. Blackwell Science, Oxford (UK). 688 pp.

Additional readings for further study of the topics covered will be suggested at the end of each lecture.

Course Planning

	Subjects	Text References
1	Historical foundations of geologic cyclostratigraphy (frontal lecture)	1, 2
2	Milankovitch's parameters (frontal lecture)	1, 2
3	Effects of Milankovian variations on insolation and marine sedimentation (frontal lecture)	1, 2
4	Evidence of cyclicity in sedimentary successions (frontal lecture)	1, 2
5	Cyclicity proxies in marine sedimentary succession (frontal lecture)	1, 2
6	General characters of the coastal environment (frontal lecture)	3
7	Classification of coast types (frontal lecture)	3
8	Description and evolution of high coasts (frontal lecture)	3
9	Description and evolution of low coasts (frontal lecture)	3
10	Waves in the marine environment and processes generated by wave motion (frontal lecture)	4, 5
11	Coastal sedimentary dynamics (frontal lecture)	4, 5
12	The stratigraphic-sequential approach to the study of sedimentary successions (frontal lecture)	6
13	Depositional sequences, discontinuity surfaces and system tracts (frontal lecture)	6
14	Depositional geometries related to eustatic variations in shelf environment (frontal lecture)	6
15	Elements of seismic stratigraphy (frontal lecture)	6
16	Laboratory: spectral analysis techniques of cyclic data. Astrochronological tuning. (Software: Past, RStudio)	7
17	Laboratory: Diachronic analysis of shoreline changes. Quantitative assessment techniques for coastal erosion rates (Software: Q-GIS, ESRI)	7
18	Laboratory: processing of seismo-stratigraphic and bathymetric data (software used Petrel, GeoSuite Allworks, Global Mapper, QGIS)	7

Learning Assessment

Learning Assessment Procedures

The exam consists of a practical part, related to each of the three topics covered in the laboratory activities, and an oral part that will span all topics covered in the course.

Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises

Effects of variation in insolation on marine sedimentation.

Elements of a beach.

Subdivision of a depositional sequence.

Spectral analysis of data from calcimetry.

Estimation of the shoreline variation of an area in the long-medium and short term.

3D reconstruction of a continental shelf sector from seismic profiles.

VERSIONE IN ITALIANO

Degree Course in

Geology and Geophysics