GEOC - Geosciences

Introduction to the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs and the geosciences. Naming and classifying dinosaurs. Evolution, before the dinosaurs. Evolution of the dinosaurs. Armoured dinosaurs. Horned, frilled and bone-headed dinosaurs. Duckbilled dinosaurs. Gigantic plant-eating dinosaurs. Meat-eating dinosaurs and the evolution of the birds. Dinosaur geography. Dinosaur feeding. Dinosaur physiology. Reproduction and growth. Dinosaur extinction, and dinosaurs today.

Stratigraphy and sedimentology, the Earth’s surface systems, facies and the sequence of events. Sedimentary rock classification and nomenclature. Sources of sediments, weathering and erosion, fluid flows transport and deposition. Sedimentary grains and sedimentary structures. Sedimentary facies and environments: glacial, fluvioglacial, fluvial and lacustrine. Aeolian environments and palaeosols. Shallow marine environments: shores, coasts, deltas and estuaries. Carbonate environments. Deep ocean environments. Correlation: lithostratightrapy, biostratigraphy, magnitostratigraphy. Sea-level change and sequence stratigraphy. Provenence. Diagenesis: siliclastics and carbonates. Sedimentary basins. Petroleum systems.

Sediments and sedimentation. Sedimentary rocks and classification. Sediment transport. Geological map of Colombia. Facies interpretation: Terrestrial. Facies interpretation (i): Nearshore. Facies interpretation (ii): Carbonates. Facies interpretation (iii): Deep marine. Correlation. Sequence stratigraphy. Provenance. Sandstone diagenesis. Carbonate diagenesis. Subsurface stratigraphy.

Palaeontology and the major groups of fossils. Fossils, fossilization and biostratigraphy. Biominerals, morphology, biomechanics and functional morphology. Taphonomy: biostratinomy, diagenesis, completeness and time averaging. Palaeobiology, palaeoecology and palaeoenvironment. Palaeoclimate and palaeobiogeography. Evolution. Evolution, speciation and dispersal. Extinction, mass extinction, phylogeny and cladistics. Cladistics and palaeontological data analysis. Precambrian and early Cambrian life. Invasion of land: plants and animals. Life on land: dinosaurs and the cycle of life. Fossils and economics, summary and overview.

Introduction to fossils. Modes of preservation. Recording data and reconstruction of 3-D morphology. Biominerals and taphonomy. Functional morphololgy. Palaeonenvironmental reconstruction. Reconstructing ancient ecologies. Trace fossils and determination of water depth. Cladistics: data collection. Cladistics: data analysis. Organisms through time: diversification, evolution and extinction. Morphometric analysis. Precambrian life. Plants, wood and ancient ecologies. Stratigraphic palaeontology.

Introduction to geodynamics and plate tectonics. Plate tectonics. Review of stress and strain in solids. Elastic deformation. Flexure of the lithosphere. Flexure of the lithosphere. Review of heat transfer and Fourier's law. Surface heat flow and the continental geotherm. Cooling of the oceanic lithosphere. Mantle heat flow. Gravity. Fluid mechanics. Fluid mechanics. Rock rheology.

Introduction to remote sensing. Nature and properties of electromagnetic waves. Remote sensing of solid surface in Visible and Near-Infrared. Remote sensing of solid surface in thermal wavelengths. Multispectral remote sensing. Radar remote sensing on Earth and other planets. Special topics:  Radar polarimetry and radar interferometry. Introduction to GPS and its applications. The GPS signal and biases. GPS receivers and methods. Geodetic data and campaign planning. Visualization of GPS and remote sensing data: GIS.  Colombia’s GPS station network. Preparation of final project. Presentations of final project.

Definitions of seismic and sequence stratigraphy and seismic geomorphology. History of seismic and sequence stratigraphy. Lithostratigraphy. Chronostratigrapy. Recent advances and the future; impact of technologies. Seismic geomorphology. Fundamentals of sequence stratigraphy time basis of stratigraphic analysis. Importance of scale in sequence stratigraphy. Sequences, parasequences, systems tracts, facies. Biostratigraphy and importance to sequence stratigraphy. Trace and body fossils. Condensed sections and sequence boundaries. The Lowstand Systems Tract. Types and distribution of reservoir, source, and seal rocks. The Transgressive Systems Tract. Types and distribution of reservoir, source, and seal rocks. The Highstand Systems Tract. Types and distribution of reservoir, source, and seal rocks. G. A workflow for building an integrated sequence stratigraphic framework. Integration of rocks, fossils, well logs, geochemistry, seismic, and well tests. Application of sequence stratigraphy workflow to common clastic rocks (non-marine, shallow and deep marine). Carbonate sequence stratigraphy. Example case studies from: U.S. Mexico Gulf of Mexico, onshore North America, Australia, Indonesia, and elsewhere.