MSCI 521 - Marine Geology

Fall, even years (3) Hein. Prerequisite(s): An undergraduate background in geology. Note: SMS graduate students with a geology background can take this course instead of MSCI 501C to fulfill a SMS core fundamentals requirement. This course will cover similar topics as MSCI 501C but be taught at a higher, more advanced level.

This course is designed as an introduction to the geologic processes which have shaped the world’s oceans and their margins. It is specifically targeted to advanced undergraduates and junior graduate students with a background in geological sciences. It will focus on three key study areas (the Bay of Bengal, the US Atlantic Coast, and the Arctic Ocean), and explore the geology and morphology of each, the key processes responsible for their formation and evolution over timescales ranging from decades to hundreds of millions of years, and the records of past changes in sea level, climate, and physical oceanography contained within their sedimentary deposits.