Courses

This is a field course on sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy, based in Almeria Province, southern Spain. It concerns the description and interpretation of sedimentary facies from different depositional environments, including deep marine, shallow marine and continental. It focuses on carbonate and clastic facies, but also includes some evaporites and volcaniclastics. The field observations allow us to elucidate stratal stacking patterns and key bounding surfaces in order to erect a sequence stratigraphic framework. Traditionally, sedimentary successions are interpreted in terms of sea-level changes, using seismic sequence stratigraphic analysis in the first phases of exploration. Carbonate and clastic sequences respond very differently to sea-level, and both are strongly affected by tectonic activity, which may override sea-level effects in certain settings.

 It can be run at both foundation and skilled levels.