Initial Publication Date: September 6, 2006

Knowledge Survey Questions - Sedimentology and Stratigraphy

Outline the basic descriptive parameters needed to characterize sedimentary rocks in detail.
Compare and contrast braided and meandering fluvial systems, both in the modern and in the rock record.
Compare and contrast lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and chronostratigraphy.
Identify the major rock-forming minerals common to siliciclastic rocks.

Explain why the stratigraphic records of transgression and regression are commonly disproportionate (asymmetrical)?
Explain how regression might occur during relative sea-level rise.
Measure a stratigraphic section through well exposed outcrop.
Describe how you would draft a detailed measured section.

Explain the concepts of transgression and regression.
Explain how climate can be inferred from sedimentary deposits.
Explain the nature of the stratigraphic record to a non-geologist, with emphasis on rocks vs. time.
Generate a cross section through a basin using sedimentological data (several measured sections).
How can sedimentary rocks and fossils be used to reconstruct the history of a basin?
Design a study that uses a stylolitic seam to estimate the extent of carbonate dissolution in the cliffs along the Mississippi River.
Design a study that reveals the types of evaporite minerals that might form in a land-locked (evaporating) marine basin.

Design a study that links bedforms to their sedimentary structures.
Design a study that uses texture, mineralogy, and sedimentary structures to infer the history of a sedimentary rock.
Design a study that uses sandstone petrology to decipher tectonic provenance of sedimentary rocks.
Compare and contrast sequence stratigraphy with other types of stratigraphic analysis.
Explain why it is difficult to extend sequence stratigraphic methodology into terrestrial strata.