Building a Facies Model
William W. Little, Brigham Young University-Idaho
Facies models are often abstract and difficult for undergraduate students to fully understand. As a result, they tend to memorize idealized diagrams from text books that can be reproduced for an exam, then ...

Sedimentary Rock Descriptions and Scientific Communication
Thomas Evans, Western Washington University
This activity challenges students to write three rock descriptions and edit the work of their peers. The goal is for students to realize the importance of rock descriptions, learn how to write them, and gain ...

Meander Migration in the Amazon Basin
Les Hasbargen, SUNY College at Oneonta
This activity is targeted at introductory to upper division undergraduate courses in geomorphology or Earth system science. Students view time series animation of satellite imagery of part of the Amazon River basin ...

Exploring El Niño
Kevin Theissen, University of St. Thomas (MN)
In this introductory-level lab activity, students first view a 20-minute portion of an informative video to learn about the operation of an array of moored buoys that is used to detect changes in the El Niño ...

An abrupt global climate change event in Earth history- Evidence from the ocean
Kevin Theissen, University of St. Thomas (MN)
Students work in pairs to explore and synthesize key paleoceanographic evidence for the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM)as found in marine sediment cores collected and analyzed during Ocean Drilling Program ...

Introduction to GIS through river meandering and landslide mapping
Karen Gran, University of Minnesota-Duluth
The primary goal of this lab is to develop basic ArcGIS skills for geomorphology students and give them a taste of what is possible in GIS. The lab is written for the GIS novice, and thus includes detailed ...

Exploring topographic steady-state in Taiwan
Karen Gran, University of Minnesota-Duluth
This activity is designed as both an introduction to GIS and an exploration of topographic steady-state. Students analyze DEMs from Taiwan to extract topographic profiles across the range. They reconstruct a series ...

An Introduction to Seismic Interpretation Using Open Source Software (OpendTect)
Jeannette Wolak Luna, Tennessee Technological University
This is a series of three lab exercises integrating seismic interpretation and sedimentary geology. Each lab uses freely available software from dGB Earth Sciences, OpendTect. The seismic volume is the F3 Block in ...

Introduction to well logs for use in the petroleum industry
Walter Borowski, Eastern Kentucky University
This exercise uses a suite of well logs (aka electric logs) to interpret lithology within a stratigraphic section and to determine fluid content within borehole rocks.

Visualizing Data from a Journal Article: A Critical Thinking Exercise
Jeannette Wolak Luna, Tennessee Technological University
This is a take-home exercise for junior or senior-level students in a Sedimentation/Stratigraphy course. It may be used to bridge topics of geomorphology, depositional environments and clastic sedimentology. The ...