MSMS 5030 - Marine Geology

Course guide for Marine Geology (MSMS 5030)

Marine Geology
MSMS 5030
Winter 2025

Marine Geology reviews key concepts of marine geology, as needed by marine biologists to understand the geomorphic setting they are working in and to provide a general-knowledge background. Since it is graduate-level, students are required to enhance frontal classroom teaching by the instructor through research papers and their presentation on specialized subjects directly related to the taught material. Course material reviews planetary evolution, types of sediments and rocks, the reason for the existence of oceans and continents and the spatio-temporal dynamics of marine sedimentary and igneous processes. Numerous case-studies are used to illustrate concepts such as plate tectonics via island formation, and sedimentology via discussion of attractive sedimentary systems, such as coral reefs. Students will have a broad understanding of geological ocean dynamics and will be literate in present issues in the Earth Sciences. Furthermore, since quantitative data analysis is a key skill required on the job-market, students will be introduced to the freeware statistical software R and will be exposed to the analysis of realistic geological datasets.

All course materials are provided in a pdf.
You do not need any textbook. All materials are provided as pdf’s or videos in the Canvas folders. But feel free to read as much in the literature as you like! You can’t ever read enough.
You need to download R and R-Studio onto your laptop (or home computer).

Deliver a professional, formal presentation of an advanced topic in marine geology to a graduate audience
Write a grammatically perfect, technically informed, well laid-out document on a chosen graduate topic in marine geology
Use R for a limited exploration of standard, table-format, datasets
Use R to explore equations as can be found in any scientific or instructional text
Ask informed, in depth questions and elicit informed, in-depth answers from an interlocutor
Answer such challenging questions as define above in a formal, scientific, and coherent manner
Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the treated materials by answering questions that may not immediately have an obvious answer
Demonstrate critical thinking ability by questioning or explaining complex processes with regards to marine geology
Discuss and explain different rock types and their genesis
Discuss and explain different land-forms and their genesis
Discuss and explain the interaction of major Earth processes with climate and evolution
Discuss and explain the major sedimentary processes in the oceans
Discuss and explain the processes that lead to land being found in the ocean
Discuss and explain why there are oceans, and what they are, and how they differ

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