The objective of the course is to teach the student to define the facies and microfacies of a sedimentary rock in order to define the different environments and their evolution, and to introduce the students to the notion of sequence analysis. The practical work is based on microfacies identification techniques. Two days of excursions are organised: one in the Ourthe valley (terrigenous detrital facies and sedimentary structures); the second at Resteigne (carbonate facies).
The course begins with a description of the major marine environments and the parameters that can influencethe environmental parameters (marine currents, tide, T°, salinity, Milankovitch cycle, ......................The structures The sedimentary rocks that can be observed in terrigenous detrital environments are then described. For carbonate rocks, the terms of classification are recalled (Dunham, Folk, Embry,) and the large standard microfacies (Wilson) are described. Finally, the course dwells on the term of accommodation and sequential analysis.
The student must make an oral presentation of an imposed article. The student must be able to identify bioclasts, classify rocks and reconstruct a sedimentary environment from observations. Field trip reports are required and graded.
Flugel E, 2004. Microfacies of carbonate rocks. Springer Ed. ISBN 3-540-22016-X. Tucker M., 2001. Sedimentary petrology. Blakwell science Ed. ISBN 0-632-05735-1. Horowitz A., Potter P., 1971. Introductory petrography of fossils. Springer Ed. ISBN 0-387-05275-5