At a larger scale:
at the University of Georgia
GEOL 8200 is a carbonate petrology course taught by Bruce Railsback at the University of Georgia. It's offered every other year, generally in alternation with GEOL 8180, a sandstone petrology course. The course has been taught nine times, in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, and 2007. It will presumably be offered again in 2009.
Course Outline:
The following is also the table of contents for the 169-page fifth edition of Railsback's
Carbonate Petrology Lecture Notes, which are available on request.
I. Introduction
Materials that make up carbonate rocks
II. Mineralogy of Carbonates
Depositional components of carbonate rocks: Their recognition and nature
III. The Aragonite-Calcite Transformation Problem
IV. Generation of Carbonate Grains
V. Skeletal Carbonate Grains and Their Microstructures
VI. Non-Skeletal Grains
VII. "Matrix"
VIII. Carbonate Grains vs Siliciclastic Grains
IX. Microbial Carbonates
Some conceptual and physical tools
X. Carbonate Nomenclature
XI. Cathodoluminescence and the Cathodoluminoscope
Generation of carbonate rocks
XII. The Oceans: A Quick Review of Physical Oceanography
XIII. Carbonate Deposition
XIV. Carbonate Diagenesis
Marine Carbonates
Non-marine Carbonates
XV. Isotopes and Trace elements in Diagenesis
XVI. Dolomite and Dolomitization
The bigger picture
XVII. Controls on Carbonate Mineralogies and Morphologies
XVIII. Trends in Carbonate Rocks in the Phanerozoic
Bibliography:
The bibliography distributed in paper form before 2003 is now an online bibliography:
Part I:
Important Textbooks and Other Useful Books
Carbonate Mineralogy and Crystal Chemistry
Biomineralization
Carbonate Mud
Carbonate Deposition
Part II:
Pedogenic Carbonates
Speleothems:
Tufas and Travertines
Cathodoluminescence
Part III:
General References on Carbonate Diagenesis
Marine Diagenesis
Meteoric Diagenesis
Regional Perspectives on
Carbonate Diagenesis, Cementation, and Cement Stratigraphy
Compaction, Pressure Dissolution, and Stylolitization
Part IIIa:
Twinning in Calcite
Silicification
Part IVa:
Dolomite and Dolomitization
Part IVb:
Isotopic Applications in Carbonates
Trace Elements in Carbonates
Part V:
Controls on Carbonate Mineralogy and Crystal Morphology
Temporal Changes in Carbonates
Some snippets from the syllabus:
Course Objectives: To train students as competent carbonate petrographers (a true carbonate petrologist also needs analytical tools too), to familiarize students with the literature on carbonate rocks, to show students the principal problems of carbonate petrology, and to develop writing skills for the geosciences.
Lectures: You will be given a packet of lecture notes (169 pages of them in 2005), in addition to the usual lab handouts. To speed up the conveyance of information, to allow more interaction, and to avoid boredom, we won't have actual lectures. Instead, students will read the lecture notes before they are to be discussed and we'll meet to discuss these lecture notes and assigned readings as shown above. Our discussions will center on student questions, which can range from questions about details to questions that expand on the material to questions about the whole lecture.
Labs:
1. Lab on Intergranular Cement and Neomorphic Calcite:
2. Lab on Skeletal Carbonate Grains:
3. Lab on Non-skeletal Carbonate Components:
4. Lab on Carbonate Rock Names:
5. Lab on Cements and Diagenesis :
6. Diagenesis Lab II-Dolomitization:
The first three labs are intended to familiarize students with components of carbonate rocks, and the first one just explains the ideas needed to work on Labs 2 and 3. The two "grains quizzes" will be the evaluation of learning in Labs 2 and 3 (and by extension in Lab 1). Lab 4 is to help integrate the largely thin-section-scale observations already made with hand-specimen-scale observation. :
Labs 5 and 6 are both to learn to identify rock components (like Labs 2 and 3), but they are also more conceptual, in that they involve interpretation of fabrics. The "carbonate diagenesis quiz" will evaluate learning in Labs 5 and 6.:
All of this lab work will leave you ready to work on the class project, as well as on future research on carbonate rocks.
Class Project: The course commonly involves a class project in which we pool our efforts to tackle a geologic question. This project can change from year to year.
Some Random Images
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(left) Transmitted-light photomicrograph of an intergranular pore in oolitic grainstone from the Jurassic of Morocco with peloidal micritic cement (P), thin rimming cement (arrows), dolomite cement (D), and blocky calcite cement (C). Note sutured contact between two grains at right (S). Scale bar = 0.20 mm. This is from one of the thin sections that we examine in the laboratory portion of the course. |
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(left) Transmitted-light photomicrograph of primary and secondary aragonite in a stalagmite from Drotsky's Cave, Botswana. Primary aragonite (P) is the aragonite precipitated as the layers that are shown grew. Note the primary aragonite needles terminated by dissolution (short arrow). Secondary aragonite (S) hangs from roof of void (V) in primary aragonite (P) The secondary aragonite is thus, in a sense, a tiny stalactite in a tiny cave in a stalagmite from a cave in Botswana. Scale bar is 0.1 mm; large arrow shows direction of primary growth. Dark circle in void is an artifact of thin section preparation. |
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(left) Cross-sections of nine Cornulites tubes in a Middle Ordovician limestone from the Veteran Veterans Parkway roadcut north of Nashville, Tennessee. Some tubes are filled with dolomite (middle, and upper right); some have geopetal fill of fine matrix material above which is phosphatic infilling (far lower left) or calcite (lower left); in one matrix sits on a small piece of brachiopod shell wedged in the tube (right center). Larger and huge images are available. Field of view is 4mm wide. Image by LBR from a thin section made by Daniel E. Hunter in the collections of Dr. Steven M. Holland of the University of Georgia. |
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(left) Another, and even more interesting, photomicrograph from a carbonate rock - see the linked page about it. |
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(left) And yet another - see its linked page too. |
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(left) Aragonite and calcite in a SEM backscatter image - see the linked page too. |
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At a larger scale:
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(left) The Bahamas in an unlabeled MODIS satellite image and labeled MODIS satellite image. |
Links
Petrographic resources:
To Jay Gregg's Limestone Petrology Photomicrograph Gallery.
To Jay Gregg's Dolomite Petrology Photomicrograph Gallery.
To Yong-Il Lee's Photomicrographs of Carbonate Rocks (Click on "Atlas" and then "Photomicrographs of Carbonate Rocks")
To Chris Kendall's Diagrams that Track Carbonate Diagenesis
To Railsback's Atlas of Pressure Dissolution Features
To Railsback's Atlas of Speleothem Microfabrics
Bio-taxonomic resources:
To uBio's index for all organisms and their index for foraminifera (with images to right).
To the University of Arizona's Tree of Life
Field photos for selected samples:
Resources about writing papers for the class:
A page on scientific writing for the class project.
A page on scientific editing for the class project.
Other Links:
To a list of the remarkable features of the CaCO3 minerals.
To the introduction to some tables of carbonate minerals.
To an Earth Science Picture of the Day about possible whitings in Lake Michigan.
To a little text about, a longer and better chunk of text about, and a photo of Henry Clifton Sorby, the "Father of the Petrological Microscope" and in effect the founder of Carbonate Petrology. (In the photo, note his left-handedness, which is probably closely related to his interest in a visual approach to science.)
To the UGA Geology Home Page
email to Railsback at rlsbk@gly.uga.edu
