SC4.3

This 105-minute short course aims to introduce non-geologists to structural and petrological geological principles, which are used by geologists to understand system earth.

The data available to geologists is often minimal, incomplete and representative for only part of the geological history. Besides learning field techniques to acquire and measure data, geologists need to develop a logical way of thinking to close gaps in the data to understand the system. There is a difference in the reality observed from field observation and the final geological model that tells the story.

In this course we briefly introduce the following subjects:
1) Grounding rocks: Introduction to the principles of geology.
2) Collecting rocks: The how, what, and pitfalls of field data acquisition.
3) Failing rocks: From structural field data to (paleo-)stress analysis.
4) Dating rocks: Absolute and relative dating of rocks using petrology and geochronology methods.
5) Shaping rocks: The morphology of landscapes as tectonic constraints
6) Crossing rocks over: How geology benefits from seismology, geodynamic and geodesy research, and vice-versa.
7) Q&A!

Our aim is not to make you the next specialist in geology, but we would rather try and make you aware of the challenges a geologist faces when they go out into the field. Additionally, the quality of data and the methods used nowadays are addressed to give other earth scientists a feel for the capabilities and limits of geological research. This course is given by Early Career Scientist geologists and geoscientists and forms a quartet with the short courses on ‘Geodynamics 101 (A&B)’, ‘Seismology 101’, and ‘Geodesy 101’. For this reason, we will also explain what kind of information we expect from the fields of seismology, geodynamics and geodesy, and we hope to receive some feedback in what kind of information you could use from our side.