AG-211
Arctic Marine Geology (15 ECTS)

Prerequisite: 60 ECTS in natural sciences at university level, whereof 30 ECTS must be within earth sciences

Application deadline: 15. April 2011

Objective:
This course will cover the geological evolution of the Arctic Ocean and its surrounding seas underlining the role of the Arctic region in the global climate. Focus will be on glacier-ocean interactions, palaeoceanography, glacial marine sedimentary environments and associated with them typical submarine landform patterns. Introduction to modern marine geological survey methods and instrumentation will be given.

Content:
This course will start with an introduction to geology and oceanography of the world's oceans, outlining the distribution of main sediment types, their respective sources and depositional environments. In the context of the global plate tectonics, the formation of the Arctic Ocean and the resulting change in the ocean’s circulation pattern will be discussed. Various proxies used in deciphering the associated paleoceanographic, sedimentological and climatic variations are examined. The course also covers the modern sediments, sediment sources and sedimentation rates as well as role of the sea ice and permafrost in the Arctic climate history. History of Arctic exploration and current status of mapping of the Arctic Ocean, and its present geography and physiography will be reviewed.

The role of glaciations in the formations of the geological structure, sediment stratigraphy and morphology of Svalbard as well as other high latitude continental margins will form a core part of the course. Typical glacial marine sedimentary environments, ranging from small basins in front of outlet glaciers, through fjords to continental shelves and -slopes as well as deep-water abyssal plains will be discussed. Case studies from the Svalbard margin as well as other presently and formerly glaciated margins will be presented to illustrate characteristic sediment types and stratigraphic sequences associated with each sedimentary environment. Modern marine geological field and laboratory methods and instrumentation used for collecting and analyzing geophysical and sedimentological data will demonstrate some of the tools used in reconstructing the past oceanographic, sedimentary and environmental conditions.

The course will include 3-6 days of marine geological/geophysical cruise on a research vessel in the waters around Svalbard. During the cruise, students will collect geophysical, oceanographic and sedimentological data that they will summarize in a cruise report. The collected data will be further analyzed in the lab after the cruise, and the results will be used in the students’ term projects.

Recommended in combination with: AG-210 The Quaternary History of Svalbard

	Period:	Autumn semester 2011 (29. August - 15. December)
	Teaching:	42 hrs lectures/seminars, 35 hrs labs/exercises/presentations, 3-6 days scientific cruise (obligatory)
	Evaluation:	Written3 hrs exam (60% of grade); written and orally presented term project (40% of grade); approved cruise report (team-work).
	Course responsible:	Riko Noormets

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