625-317 Surficial and Quaternary Geology

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Objectives:

On completion of this subject, students should:

• be able to identify, describe and understand the origin of sediments, soils and regolith, and associated landforms;

• appreciate the age of the landscape, and the rates at which processes act now and have acted in the past;

• understand the origin of the southeastern Australian landscape, especially the young surficial deposits and landscape of Northern Victoria.

Content:

An overview of current ideas on materials found in the southeastern Australian landscape including soils and weathered mantle, the processes which formed these materials and the time involved. The future of the landscape, including the effects of human activity. Time scales and methods of subdivision; dating and correlation of deposits. Glacial cooling and post-glacial aridity. Global warming or future ice-age. Riverine, aeolian, glacial and volcanic processes. Land degradation and other environmental problems. Field Work in Northern Victoria - River, dune and lake deposits and processes; soils and palaeosols; modern problems of salinity and drainage.

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