A 5-day short course with 3.5 days classroom part taught in Kigali and 1.5 days excursion to the Great Rift Valley, and Lake Kivu, one of the ancient lakes of Africa.
starts: 07/11 10:30 AM
This course considers the structure and stratigraphy of rift systems, and structural controls on sedimentation in large lakes and small seas. We review the fundamental physical, chemical, and biological limnology of large lakes, and the impact of these processes on the sedimentary record. The controls on sequence development in rift-lakes are considered, as are rates of climatic versus tectonic change in continental extensional environments.
The course reviews the sedimentology of lake basins, focusing especially on those systems that are likely to be preserved in the geological rock record. The last part of the course considers both siliclastic and carbonate facies in lacustrine rift systems, and their potential as hydrocarbon reservoirs. The course concludes with a discussion of controls on the accumulation of lacustrine hydrocarbon source rocks. Lectures and exercises emphasize use of both basin-scale, and high-resolution seismic data and drill core data from several extensional settings, including African Rift Lakes Malawi (Nyasa), Tanganyika, and Albert, and Lake Baikal, Siberia.