Geological Mapping and Fieldwork Practicals

A.Y. 2020/2021
9
Max ECTS
100
Overall hours
SSD
GEO/02 GEO/03 GEO/07 GEO/09
Language
Italian
Learning objectives
Making judgements: The students will be trained to collect and elaborate field and laboratory data, evaluating the uncertainty on their results
Communication skills. The students will be trained to communicate their results to the final users, in the form of maps and reports, making use of the proper softwares.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding: The students will learn to survey and interpret geological maps, and to elaborate geological cross-sections and reports.
Applying knowledge and understanding: The students will be trained to a professional approach to basic geological mapping in view of any application to civil engineering, environmental, planning and energetic issues.
Communication skills. The students will be trained to communicate their results to the final users, in the form of maps and reports, making use of the proper softwares.
Learning skills: The students will acquire the basic knowledge in order to be able to upgrade to specialistic skills, both in pure and applied research and professional applications.
Single course

This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.

Course syllabus and organization

Single session

Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Owing to pandemic emergency, the 2020-21 edition of the Course will be held almost entirely online. Live lectures and exercises, based on digital, simplified and real geological maps images, will be given on Teams. The access code to the Teams classes named respectively "Rilevamento Geologico Bersezio" and "Rilevamento Geologico Tartarotti" will be posted on the Ariel site of the Course since September 2020.
On request, lectures might be recorded to facilitate participation, specifically of Student Workers.
At the end of their scheduled set of lectures, each Teacher will give 6 hours of live practicals, in classroom, dedicated to correction of the personal exercises suggested during the remote lessons. Students will participate in two groups (6 hours each) to observe the safety prescriptions.
Anyway, the Course program and the teaching methods will remain unchanged compared to the pre-emergency editions, the only difference consisting in online lecturing.
Since the end of the pandemic emergency, the final exam will be an oral enquiry, held live online at the same Teams classes where the Course was given. As soon as possible, depending on the pandemic progress, the normal classroom exam will be re-activated, in the form it is described further on.
During the remote oral exam, Students will be requested to work out exercises on simplified geological maps, to describe a real geological map and to discuss a geological cross-section selected from their personal exercises.
Course syllabus
Part 1 Geological maps and cross-sections (6 cfu, classroom lectures and practice exercises)
Lectures:

1) Introductory notes on contents, scale and types of geological maps
2) Using the geological map and other specific maps;
3) Geological maps as deduced from outcrops and fair copy maps
4) Law aspects and technical report writing
5) Key to map tools: legend (types, meaning, how it is constructed, etc.), schemes (stratigraphy, structure, etc.), geological cross-sections
6) Computerized maps and GIS (Geographic Information System)
7) Mapping Methodology:
· Sedimentary environments and rocks
· Crystalline basements and rocks
· Intrusive and Volcanic environments and rocks
· Continental Quaternary sediments and rocks

Practice exercises

1) Using the tools of Geological maps/specific maps (e.g., legend, schemes, morphology, symbols)
2) Understanding the geometry (attitude, true dip and apparent dip, thickness, shape) of geologic objects
3) Overlapping and juxtaposition relationships, heteropy
4) Understanding cross-cutting relations: unconformities, dykes, faults, folds
5) Understanding the tectonic structures and structural styles (fold and fault systems, their associations, local vs. regional structural elements, their continuity and geometry)
6) Chronological relations between geologic objects and their geologic evolution
7) Geologic cross-sections:
· Introduction, simple structures, horizontal and vertical scales
· Continuity, discontinuity, intersection, overlapping relations
· Geologic cross-section in regions with simple folding pattern
· Geologic cross-section in folded and faulted geological settings
· Geologic cross-sections in regions affected by polyphase deformation
8) Writing of the technical report on the geological map and cross-section.

Part 2 Fieldwork Practice (3 cfu, fieldwork)
This unit includes the Geological Mapping Stage (compulsory, 7 days in the field) and 2 compulsory single-day Field Trips (total amount of 9 field-work days, 3 cfu).
During the Geological Mapping Stage (to be held every year in the last 10 days of September), different groups of Students will be led by the Teachers of the Geological mapping Course, with the help some additional Colleagues, to make the geological survey of a small territory.
This stage aims to promote the achievement of autonomy in geological mapping, data elaboration (geological map and sections, geological report, map explanatory notes) and applications.
The Field Trips (compulsory, 2 single-days) lead the whole class of Students to compare the map representation of geology with the real world geology, directly on site. The main aims are to refine the comprehension of the geological architectures in the field and on the correlative geological maps and to promote the understanding of the scale effects on the representation of geology on a map.
Prerequisites for admission
All the classes of the first two years of the BSc Geological Sciences (F65) and compulsory field trips of the first two years of the BSc Geological Sciences.
Teaching methods
The Class consists in two parts: Part 1, classroom lectures and practical excercises on reading and interpretation of geological maps; Part 2, Field work practice: one-week stage in the field plus two one-day field trips.
Teaching Resources
Paperback and digital manuals (Ariel). Suggested textbooks during lectures (Ariel), didactic portfolio of geological maps for practicals.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Part 1. Geological maps and cross sections: elaboration of a geological cross section with explanatory notes, interpretation of one geological map among four maps proposed by Students.
Part 2. Field work practice: presentation of the geological map and technical notes surveyed during the field stage.
The final score is the weight average between the scores of Parts 1 and 2.
Fieldwork practicals
GEO/02 - STRATIGRAPHY AND SEDIMENTOLOGY
GEO/03 - STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY
GEO/07 - PETROLOGY AND PETROGRAPHY
GEO/09 - MINING RESOURCES, MINERALOGIC AND PETROGRAPHIC APPLICATIONS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE
Field activity: 36 hours
Shifts:
Attività Alternativa
Professor: Tartarotti Paola
Didattica Obbligatoria di Terreno
Professors: Berra Fabrizio, Poli Stefano, Tartarotti Paola, Zanoni Davide
Geological Mapping
GEO/02 - STRATIGRAPHY AND SEDIMENTOLOGY
GEO/03 - STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY
GEO/07 - PETROLOGY AND PETROGRAPHY
GEO/09 - MINING RESOURCES, MINERALOGIC AND PETROGRAPHIC APPLICATIONS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE
Practicals: 48 hours
Lessons: 16 hours
Professor(s)
Reception:
Monday, 10.30-12.30
Via Mangiagalli 34, II floor
Reception:
Everyday 8.30 am - 6.30 pm
Earth Science Department, via Mangiagalli 34, 3rd floor
Reception:
Monday, 12.30 - 13.30
Via Botticelli 23, Milano
Reception:
Thursday h: 15-17; Friday h: 10-12
Teacher's Office, via Mangiagalli, 34
Reception:
Ask for an appointment via email
Via Mangiagalli 34, 3rd floor