Welcome to Studley Park.
Please join me in acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which this field trip is based, and on which you live and work, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations. Together we pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and future.
When you have a moment, take some time to read about the indigneous heritage of Melbourne and the Yarra Bend area.
I have put together a virtual geology field trip here that can be completed either with or without any access to the field site. As you complete this work:
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE REQUIRED TO ADHERE TO FEDERAL AND STATE EMERGENCY REGULATIONS (VIC restrictions here) AT ALL TIMES.
This assignment is built around a google earth field trip in Studley Park, a few km east of The University of Melbourne. Normally, we would spend a couple of days working our way around the site and mapping its complex geology. This semester, we will do it virtually instead, by referring to videos and photographs that I prepared for many of the outcrops a couple of days before the university shut. The outcrop locations are shown on a google earth kmz file. When you click on each pin, you will see a measurement as a minimum, or a link to a video of the outcrop, usually with a description for me. You will use these outcrops to prepare a map (see attached powerpoint files).
Note that this is NOT a GIS assignment. It is an assignment to develop and/or test your geological mapping capabilities. I would normally collect field maps at the end of the field trip, but that is not possible in this case. You may print your maps out and draw them on paper, or you may draw them in the powerpoint file, or you may use a GIS.
You are postgraduate students but I am aware that you have different levels of field experience. Nevertheless, this is complex geology with folds that are not simple cylindrical structures. You will have to think carefully as you draw your map.
For each outcrop:
Notebook and analytical tasks
What must you submit?This assignment is worth 25% of your mark. The percentages below are scaled to 100 %.
Part 1 – Field mapping
You will submit a notebook, field map and cross section, showing the geology of the study area. The map should be prepared at A4 or A3 size (A3 preferred but that may be difficult in present circumstances).
Your notebook (15%) should include at a minimum any tasks that you have been set above. If you prepare your notebook on paper, photograph each page and paste them in order into the ‘notebook’ powerpoint file. Alternatively, you can prepare notes in a word document or scan the notebook and submit as a pdf. I am happy with any solution that gives me an electronic copy of your notebook.
Your map (20%) should include
Your cross section (15%) should be carefully and accurately constructed at the same scale as your map, central in the field area and not vertically exaggerated.
Part 2 – written report (50%)
Please prepare a report of around 1500 words, plus figures and tables. It should be written in professional, scientific language. It is particularly important to separate observation from interpretation (tell me the facts before the fiction). It is also good practice to use headings and sub-headings, even for a short report. Please use the headings in the template provided.
Your field report should rely as much as possible on your own field observations. Remember that a field report is not a literature survey or an essay. It is an account of your own observations and how you interpret them.
Resources
1) Google earth file
2) Map
3) Download google earth pro (Links to an external site.)
Please join me in acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which this field trip is based, and on which you live and work, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations. Together we pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and future.
When you have a moment, take some time to read about the indigneous heritage of Melbourne and the Yarra Bend area.
I have put together a virtual geology field trip here that can be completed either with or without any access to the field site. As you complete this work:
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE REQUIRED TO ADHERE TO FEDERAL AND STATE EMERGENCY REGULATIONS (VIC restrictions here) AT ALL TIMES.
This assignment is built around a google earth field trip in Studley Park, a few km east of The University of Melbourne. Normally, we would spend a couple of days working our way around the site and mapping its complex geology. This semester, we will do it virtually instead, by referring to videos and photographs that I prepared for many of the outcrops a couple of days before the university shut. The outcrop locations are shown on a google earth kmz file. When you click on each pin, you will see a measurement as a minimum, or a link to a video of the outcrop, usually with a description for me. You will use these outcrops to prepare a map (see attached powerpoint files).
Note that this is NOT a GIS assignment. It is an assignment to develop and/or test your geological mapping capabilities. I would normally collect field maps at the end of the field trip, but that is not possible in this case. You may print your maps out and draw them on paper, or you may draw them in the powerpoint file, or you may use a GIS.
You are postgraduate students but I am aware that you have different levels of field experience. Nevertheless, this is complex geology with folds that are not simple cylindrical structures. You will have to think carefully as you draw your map.
For each outcrop:
- Use the marker on google earth to locate it on your map.
- Click on the google earth marker to see photos and/or video showing you something about the outcrop.
- Plot structural measurements onto the map. Make sure that you put western limb measurements to the west, eastern limb measurements to the east etc. Also think carefully about scale. If the outcrop is 10 m wide and the map scale is 1:10k, the outcrop will only be 1 mm wide on the map. You can plot multiple measurements for a single outcrop but think how you do it to be most sensible.
- Plot your interpretation of fold hinges, etc. onto the map. Think carefully about how far you can reasonably extend them.
- Use formlines to show how bedrock geology interacts with topography. Remember the rule of vees. For instance, look at the cliff in outcrop 1. You can see that individual beds deflect about 1.5 m to the west between the top and bottom of the cliff. How does that relate to the scale of your map (it is 1:2500 at A3)? It may be that the deflection is imperceptible? Or it may not. Be careful and think about this, especially as you move toward the western end of the field area.
- Record all observations, sketches etc. in a field notebook. Your notes should include:
- Locality number
- Annotated sketch, with scale and orientation.
- Comments regarding facies - The oil and gas industry, hydrogeologists and other resource sectors like gold mining, are commonly interested in differentiating thick channel sands (oil reservoir rocks, aquifers and common sites of gold deposits), shale-topped sands, and massive shales (source rocks, aquicludes, less prospective for gold deposits). Generally, sandy turbidites are thicker, and shales are more thinly to indistinctly bedded. Sandstones are also more resistant to erosion so show up as thick prominent beds with recessive outcrop around them. Major facies changes will show up as slope breaks in cliff faces.
- Structural measurements
- Anything else of value.
- The tasks listed below must be integrated into your report. Sketches can be done using powerpoint, hand sketches that you photograph for inclusion in your report, or using free software such as inkscape.
Notebook and analytical tasks
- Use the photograph of outcrop 1 to draw a stratigraphic column for the outcrop. I want to see packages of sediment. So, look at the thickness of the beds and show me areas of i) sands (often the thicker beds, or more resistant, or more ironstained (red) beds in a section); ii) shales (often thinly or indistinctly bedded).
- Draw an annotated sketch of outcrop 2. Listen to the description to help you.
- Look at the drone video of outcrop 2a (western part of the outcrop). Use the drone video to draw an annotated sketch that shows the full outcrop. You won’t be able to show all the detail of outcrop 2 but you should show it on the end of outcrop 2a and put a rectangle showing the extent of your sketch of outcrop 2. You should be aiming to identify folds and faults. It is a beautiful outcrop but not a simple outcrop!
- Use the structural measurements from outcrops 1, 2, 2a, 3 and 3a to construct a stereonet showing the orientation of folds in the outcrop. You may need to download Prof Rick Almendinger’s Stereonet (Links to an external site.)
- Sketch the thrust ramp at outcrop 5. Show it rotated so that the bedding is flat. Think about what way up the bedding is and which way you have to rotate it.
- When you have watched the video of outcrop 6, pause the video at about 5-7 secs and make a sketch of the outcrop, showing key elements of the outcrop but particularly i) the packages of thick sands and interbedded shale-topped sands and ii) the projection of the beds along strike into the river.
- Prepare a summary stratigraphic column for outcrop 6, using the imagery provided. Note that the fence along the top of the outcrop is 1.2 m high. Use that to estimate thickness.
- Prepare a stereonet for outcrops 5-10 and estimate the trend and plunge of the fold. In your report, comment on whether the fold is cylindrical or not.
- For outcrop 13, prepare a summary stratigraphic column, showing the vertical distribution of facies.
What must you submit?This assignment is worth 25% of your mark. The percentages below are scaled to 100 %.
Part 1 – Field mapping
You will submit a notebook, field map and cross section, showing the geology of the study area. The map should be prepared at A4 or A3 size (A3 preferred but that may be difficult in present circumstances).
Your notebook (15%) should include at a minimum any tasks that you have been set above. If you prepare your notebook on paper, photograph each page and paste them in order into the ‘notebook’ powerpoint file. Alternatively, you can prepare notes in a word document or scan the notebook and submit as a pdf. I am happy with any solution that gives me an electronic copy of your notebook.
Your map (20%) should include
- The distribution of all lithologies within the study area. Show areas of sandy and shaly facies.
- The structure of the map area. Show major structures clearly and consider how you might show smaller structures. Small blow-up maps are absolutely encouraged. Remember this is a field map. Use formlines to show the distribution of units projected across topography
- A legend, scale, title, north arrow and coordinate grid.
Your cross section (15%) should be carefully and accurately constructed at the same scale as your map, central in the field area and not vertically exaggerated.
Part 2 – written report (50%)
Please prepare a report of around 1500 words, plus figures and tables. It should be written in professional, scientific language. It is particularly important to separate observation from interpretation (tell me the facts before the fiction). It is also good practice to use headings and sub-headings, even for a short report. Please use the headings in the template provided.
Your field report should rely as much as possible on your own field observations. Remember that a field report is not a literature survey or an essay. It is an account of your own observations and how you interpret them.
Resources
1) Google earth file
2) Map
3) Download google earth pro (Links to an external site.)