Course description

“Geomorphology with the Basics of Quaternary Geology” is a normative discipline in the specialty “Earth Sciences” for the educational and professional program of bachelors. The course is taught to full-time students in the 5th semester in the amount of 3.5 credits (according to the European credit transfer system ECTS).
The course is aimed at getting acquainted with the basic concepts of formation of the relief of the earth’s surface, studying the basic distinguishing features of the most common genetic types and forms of relief and features of their formation, acquiring skills of complex relief analysis of certain land areas. The final part of the course provides consideration of the main information about the structure and features of the cover formation of Quaternary sediments, as well as the study of genetic types and stratigraphy of the Quaternary system sediments.

Upon completion of the course students will know: theoretical and methodological principles of geomorphology and the history of its formation and development, the branch structure of geomorphology and its relationship with other sciences, the most important applied tasks of modern geomorphology; morphological and genetic classifications of relief; factors and processes that form the relief of the earth’s surface; how the relief and relief-forming processes affect the soil and vegetation cover and other components and properties of the landscape, as well as the economic use of the area; main landforms of tectonic, volcanic and structural-denudation origin; the influence of climate on the relief and relief-forming processes, climatic and morphological zonation of the land; products and geomorphological consequences of weathering of rocks; methods (mechanisms) of denudation and related landforms; main forms of the Earth’s relief of exogenous (fluvial, deluvial, gravitational, karst, glacial, water-glacial, aeolian, cryogenic) genesis and peculiarities of their formation; features of the Quaternary period and the applied value of the study of Quaternary sediments; features of formation and structure of Quaternary sediment cover; the principle of stratigraphic division and subdivisions of the Quaternary system; genetic classification and basic distinguishing features of the most common genetic types of Quaternary sediments.

After completing the course the student will be able to: build, using the topographic basis, the most common morphometric cartograms and maps (of horizontal and vertical dismemberment of the earth’s surface, steep slopes); give morphological characteristics of the terrain; determine the genesis and age of the relief based on the analysis of geological and geomorphological maps; build geological and geomorphological profiles and perform their analysis; build geomorphological maps of large scales; read and analyze maps of Quaternary sediments, distinguish the main genetic types of these sediments.