Introduction to Fluid Motions, Sediment Transport, and Current-Generated Sedimentary Structures
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this earth science course on how moving water and air shape sediment. It opens with fluid dynamics fundamentals, focusing on turbulent shear flow structure and the forces fluid motion exerts on a bed of loose sediment. From there it covers sediment transport as bed load and suspended load, then the geometry, kinematics, and dynamics of ripple and dune bedforms. The course closes with the styles of current-generated primary sedimentary structures, with particular attention to cross stratification. Materials follow MIT OCW's standard format of lecture notes and readings, free to access under a Creative Commons license, with no cost for the learning itself. Suited to students who want the physical reasoning behind features like dunes and cross-bedding, rather than just a descriptive survey of sedimentary rocks.