The student who completes the course successfully will be able to to identify and classify the large regional tectonic structures and the characteristics of the different types of sedimentary basin associated with convergent, divergent and transcurrent margins He or she will be also able to analyze and describe the depositional dynamics governing filling of these sedimentary basins, the mechanisms that control their subsidence and the relationship between tectonic and sedimentary processes.

The internal structure of the earth, geophysical and petrological characteristics of the lithosphere. Divergent margins and ocean basins, convergent margins, collisional and conservative margins and major structures associated with the different types of margin. Mechanics of sedimentary basin: basins related to lithospheric stretching, flexural and strike-slip basins. Sedimentary basins and plate tectonics. Relationships between tectonic and sedimentation in the sedimentary basins. Analysis of subsidence and thermal evolution of a sedimentary basin. Examples from the Mediterranean area.