Sedimentary basins comprise a long time-scale record of environmental change on the earth’s surface and are also hugely economically important. Almost all commercial hydrocarbons are contained within sedimentary basins – but they also comprise groundwater aquifers, mineral deposits and potential sites for sequestered carbon dioxide and gas storage. This course will investigate the origin, evolution and architecture of sedimentary basins and how their fills are influenced by an interlinked combination of tectonics, climate and sea level change. We will examine in detail the variety of techniques which are used in analysis of sedimentary basins, and in later weeks we will focus on their role in energy transition, with Ireland as a case study for energy use and future strategy.