This course focuses on the geology and geochemistry of muds and mudstones. Lectures emphasize the generation of silt and clay, processes of transport and accumulation, muddy depositional environments, provenance techniques (inorganic geochemistry and mineralogy), organic geochemistry, and concepts/tools in basin analysis. An introduction to petroleum resource exploration in shale plays of the USA will be presented. An introduction to applied paleontology and paleoclimatology using deposits from muddy basins will also be presented.