Geophysics 525: Tectonophysics Spring 2011

Course Information Lecture: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30 am – 10:45 am, MSEC 195

Instructors: Susan Bilek and Glenn Spinelli Contact Info: phone 835-6510, office MSEC 358, email [email protected] phone 835-6512, office MSEC 360, email [email protected] Office Hours: (SB) Tuesdays 1:30-3:30 pm or by appointment (GS) Tuesdays 11-12 pm, Thursdays 2-3 pm or by appt.

Course Objectives The fundamental objective is to learn about the forces that shape and have shaped our planet. Geodynamical processes have significant spatial and temporal scales, from rock and crystal deformation to plate motions and from minutes to millions of years. You will learn about the observations that have provided the basic understanding of the dynamics of our planet as well as the theoretical background to help interpret the observations. You will be expected to demonstrate your ability to solve geodynamic problems given various datasets and the background that you learn in this class. In addition, you will be required to read current research articles and synthesize the content into brief summaries and final project.

Course Materials Required Text: Geodynamics, 2nd edition, Turcotte and Schubert, Cambridge University Press, 2002

Course Website: www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/Classes/Geop525/ Links to exercises and data will be provided on the class website as needed.

Library Website: http://infohost.nmt.edu/~nmtlib/ Use to access electronic databases and journal articles.

Lectures: Lecture material will be derived from your textbook and other sources, so it is in your best interest to attend lecture.

Grading Policy Homeworks: 40% Midterm Project: 10% Paper Reviews: 20% Final Project (including intermediate items): 30%

Assignments Homeworks: Bi-weekly homework assignments will be assigned and will relate to both the reading and lectures. Note that significant partial credit will be given, so it is very important to show all the steps leading to final answers. Some homework assignments will require computer analysis of data provided in class using MATLAB. See me if you need to set up access for computers to use MATLAB.

Midterm project: Both instructors will be unavailable during a period in mid-late February. This time is estimated on the syllabus, but may shift slightly. During this period, you will be expected to spend the course time to work on a flexure-related assignment and short 10-12 minute presentation to the class defending your results.

Paper reviews: During the term, you will read 2 short research papers (on different topics) of your choosing related to material discussed in this class. Your assignment is to write a short review (2 typed pages) of the paper, providing a short summary of the paper as well as the question it addresses and the answers it provides. Feel free to provide criticisms of the paper as well. To find short papers, look in journals Nature, Science, Geology, and Geophysical Research Letters, available either online or in the Tech library. Limit your search for papers within the last year. In addition, you should be prepared to give a 5 minute (maximum) summary of the paper to the class on the day the summary is due.

Final project: In lieu of a final exam, you will complete a final project. This project is to explore one of the topics from class as related to a planetary body other than the Earth. This project will entail writing a short (5-6 page) paper and preparing a 25 minute powerpoint presentation for the end of the semester. The paper should follow the format of a paper in Geophysical Research Letters (you can look at the AGU website or a copy of the journal to find examples of the format and reference style). You will also turn in and be graded on the powerpoint presentation. Be sure to properly reference all the articles used in your project (hopefully you know by this point that direct copying from sources is plagarism and can lead to failure of the course - for questions come see me!). See the project description handout for more details.

Late policy Extension requests due to emergencies must be made before the due date. Penalties of 10% per day will be applied for late assignments. This means point values for homework assignments that are turned in after the class meeting time start at 90 instead of 100.

Academic Honesty I expect that you turn in your own work on homeworks, midterm exercise, reviews, and final project. You may discuss topics with other students, but you must write up your own work. Problems with cheating or plagiarism will lead to a failing grade in the course.

Schedule of Topics Date Topic Readings Assignments Due Week 01/18/11 Course Intro + features of 1-1 to 1-9 1 the earth 01/20/11 Consequences of tectonics 1-10 to 1-14 1 01/25/11 Stress and stress 2-1 to 2-2 2 measurements 01/27/11 Stress and strain 2-3 to 2-7 2 02/01/11 Stress and strain 2-7 to 2-8 Paper Review 1 3 02/03/11 Elastic Deformation 3-1 to 3-9 Homework 1 3 02/08/11 2D Flexure 3-9 4 02/10/11 Flexure applications 3-10 to 3-18 4 02/15/11 TBA 5 02/17/11 TBA Topic due via email 5 02/22/11 TBA 6 02/24/11 TBA 6 03/01/11 Midterm exercise Midterm exercise 7 presentations writeup 03/03/11 Heat conduction, flow, 4-1 to 4-5 Homework 2 7 generation 03/08/11 1,2,3D conduction and 4-6 to 4-12 8 geotherms 03/10/11 Heat -- Geologic examples 4-13 to 4-29 8 03/15/11 NO CLASS – SPRING 9 BREAK 03/17/11 NO CLASS – SPRING 9 BREAK 03/22/11 Intro to gravity and geoid 5-1 to 5-5 Homework 3 10 03/24/11 Gravity Anomalies 5-6 to 5-14 10 03/29/11 1D viscous fluid flow and 6-1 to 6-4 11 pipe flow 03/31/11 2D flow, pipe flow 6-4 to 6-9 Homework 4 11 04/05/11 Postglacial rebound 6-10 12

04/07/11 Plumes and thermal 6-15, 6-18, 6-24 Paper Review 2 12 convection 04/12/11 Rheology 7-1 to 7-5, 7-10, 7-11 13 04/14/11 Crust and mantle rheology 7-6 to 7-9 Homework 5 13 04/19/11 Fault classification and 8-1 to 8-6 First Draft 14 simple friction 04/21/11 Earthquakes and tectonics 8-7 to 8-12 14 04/26/11 Earthquakes and tectonics 8-7 to 8-12 Peer-review Edits 15 04/28/11 Student Presentations 15 05/03/11 Student Presentations Homework 6 16 05/05/11 Class wrap-up Final Paper 16