Geophysics 110

Winter Semester:   January to April - 2014

Fundamentals of Geophysics


Instructor: Associate Professor Dr. Vadim A. Kravchinsky


Office: Room CCIS 3-106 in the Physics (CCIS building)
Office Phone: 492-5591
e-mail: vadim@ualberta.ca
Personal web site: http://www.ualberta.ca/~vadim

Office hours will be announced during the course.


Recommended Textbook (not obligatory):

              Fundamentals of Geophysics (second edition), W. Lowrie, 2007.

                The book will be available at the University's Book Store.

                Also available through the University of Alberta Libraries electronic resources at: http://www.knovel.com/web/portal/basic_search/display?_EXT_KNOVEL_DISPLAY_bookid=2310 

 

Additional Reading Textbooks:

              The Solid Earth – An Introduction to Global Geophysics  (second edition) by C.M.R. Fowler, Cambridge University Press, 2004.  ISBN:  0-521-89307-0

              Global Tectonics, P. Kearey and F.J. Vine, 1990 - on reserve at Cameron Library

 

I will add to a file of additional resources as we go through the course.  I will put as much on the web as is feasible.


Course Weights

Assignments (approx. every one week)

25%

Midterm Exam: TBA

30%

Final (TBA):

45%

 

To access the course pages please log-in eClass:    https://eclass.srv.ualberta.ca/

The assignments will consist of both essay and mathematical derivations/problems. You may have to go to the scientific literature or websites to do some of this work.

Assignments are due at 5:00 p.m. on date that they are requested. Given the large class size, extensions can only be allowed for medical reasons.

Solutions will be provided on the web at the same address.

The students taking this class are primarily from Faculty of Science, I fully expect them to be web capable. If this is a problem please let me know - but I feel it is pointless to cut trees down to make photocopies for the students. I will endeavor to put important figures at a point accessible to you via the web.


Course outline (approximate timing): 

 

1.  The Earth in the solar system  (~1 week)

           

2.  Earth shape and structure (~1 week)

- shape and size of Earth

- an overview of the Earth’s interior

 

3. Gravity and isostasy (~2 weeks)

- Earth’s gravity field and the geoid

- density structure of the Earth

- Airy and Pratt isostasy

 

4.  Seismology and earthquakes (~4 weeks)

- types of seismic waves

- physics of earthquakes and earthquake parameters (locations, magnitudes, focal mechanisms)

- plate boundary earthquakes and intra-plate earthquakes

- travel time curves and the seismic structure of the Earth

 

5.  Geomagnetic field (~2 weeks)

- origin of the Earth’s magnetic field

- seafloor magnetic anomalies

- paleomagnetism and apparent polar wander

- atmospheric and space physics and Sun-Earth interactions

 

6.  Plate tectonics, plate margins and motions (~2 weeks)

- plate tectonic theory

- plate margins, triple junctions, Euler poles

- absolute and relative plate motions