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