Earth 525 - Tectonophysics

Offered by Eric Hetland and Nathan Niemi. Next offered in Winter 2020.

This course is aimed at incoming graduate students and senior undergraduates, and examines the basic physical processes of the dynamic Earth.

The course is revised for 2018 with a focus on deformation processes and rheology of the lithosphere. Topics covered will include material properties and rheology of lithospheric materials, deformation of the lithosphere, thermal structure of the lithosphere, and geologic and geodetic datasets used to uncover these phenomena. Topics covered will include, elasticity, plasticity, and viscosity; Coulomb failure and critical wedges; isostasy, fluid dynamics, flexure, and isostatic rebound; power-law creep, thermal structure of the lithosphere, and lithospheric strength envelopes; paleoseismology, GPS geodesy, and InSAR techniques applied to tectonic deformation.

Graduate and interested undergraduate students of all backgrounds are encouraged to take this course that offers a broad and intellectually diverse overview of the solid Earth.