Teaching
This page is under construction but you may find useful information...
Intro to my Dangerous Earth (ERTH20001) course
This course is taught every second semester at the University of Melbourne and I took over from 2020.
This figure shows an example hazard profile comparing the 2011 M9.1 earthquake in Tohoku, Japan and the severe bushfires experienced in the 2019-2020 season in Australia. Hazard profiles like these are used to compare the impact of natural hazards across space and time.
source: This is a slide from my lectures in Dangerous Earth course (ERTH20001)
Research Data & Tools
currently these data and tools are not downloadable but I'm happy to share these if requested.
PREM:
The original version of the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM) as given in Dziewonski & Anderson (1981) can be downloaded as an MS Excel spreadsheet from the link given at the bottom of this page. Note: This Excel spreadsheet was created in MS Excel 2000 and contains depth, P velocity, S velocity, density, quality factors (Q) for both P and S waves at 1Hz. Click on PREM_1981.xls at the bottom of this page.
Multitaper Spectrum Code:
An installation guide I wrote based on my personal experience to set up the multitaper spectrum analysis library published by Prieto et al., (2009) on Mac OS X (Mountain Lion). With some intuition, this should also help Linux users. Go to the bottom of this page and click on Multitaper_installation_guide.pdf link.
Normal Mode Summation:
A simple Matlab program to calculate displacement along a string excited by a source. An accompanying GMT program is provided to plot the results. Example results and figures are also provided. This program recreates Figure 2.2-8 on p. 37 in An Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, and Earth Structure by Stein and Wysession. Note that, by slightly modifying this program, it is also possible to obtain time series data for a given position (a seismogram!) on the string. Click on mode__sum.zip link listed at the bottom of this page.
Moho Depth from CRUST 1.0 Model:
A Fortran 95 programme for extracting Moho depth from CRUST 1.0. Moho depth is obtained from the nearest node given a user-defined point. Read comments in the README file and the .f95 programme for more details. Click on Moho_CRUST1.zip link listed at the bottom of this page.
Great Circle (GCARC) Arc Calculation
Here is a MATLAB function that allows you to calculate the GCARC distance on the Earth given that you provide latitude and longitude of two points on the surface. It is based on the Haversine Formula and has the option to output GCARC distance either in degrees or kilometers. Click on gcarc.m link listed at the bottom of this page.
Midpoint along the Great Circle Arc (GCARC)
Here is a MATLAB function that calculates the midpoint along the GCARC for two points on Earth's surface. The user provides latitude and longitude of the two points of interest and the calculation is based on the Haversine Formula. Click on midpoint.m link listed at the bottom of this page.
Await more utility programmes for data processing with SAC ...
My slides from a lecture introducing seismic migration. Click on Seismic_Migration.pdf link at the bottom of this page. I have found this pdf to be popular online probably because it explains the basic concept of migration using simple figures.
Here's where you can download the completed data sheet for "Slopes Galore" field trip and a GMT code to plot data.
Here is a fun and educational video I made by integrating photos of locations and geomorphological terms/concepts central to the course.
Here's the midterm exam review sheet for GEOL 105/GSCI 1050.
Click on PHYS4130_atm_structure.pdf at the bottom of this page to download the lecture on planetary atmospheric structure conducted on 27/Mar/2012.
Seismology for Mineral Physics
Click on seismology_structure.pdf at the bottom of this page to download slides of a lecture I delivered for Masters students in mineral physics.
Special Themes in Geophysics - MATLAB
Datasets for animation and gravity inversion with MATLAB are Animate_Hs.txt and dg.txt respectively. Download them below.
Here's a very short video showing the superposition of displacement of four different one-dimensional harmonic waves.
Slopes Galore Transect
The GSCI 3020 Earth Surface Processes students at the University of Connecticut surveyed a slope near Fenton River in Storrs, CT to better understand slope types on the 20th and 21st of September 2011. The following plot made with Generic Mapping Tools (GMT, version 4) visualizes the measurements made during this field trip. Note the convex-to-concave form of the slope along the positive direction of the horizontal axis. I have also given the GMT code I wrote to draw this transect. The following students contributed data to make this figure: Kayla Anatone, James Fales, Genevieve Flock, Tara O'Neill, James Winkler. GSCI 3020 is led by Prof. Robert Thorson.
Here's the GMT4 code to produce the above figure. I have used psbasemap, psxy, pstext and ps2raster functions.
#! /bin/sh unset all # set basic GMT propertiesgmtset PAPER_MEDIA=A4 gmtset ANNOT_FONT_SIZE_PRIMARY +9p gmtset ANNOT_FONT_SIZE_SECONDARY +9p gmtset LABEL_FONT_SIZE +12p# Some parameterssize=6i/-2.5i box=0/34/0/7 xtick=2g2 ytick=1g1 vscale=2 yscale=-1 color=139/69/19 black=0/0/0 yoff=5 xoff=2 out=slopes.ps# make base map psbasemap -JX$size -R$box -B$xtick:"Distance (m)":/$ytick:"Depth (m)":SWne -X$xoff -Y$yoff -K -V -P > $out # Draw slope from measurements psxy -JX -R -B -Wfat,$color -K -V -P -O >> $out <<END 0. 0. 2. 0.05 4. 0.1 6. 0.15 8. 0.27 10. 0.55 12. 0.97 14. 1.65 16. 2.43 18. 3.27 20. 4.7 22. 5.34 24. 5.85 26. 6.21 28. 6.45 30. 6.56 32. 6.78 34. 6.89 END # draw arrows echo 20 1.5 255 0.5 | psxy -JX -R -B -SV0.005/0.05/0.03 -G$black -V -K -P -O >> $out echo 28 5.0 235 0.5 | psxy -JX -R -B -SV0.005/0.05/0.03 -G$black -V -K -P -O >> $out
# label the diagram pstext -JX -R -B -V -P -O >> $out <<END 20.2 1.5 10 0 1 LB Convex Drop 28.2 4.8 10 0 1 LB Concave Drop END
# convert to .pngps2raster $out -A -P -Tg
# delete .ps versionrm $out