Tectonics

Photo: Aerial view of Transantarctic mountains, 2018. By Sue Flood.

This course by Dr. Laura Webb taught an introduction to the finer points of tectonic theory with practicums and assignments using real data, culminating in a research paper using available data to investigate the tectonic setting of an area of interest - for me this was West Antarctica.

Topics covered in this course included:

  • Focal Mechanisms - applications using GeoMapApp to decipher tectonic contacts in the Mediterranean

  • Continental Drift - applications using UNAVCO and Jules Verne Voyager

  • Tectonic Margins - applications with movement rates and triple junctions : transpression/transtension

  • Relative Strength - geotherms at different margin types, and differing lithology analysis

  • Orogenesis - History of the Green Mountains and North America. Subduction melt.

  • Rifting - rift marginal mountains in the East African Rift System

  • Anisotropic Tomography - seismology, hotspots, rifting, EarthScope

Final Paper, Undergraduate Writing Sample