EARTH 350-0 Syllabus

EARTH 350-0 Physics of the Earth (ISP)

Syllabus

Prof.: Craig R. Bina, Tech F299, 491-3238, craig@earth.northwestern.edu
Prof.'s Office Hours: By appointment (just email in advance; late afternoons are best)

T.A.: Trevor Bollmann, Tech F481, 467-7819, trevor@earth.northwestern.edu
T.A.'s Office Hours: Mon 2-3pm, Fri 2-3pm, or by appointment.

Department: Earth and Planetary Sciences, Tech F379, 491-3238, Fax 491-8060
Students are invited to attend any weekly departmental research seminars.
Departmental research opportunities for ISP students (updated 25 Nov 2014)
Examination score distributions (updated 15 Dec 2014)

Text: Fundamentals of Geophysics, by William Lowrie, 2nd edition, 2007, Cambridge, ISBN-13 978-0-521-67596-3

Supplements: Problem Sets (Access restricted and logged by NetID.)

Course Website: http://www.earth.northwestern.edu/~craig/teach/EARTH_350-0/

Course Objectives

Class Lectures: MWF 1:00-1:50pm
Class Discussions and Quizzes: Th 1:00-1:50pm
Class Location: ISP Classroom, 616 Noyes Street

Syllabus (version 2014.11.26.a) for Fall Quarter 2014:
(Future revisions to this syllabus will be posted here.)

9/24-9/26 PLATE TECTONICS: basic Earth structure, plate boundaries, relative motions
(Note: lectures on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week.)
Reading: Lowrie 1.2.1-1.2.6; Relative Plate Motions; Lakes and Oceans; Ice Sheets; Himalayas; e-reserve (Travis, 1995); on-line This Dynamic Earth.
Selected lecture notes. More selected lecture notes.
9/29-10/03 PLATE TECTONICS: Euler poles, plate motion data, triple junctions
Reading: Lowrie 1.2.7-1.2.10; Triple Junction Stability; Spherical Triangles; Subduction; Core.
Homework #1 due Wednesday 10/01 at 1pm.
Fowler on triple junctions. Selected lecture notes. A future-plate-geometry example.
10/06-10/10 GEOMAGNETISM: dipole fields, paleomagnetism, paleopoles, marine magnetic anomalies
Reading: Lowrie 5.1-5.4, 5.5.5-5.5.6, 5.6-5.7; Erratum; Geomagnetism; Paleopoles; Stratigraphic Record; e-reserve ( Travis, 1997; Milius, 1999; Etheredge et al., 2000; Milius, 2003; Milius, 2004; Lohman et al., 2004; Gallet, 2007; Mitchell, 2008; Yeager, 2008; Anonymous, 2013a; Anonymous, 2013b; EntomologyToday, 2014; optionally Wu & Dickman, 2012).
Homework #2 due Wednesday 10/08 at 1pm.
Selected lecture notes. More selected lecture notes.
A paleopoles worked example.
Types of remanent magnetism (Lillie, 1999).
A magnetic anomaly pattern (Takeuchi & Uyeda, 1976).
10/13-10/17 GEOTHERMICS: heat equations & heat flow, temperature distributions
Reading: Lowrie 4.2, App.B; Vector Differential Operators; Example Vector Differential Operators; Heat Equation Notation; Heat Equation with Time-Periodic Boundary; Experiment; e-reserve (Bina, 2005).
Homework #3 due Wednesday 10/15 at 1pm.
10/20-10/24 GEOTHERMICS: conduction & convection
(Note: probable guest lecturer on Monday 10/20; professor out of town.)
Reading: Lowrie 4.1.1-4.1.2; Dimensional Analysis.
Optional Reading: England et al. (2007).
Homework #4 due Wednesday 10/22 at 1pm.
10/27-10/31 SEISMOLOGY: body & surface waves, plane & spherical waves, stress & strain, constitutive relations, linear elasticity, wave equations & speeds
Reading: Lowrie 3.1-3.4, App.A; Basic Elasticity Theory; A Sample Strain Tensor; Wave Equations for Organ and Guitar; IRIS Shaking Video; Particle-Motion Video; Normal-Modes Videos; Misconceptions (glass); e-reserve (Wu, 1999; Anonymous, 1999).
Homework #5 due Friday 11/01 at 1pm.
[MIDTERM EXAMINATION on Monday 10/27]
11/03-11/07 SEISMOLOGY: SH & SV polarizations, refraction & reflection, Snell's law, Adams-Williamson equation
(Note: lecture on Thursday 11/06; discussion on Friday 11/07.)
Reading: Lowrie 3.6, 3.7.1-3.7.4; P- and S-Wave Potentials; Snell's Law; Wavefronts; Adams-Williamson Equation; Seismic Waves; e-reserve (Schreiber & Anderson, 1970; Cowen, 2006).
Homework #6 due Wednesday 11/05 at 1pm.
Selected lecture notes.
11/10-11/14 SEISMOLOGY: Earth structure & composition, earthquake location, fault plane solutions
Reading: Lowrie 3.5, 3.7.5-3.7.6; Earthquake Faults; Focal Mechanism Beachballs; Focal Mechanism Stresses; Sample Earthquake Focal Mechanisms; IRIS Focal Mechanism Video; Convincing.
Homework #7 due Wednesday 11/13 at 1pm.
Selected lecture notes.
More selected lecture notes.
(Note: all students are encouraged to attend the departmental seminar on Friday 11/14, given by Prof. Maureen Long from Yale.)
11/17-11/21 GRAVITY: geodesy & tides, gravity anomalies
Reading: Lowrie 2.1-2.6; Gravity Notes; Gravity Anomaly Edge-Effects; Local g; e-reserve (Peterson, 1996; Rosen, 2013; Cowen, 2014; Perkins, 2007; Moore, 1992; Anonymous, 2014); Moon.
Homework #8 due Wednesday 11/19 at 1pm.
11/24-11/26 GRAVITY: isostasy, gravity field continuation
Reading: Lowrie 2.7-2.8; Gravity Field Continuation; Bessel Cylindrical Harmonics; Visualizing Spherical Harmonics; Other Spherical Harmonic Applications; Gravity Wells; e-reserve (Sneider, 2000; Anonymous, 2002; Schwartz, 2008; Nature Geoscience, 2012).
Homework #9 due Wednesday 11/26 at 1pm.
Selected lecture notes.
[Thanksgiving Vacation 11/27 and 11/28]
12/01-12/05 WCAS READING PERIOD:
Review of Homework Problems on Monday 12/01 at 1pm (optional).
General Course Review on Thursday 12/04 at 1pm (optional). Please come with questions...
(Note: professor will be out of town after 12/04, so ask your questions early or save them for the TA.)
Homework #10 due Wednesday 12/03 at 1pm. Note that Homework #10 will not count toward final grades, as WCAS rules prohibit the assignment of graded work during Reading Period. This homework set is simply a review exercise to help you prepare for the exam.
Homework #10 Review by TA on Friday 12/05 at 1pm (optional).
12/08-12/12 FINAL EXAMINATION WEEK:
(Note: professor will be out of town during Final Exam Week; exam will be proctored by the TA.)
12/12 FINAL EXAMINATION: Thursday 12/11, 9-11am, ISP classroom
A copy of an old final exam, as well as the exam key, are available for study purposes.

Class grade will be based upon Final Exam, Midterm Exam, Quizzes, and Problem Sets - weighted in descending order. The final examination will cover all of the course material.

Students are expected to check the syllabus website and their email regularly.

Students are expected to read assigned material prior to class meetings.

Late assignments will not be accepted without prior arrangement.

All students should review WCAS guidelines on Academic Integrity.

Use of electronic devices (e.g., calculators, tablets, laptop computers, cellular phones, iPods, etc.) during examinations is prohibited.

Please refrain from disrespectful or distracting behavior during class, including but not limited to: use of cell phones, laptop computers, iPods, etc. (Besides, both an NU study and a Princeton/UCLA study have shown that students learn better when taking handwritten notes.)

NOTE: Due to occasional schedule conflicts, Thursday discussion/quiz sections may sometimes be exchanged with Monday, Wednesday, or Friday lecture sections.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION