Global og anvendt geofysikk

Objectives

The overall goal of this course is to provide the students with a good understanding of global geophysics, applied geophysics and how they are related. A second goal of this course is to provide students with a practical understanding of how knowledge in these fields is acquired, in particular how tomographic results are analyzed and the importance of seismic and seismological methods. This practical understanding includes the ability to write computer programs of importance in these fields, including seismic ray tracing and seismic inversion.

Content

In this course the students will learn about global geophysics, plate tectonics (especially mid-ocean ridges and subduction zones), mantle structure and dynamics, core structure and dynamics and interaction between mantle and core. Special emphasis is given to plate and plume modes of mantle convection. Aspects of applied geophysics covered includes earthquakes, volcanoes, hydrothermal systems, ore deposits and gas hydrates. These topics will be studied using recent review and research papers in the field. The students will also learn a number of numerical programming techniques (including interpolation, differentiation, integration, ordinary differential equations and inverse problems) an how these are used in geophysics, with emphasis on seismic and seismology to study Earth structure and dynamics.

On completion of the course the student should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student

• has good general knowledge of global and applied geophysics and how data is collected and analyzed in these fields
• has a good basic understanding of fundamental numerical methods used in geophysics, especially seismics and seismology, including interpolation, integration, differentiation, solving differential equations and inverse problems
• knows how to conduct a literature study on a topic in global and applied geophysics and critically analyze these papers

Skills

The student

• can analyse and criticize review papers on plate tectonics, the structure and dynamics of the mantle and core
• can analyse and criticize papers in applied geophysics, including earthquakes, hydrothermal and geothermal systems and gas hydrates
• can write a computer program that can be used as a starting point for analyzing data in global or applied geophysics
• can give a presentation on a topic in global and applied geophysics
• can explain the relationship between geophysics and other areas such as geology, geochemistry and oceanography
• can perform an independent literature search on a topic in global and applied geophysics and write a short critical paper based on that literature study

General competence

The student

• Has knowledge of global and applied geophysics and how these topics are related
• can write computer programs of relevance in global and applied geophysics
• understands how geophysical results are obtained, analyzed and used to improve knowledge of structure of dynamics of the Earth on various scales
• is able to critically analyze and reflect on research in global and applied geophysics