Essentials of Geophysics

Fall 2004

Surface and nodal patterns of free oscillations. (Image by MIT OCW.)

Course Highlights

This course features a full set of lecture notes and assignments.

Course Description

This course is designed to be a survey of the various subdisciplines of geophysics (geodesy, gravity, geomagnetism, seismology, and geodynamics) and how they might relate to or be relevant for other planets. No prior background in Earth sciences is assumed, but students should be comfortable with vector calculus, classical mechanics, and potential field theory.

Technical Requirements

MATLAB® software is required to run the .m files found on this course site.

Syllabus

Prerequisites

Physics II (8.02), Differential Equations (18.03)

Description

Formally, this course has 4 contact hours a week. If enrollment allows it, the extra one-hour session will be devoted to a discussion of a recent journal article on a topic covered in the lectures; if the class size is too large this will not be feasible and the extra time will be used for a combination of resuscitation and literature discussion.

Topics

The Earth in the Solar System
The Earth's Gravitational Field
The Magnetic Field of the Earth
Seismology
Geodynamics

Grading

Grades for the class will be based on the scores from (~8) homework assignments, paper discussion, and a final exam/quiz.

Grading Table
ACTIVITIES	Percentages
Homework Assignments	50%
Paper Discussion	10%
Final Exam/Quiz	40%

No mid-term exam will be given. It is expected that students will work independently on homework problems, but discussion outside class on the articles that are discussed is encouraged. (Unless indicated otherwise, homework is due one week after it is assigned.)

Text Books

This course doesn't use one single text book. For further reading, see recommended text books in the readings section.

Calendar

Calendar Table
WEEK #	TOPICS
1	The Earth in the Solar System
2-4	The Earth's Gravitational Field
5-8	The Magnetic Field of the Earth
9-12	Seismology
13-14	Geodynamics

Readings

Recommended text books are listed below.

Lowrie, William. Fundamentals of Geophysics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, September 1997. ISBN: 0521467284.
(Excellent reference book.)

Fowler, C. M. R. The Solid Earth: An Introduction to Global Geophysics. Second Edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 685. ISBN: 0521893070. (Excellent overview of the field, useful appendices. Second Edition of very popular undergraduate text book. I will discuss some of the topic in more theoretical detail.)

Stacey, F. D. Physics of the Earth. 3rd ed. Brisbane, Australia: Brookfield Press, 1992. ISBN: 0646090917.
(Good text for potential field theory, gravity + geomagnetism, meteorites, and it has very useful appendices, good problems; we will go through most of this book.)

Sleep, Norman H., Kazuya Fujita, and K. Fujita. Principles of Geophysics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Science, 1997, p. 586. ISBN: 0865420769.
(Good text book for this course; we will cover most of the material presented herein; useful source of literature for further reference; no problem sets.)

Turcotte, Donald L., and Gerald Schubert. Geodynamics. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0521666244.
(A "classic" reference text for gravity, thermal state of earth, heat flow, flexure, thermal convection; derives most equations.)

Stein, Seth, and Michael Wysession. An Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes and Earth Structure. Malden, MA: Blackwell Science, 2002. ISBN: 0865420785.
(Very good introduction to modern seismology, big plus is the use of many examples from recent seismological research.)

Anderson, Don. Theory of the Earth. Malden, MA: Blackwell Science, 1990. ISBN: 0865421234.
(Very good reference book for chemistry and thermodynamics.)

Merrill, Ronald T., et al. The Magnetic Field of the Earth. Burlington, MA: Academic Press, September 15, 1998. ISBN: 012491246X.
(Observational and theoretical aspects of Earth's magnetic field.)