|Syllabus Reference Resources| |EESC W4947 - Plate Tectonics -
Spring 2007| Meets: Tues and Thurs at 11:30-12:45 pm in Room 558
Schermerhorn Hall Synopsis: The Theory of Plate Tectonics
produced a revolution in the Earth Science, affecting nearly
every discipline. This course begins with a recapitulation of
the exciting data and imaginative ideas that sparked the
concepts of continental drift and seafloor spreading and those
that took the ill-defined mobility of the earth's skin into the
framework of rigid plates. Using a few sessions at the computers
in the classroom and homework exercises we will explore the
spherical geometry of Euler poles and the evolution of triple
junctions that are the basis of plate kinematics. Then with
seismology, magnetics, gravity, multibeam bathymetry, deep-sea
drilling and diving in submersibles we explore the phenomena
occurring today at plate boundaries: the axis of mid-ocean
ridges, transform faults; convergent margins, accretionary
prisms, backarc basins, and mountain belts