San Andreas Fault

Hawaiian lava flow

Mount St. Helens

Geodynamics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors
GEOL 546/L

Dr. Dayanthie Weeraratne
Dept. of Geological Sciences, CSUN
Live Oak Hall, Rm# 1203
Email: dsw@csun.edu
Office hours: Wed 4-6pm

Text Book: The Dynamic Earth, by Davies
Supplementary Text: Geodynamics, by Turcotte & Schubert


Field Trip to Griffiths Park Observatory or JPL!

Syllabus download: PDF

Lectures:

Week 1: Introduction to Geodynamics and Math Review PDF

Lab 1: Isostacy of continental and oceanic plates PDF

Week 2: Introduction to Geodynamics and Plate Tectonics PDF

Lab 2 (Due Sept 26, 2013), Thermal Conductivity PDF

Lab 2.5 (Due Sept 18, 2013) Seafloor Bathymetry and Matlab PDF
Use Matlab handout and Unix Tutorial.

Unix Tutorial:
PDF1 PDF2 PDF3 PDF4 PDF5 PDF6 PDF7 PDF8

Week 3: "Lithosphere Tectonics" PPT

Week 4: Asthenosphere and Intro to Fourier Transforms PDF

Lab 3: Time-Dependent Heat Conduction PDF

Fourier Transform Codes for Matlab
ftprog.m dfft.m ift.m allfiles_tarfile

Week 5: "Stress and Strain (Don't worry!)"
PPT

PDF
Lab 4 (Due March 21, 2011), Conductivity of a Subducting Slab PDF

Apr 12, 2011, Lecture, "Gravity and Topography", PPT

Lab 5 (Due April 21, 2011), Gravity and Topography on the Moon, and Hudson Bay, PDF

MIDTERM 1 April 21, 2011 (Covers all material before Spring break up to "Strain and Stress")
Midterm 1 Review Sheet PDF

Apr 26, 2011, Lecture, "Glacial Rebound and Mantle Viscosity" PPT

May 3, 2011, Lecture, "Rheology and Deformation" PPT

May 5, 2011, Lecture, "Mantle Convection and Fluid Mechanics" PPT

Lab 6 (Due May 19, 2011), Mantle Convection, PDF

Links: Earthquakes around the world, today! Cascades Volcano Observatory International Tsunami Information Center Indian Ocean Tsunami USGS Earthquake Hazards General seismology links NASA: Rovers land on Mars! Geoscience Departments (U.S. & Canada)