Upper-Division

Physics applied to geological problems, including basic mechanics, stress and strain, heat transport, and fluid flow. Discussion-2 hours.

Explores the shallow subsurface environment, including groundwater systems, buried faults, sedimentary basins and other environmentally significant features using the tools of geophysics. Data acquisition and interpretation focus on understanding processes and defining problems.

How the fossil magnetism of rocks is used to decipher Earth's history: applications to tectonics, geochronology, stratigraphy, structural geology, geomagnetism, and archeology. Includes an overnight field trip to collect samples for a class research project.

A hands-on research project in the Paleomagnetic Laboratory. Students collectively drill oriented cores in the field (one–two days), prepare and measure the samples, and analyze and interpret the data. Each student writes an individual final report based on the class results.

Introduction to quantitative earthquake and global Earth structure seismology. Topics include basic elasticity, wave characteristics, seismic ray theory, wave reflection, surface waves, normal modes, seismic instrumentation, application of seismic waves to reveal Earth structure and resulting models, representation of earthquake sources such as explosions and faulting, earthquake rupture scaling, modern methods of modeling seismic recordings to study source complexity, and an introduction to seismotectonics. Laboratory-3 hours. Students cannot receive credit for this course and course 270.

Three weeks of summer field study in geologically complex regions in the White-Inyo Mountains of eastern California. Activities include geologic field mapping on topographic and photographic base maps, stratigraphy, petrology, and structure analysis. A fee is required for participation. Contact sponsoring agency for details. Prerequisite(s): satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements; courses 109/L, 110A/L, and 110B/M. Enrollment is restricted to Earth sciences majors. Concurrent enrollment in course 188B is required. Interview only via application filed with department.

Introduction to basic principles of geographic information systems (GIS). Visualization of earthscapes with applications to problem-solving in the Earth sciences. Laboratory exercises in loading, manipulation, and interpretation of data sets. Field investigations of phenomena visualized in laboratory, including geological description, interpretation, and written report preparation. Lecture and laboratory portions of course occur during spring quarter. Field investigations and report-writing occur in the summer following spring quarter. A fee is required for participation. Contact sponsoring agency for details. Prerequisite(s): satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements; courses 109/L, 110A/L, and 110B/M. Enrollment is restricted to Earth sciences majors. Concurrent enrollment in course 188A is required. Interview only via application filed with department.