Advanced Topics (450-0-01)

Topic

Nemmers Seminar: Rocks Get Weak

Instructors

Elvira Mulyukova

Meeting Info

Technological Institute F285: Wed, Fri 10:00AM - 11:20AM

Overview of class

The Nemmers Prize in Earth Science is awarded every two years to preeminent scholars in the field and allows our department the opportunity to learn from these scientists. This spring we will be joined by Prof. Emily Brodsky, this year's winner. This class is being run in coordination with the Departmental seminar series organized around the theme of Dr. Brodsky's past and present research portfolio. Each week we will read a paper or papers by the seminar speaker, discuss that paper together, attend the seminar, and participate in a private Q&A with the speaker after their seminar. Students will be expected to lead paper discussions, turn in written summaries of the papers, and actively participate in both discussion and Q&A. The topics in this class will explore the fundamental physical processes that make rocks weak, ranging from the geodynamics of crustal and lithospheric deformation to the materials science of minerals and crystalline defects. Earth's outermost rocky shell is strong enough to support kilometers-high mountains, preserve billions-year old continents, and hold over a billion cubic kilometers of ocean. However, rocks can be dramatically weakened, for example during brittle failure and fault rupture in earthquakes, fluid infiltration and liquefaction in avalanches, melting and magma production in volcanoes, and microstructural damage and shear localization at tectonic plate boundaries, which govern both human and planetary scale geological processes.

Registration Requirements

The seminar is open to all graduate students and upper level undergraduates with instructor approval.

Class Materials (Required)

Readings will be posted on Canvas

Class Attributes

SDG Climate Action

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Registration is reserved for Earth and Planetary Sciences Graduate Students