Course overview
This course will develop knowledge of the Earth as a four-dimensional dynamic system. The megascopic structure of the earth - oceanic and continental crust and lithosphere, and the asthenosphere, will be introduced and compared. The basic dynamic potentials acting on the Earth (heat, gravity) will be examined, and their diverse first order effects explored (isostasy, convection, exhumation, pluming). The concepts of rifting and ocean formation will be examined, as will those of subduction and mantle plumes. Processes of orogenesis will be examined in depth. Recent and Mesozoic evidence (structural, geochemical, geophysical, sedimentological) for the operation of these processes will be examined. We will examine evidence and constraints on interpretation of these processes operating in past geological eras: the Palaeozoic, Proterozoic and Archaean. Emphasis will be placed upon understanding examples from the tectonic evolution of the Australian Plate.
Details of field trip will be communicated at start of the course.
Course learning outcomes
- Demonstrate proficiency in common practical skills in tectonics and structural geology
- Understand the tectonic processes that operate at plate boundaries and their effects on the plate interior;
- Understand the main forces that impact the Earth's surface and subsurface, what drives them and how the Earth responds
- Describe models for the lithosphere and asthenosphere including their phycial properties
- Combine appropriate structural, metamorphic, geophysical, geochemical evidence to interrogate tectonics operating in the past
- Work in a team to produce a presentation about a current tectonics research topic.