JPE395 Physics of the Earth, Winter 2023

News/Notice Course webpage at UofT Physics website First day of class: 01/09 (Tuesday) Important Dates: 01/09: winter classes start; 02/20-24: winter reading week; 04/06: last day of classes; 03/19: drop date; 02/20: Family Day, 04/07 Good Friday. Assignments are due before 11:59 pm on the due date (usually on a Thursday). There will be a final exam. No required textbooks. Most course materials will be covered by a set of ppt files (see below) and online pdf notes. Other reference books listed below with some accessible online.   Lecture Hours/Location Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1-2 pm at LM162   Lecturer Instructor: Qinya Liu Office: MP 504A Phone: 416-978-5434 Email: liuqy AT physics.utoronto.ca Office Hours: Thursday 2-3 pm   TA: Gang Yang Email: see Quercus Office Hours: TBA before PS due dates   Course Organization Problem set policy   Schedule No. Content Reference Reading Links Problem Sets 1 OM & Introduction 2 Layering of the Earth 3-4 History of Plate Tectonics Fowler, Chap 1 Age of sea floor, Digital Isochrons, Global tectonics animations, mov file, The Supercontinent Cycle, Supercontinent Cycles Through Earth History 5 Plate boundaries and relative plate motion, Part A, Part B Fowler, Chap 2 Wilson 1965 on TF, NASA Plate Maps, Continental collision, Wilson Cycle in Plate Tectonics 6-7 Fracture zones and Triple junctions, Part A, Part B, Part C 8-9 Plates on a sphere, Part A, Part B NUVEL-1, NUVEL-1A PS 1 (see Quercus), SpreadingRates.csv 10 Hotspots "This Dynamic Earth" Chapter on Hot Spots, Hotspots Google Map, Richard et al (1989), Kattenhorn & Prockter (2014) 12-13 Heat transfer Part A, Part B Fowler, Chap 7 14-15 Steady state heat equation Geotherms 16-17 Non-steady state heat equations, Cooling of lithosphere, isostasy PS 2 18-19 Rheology T & S, Chpt 2,7 20 Mantle convection Fowler, Chpt 8.2 21 Numerical simulations of mantle convection Movies 22-24 Gravity, Part A Fowler, Chpt 5 23-24 Gravity, Part B, Examples Grace Website, Geoid, Gravity anomaly   Reference Books   No official textbook. These are listed for your reference: Fundamentals of Geophysics by W. Lowrie, 2nd edn (2007), 3rd edn (2020) The Solid Earth, 2nd edn (2005), by C.M.R.Fowler Geophysics: a very short introduction by W. Lowrie (2018) Physics of the Earth, 4th edn (2008), by Stacey and Davis Geodynamics, 3rd edn (2014), by Turcotte and Schubert (more advanced) A student's guide to geophysical equations (2011) by W. Lowrie (quick reference for equations) Quantitative Plate Tectonics (2015) by A. Schettino (a recent book) Geodynamics of the Lithosphere 2nd edn (2007) by K. Stuwe The dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics (1996) by W. J. Kious and R. I. Tilliing   Interesting Reading/Links Secular trends in the geologic record and the supercontinent cycle by Bradley (2011) Rock Map of Canada The History of the Planet Earth on a poster Tuzo: the unlikely revolutionary of plate tectonics The story of Earth: the first 4.5 billion years, from stardust to living planet book by R. M. Hazen (Audio Book)