Courses
Glenn Spinelli, Assistant Professor of Geophysics

ERTH101: Earth Processes. A study of the physical processes that operate on and within the Earth and determine its evolution through geologic time. Course webpage.

ERTH 120: Introductory Oceanography. An introduction to the oceans, including aspects of physical, geological, and biological oceanography. Focus is on presentation of science in a social context. Topics include: origin and evolution of ocean basins and marine sediments; ocean currents, waves, tides, and sea level; beaches, shorelines, and coastal processes; marine life; climate; marine resources, pollution, and human impacts on the ocean.

ERTH 308: The Geophysical Earth. An introductory survey of solid Earth geophysics covering fundamental physical processes shaping the Earth and geophysical techniques used to study Earth structure. Formation and internal structure of the Earth, plate tectonics, gravitational and magnetic fields, heat flow, earthquakes, and seismotectonics.

ERTH 325: Near Surface Geophysics. Use of standard geophysical methods for exploring the shallow subsurface. Acquisition and common interpretation techniques for seismic, magnetic, and electrical data. Applications to environmental, structural, and exploration problems. Mapping of aquifers, faults, soil profiles, buried stream beds, and other hidden structures. Photos from the field, Fall 2006.

ERTH 491: Marine Geology. A study of the structure and composition of oceanic crust produced at spreading centers, its subsequent alteration by on- and off-axis interaction with seawater, its burial by sediments and consumption in collision zones.

HYD 521: Hydrogeologic Processes. Geologic control of the occurrence, movement, and quality of groundwater. Hydrologic properties of Earth materials. Theory and study of specific hydrogeologic processes including water resource evaluation and well hydraulics, barometric and tidal responses of aquifers, regional groundwater flow, coupled groundwater and heat flow, fracture flow, saturated multiphase flow such as petroleum migration, diagenesis and reactive groundwater flow, coupled groundwater flow and rock deformation, and other issues.

GEOL/GEOP/HYD 533: Practicum in Quantitative Methods. Instruction and practice in computational methods used to solve Earth science problems. Vector and matrix operations and finite difference programming using MATLAB. Introduction to structured programming.

GEOL/GEOP 558: Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting. Observational and theoretical aspects of brittle failure in the Earth. Fracture mechanics; fault zone geometry and structure; earthquake sources; paleoseismic studies; seismic hazard assessments.