Jeroen Tromp — Teaching
GEO 203 Fundamentals of Solid Earth Science (Fall) A quantitative introduction to Solid Earth System Science, focusing on the underlying physical processes and their geological and geophysical expression. Topics include basic physical conservation laws, examples of constitutive relationships, waves, transport phenomena, geopotential fields, geologic time, basic thermodynamics and mineralogy. Single variable calculus is a prerequisite. The course serves as a prerequisite for several upper-level GEO and CEE courses. Offered in the Fall Term.
GEO/CEE 424 Introductory Seismology (Spring, even years) Fundamentals of seismology and seismic wave propagation. Introduction to acoustic and elastic wave propagation concepts, observational methods, and inferences that can be drawn from seismic data about the deep planetary structure of the Earth, as well as about the occurrence of oil and gas deposits in the crust. Offered in the Spring Term of every even year.
GEO/APC 441 Computational Geophysics (Spring, odd years) An introduction to weak numerical methods, in particular finite-element and spectral-element methods, used in computational geophysics. Basic surface & volume elements, representation of fields, quadrature, assembly, local versus global meshes, domain decomposition, time marching & stability, parallel implementation & message-passing, and load-balancing. In the context of parameter estimation and 'imaging', will explore data assimilation techniques and related adjoint methods. The course offers hands-on lab experience in meshing complicated surfaces & volumes as well as numerically solving partial differential equations relevant to geophysics. Offered in the Spring Term of every odd year.
GEO 503/AOS 503 Responsible Conduct of Research in Geosciences (Half-Term) (Spring) Course educates Geosciences and AOS students in the responsible conduct of research using case studies appropriate to these disciplines. This discussion-based course focuses on issues related to the use of scientific data, publication practices and responsible authorship, peer review, research misconduct, conflicts of interest, the role of mentors & mentees, issues encountered in collaborative research and the role of scientists in society.
GEO 505 Fundamentals of Geosciences (Fall) A year-long survey, in sequence, of fundamental papers in the geosciences. Topics in 505 (Fall) include the origin and interior of the Earth, plate tectonics, geodynamics, the history of life on Earth, the composition of the Earth, its oceans and atmospheres, past climate. Topics in 506 (Spring) include present and future climate, biogeochemical processes in the ocean, geochemical cycles, orogenies, thermochronology, rock fracture and seismicity. A core course for all beginning graduate students in the Geosciences.
GEO 506 Fundamentals of the Geosciences II (Spring) A survey of fundamental papers in the Geosciences. Topics include present and future climate, biogeochemical processes in the ocean, geochemical cycles, orogenies, thermochronology, rock fracture and seismicity. This is the second of two core geosciences graduate courses.
GEO 557 Theoretical Geophysics (Fall) Geophysical applications of the principles of continuum mechanics; conservation laws and constitutive relations and tensor analysis; acoustic, elastic, and gravity wave propagation are studied.
GEO 558 Seismology Seminar: Quantitative Seismology (Fall) Geometrical description of continuum mechanics. Motion; spatial or Eulerian versus convected or Lagrangrian coordinates; metric, deformation rate, vorticity; strain; spin; stress; conservation laws. Tools from differential geometry include vectors, one-forms and general tensors; covariant, material, exterior and Lie derivatives; differential forms and integration.