EPS350: Tectonics

Instructors

TAs:
Tim Sherry (timothy.sherry[at]mail.mcgill.ca, office: FDA 233)
Keith Hodson (keith.hodson[at]mail.mcgill.ca, office: FDA 350)
Ryan Libbey (ryan.libbey[at]mail.mcgill.ca, office: FDA 346)

About this course

You will write one major paper on a topic of your choosing, with my advice and consent, of 20,000-30,000 characters (similar to the length of a manuscript in Geology). I encourage you to select a topic inspired by the observation that Plate Tectonics is new, as a world view, and many observations are not yet well explained. Pick something controversial, timely, and interesting. Entertain me; I have to read 35 papers. This paper will be worth 50% of your grade. Detailed instructions here.

Practicing scientists don't do exams or problem sets, they study the work of others, get curious and form interesting questions, design a way to simplify and test their hypotheses, then solve problems and write about their findings, including failures, limitations and uncertainties. They review and assess the work of their peers, incorporate feedback, revise and iterate. So, that is what we will do in this course. Many of the assignments involve solving quantitative problems, which you may do using any programming approach (e.g. Matlab or Excel or Fortran or PYTHON or ...) of your choice. I will make solutions available for the quantitative problems. You will be marked on your written submission which should display your understanding of the problem and the solution.

Grading Policies

All assignments in this class except for the final paper will be graded A, B, C, or F. When the final grades are calculated, A=4, B=3, C=2 and F=0. The modifiers "+" and "-" will apply only to the term paper and your final grade, but not to the minor assignments.

"A" means you have demonstrated competence in the topic, including gaining some factual knowledge and computational or theoretical competency as well as showing that you understand the nuances of the data or techniques involved. It also means your writing is clear, concise, properly referenced, and stylistically appropriate for a scientific context.

"B" means you have understood the basic problems and come up with viable or reasonable answers which are mostly right. You have understood the major weaknesses in the data or approach, and have analyzed some of the key assumptions involved. The writing is adequately clear, properly referenced, and original.

"C" means you have demonstrated some understanding of the concepts and executed a reasonable approach to solve the problem, but your answers are incomplete or unreasonable. The writing is unclear, unoriginal, or displays no more than a basic understanding of the concepts.

"F" means the work is sloppy, unoriginal, incomplete, or displays less than the minimum reasonable competency.

An "A" or a "B" grade on any assignment is final and non-negotiable. If you receive a "C" or an "F" you may resubmit the assignment within one week of receiving your grade (each student may use this option twice during the term). If your low grade is a result of unoriginality (when compared to the work of your classmates) you will not have the option to resubmit. Your ability to respond to the feedback you received on the original submission will be incorporated into your grade. Your new grade is not guarunteed to increase, unless the quality of your work increases sufficiently to bring you to the next grade up. Your grade may be reduced if you fail to improve the quality or take into account the feedback received on your first submission.

Extra credit may be gained by attending a department seminar on a topic relevant to the course and writing a 1 page summary. (Appropriate seminars appear in the calendar below; others may be added.) This should be a scientific abstract of the talk, including question period if appropriate, and display your understanding of the talk. Submit by email to Christie within one week of the talk. Pass/fail - if pass, I will raise your lowest problem set grade by one letter. You may submit no more than two seminar summaries for credit.

Reading:

If you are inexperienced in reading primary scientific literature, be aware that it might take an hour to read four pages (or more). Allow yourself time to develop this skill and don't try to cram it at the last minute.

Lecture Schedule

Lectures will be at 8:35am Mondays and Wednesdays in FDA315. Perfect attendance strongly recommended
Getting notes for any missed lectures is your responsibility; ask your classmates
Pop quizzes are common, always at the beginning of lecture, and will draw on 1-2 lectures preceding

Date	Lecture Topic	Start this Assignment
Mon Jan 9	What is Tectonics? History of theories of the earth	Watch Thorne Lay's Gutenberg Lecture from AGU 2011. Write 500-1000 word response.
Wed Jan 11		Read: Frankel 1988 and Vine 1977.
Mon Jan 16	Driving Forces	Problem Set 1: Driving Forces Read: Govers and Meijer 2001 and Iaffaldano et al 2006
Wed Jan 18		Read: Hsui 1981
Mon Jan 23	Perutz 1946
Wed Jan 25	Rheology lecture -- should be review of structural geology	Read: Hoechner et al. 2011
Thu Jan 26	Structure of the Earth	1-2:30, FDA
Mon Jan 30	Insights from seismology	Flexural lithosphere Read: Calmant and Cazenave 1987
Wed Feb 1	Design exercise with visitor: Carissa Carter	Read: Morgan 1971 Discussion on Plumes on mantleplumes.org
Thu Feb 2	Insights from seismology; paleomagnetics	1-2:30, FDA
Feb 6	Continue with paleomagnetics
Feb 8	Coulomb Wedges Activity
Thu Feb 9	Convergent Plate Boundaries	1-2:30pm FDA
Feb 13	Convergent Plate Boundaries	Wikipedia Repair project
Feb 15	Divergent Plate Boundaries	Paleomag
Feb 20-24	SPRING BREAK
Feb 27	Wikipedia Repair Day	Bring hard copy of original and your modified article to class
Feb 29	Divergent Plate Boundaries
Thu Mar 1	Divergent Plate Boundaries	1-2:30pm, FDA
Mar 2	Laura Webb, UVM 3:15 FDA 232	Extra credit opportunity
Mar 5	Transform Margins
Mar 7
Mar 12	Hazards, seismicity, tsunamis, volcanos
Mar 14	Other bodies in the solar system
Mar 19	Archean and the origins of plate tectonics	Work on peer reviews
Mar 21	Catch up day and final questions
Mar 23	Jim Rice, Harvard FDA 232 3:15pm	Extra credit opportunity
Mar 26	No Class	Peer review group meetings with TAs
Mar 28
Mar 30	Andrew Campbell, University of Chicago FDA 232 3:15 pm	Extra credit opportunity
Apr 2	No Class: Work on paper.
Apr 4
Apr 9	No Class: Make paper perfect.
Apr 11	No Class: Help your friend get his/her paper looking perfect
Apr 13	David Evans, Yale FDA 232 3:15pm	Extra credit opportunity
Apr 16	No Class: Upload paper to class Dropbox

Due Dates

Miscellany