Undergraduate Course: Earth and Planetary Structure (EASC09019)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 9 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | The course consists of 18 lectures, with some tutorials, including groups of students presenting results of guided independent learning. There is also one computer-based practical and problem sheets to support learning.
The course covers the following modules:
Cosmogeny and Comparative Planetology;
Composition and Dating; and
Physics of the Earth's Interior.
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| Course description |
1) Cosmology, celestial mechanics, and the search for extrasolar planets.
2) Meteorites and their composition and origin.
3) Comparative Planetology: surfaces, energy budgets, geophysical properties, and atmospheres.
4) Mantle composition: cause of magmatism, crust formation.
5) Global Seismology and the Earth's interior. The Preliminary Reference Earth model, and free oscillations.
6) Earth material properties. Composition changes as a function of depth. Hydrostatic equilibrium and the effect of compression.
7) Convection in the mantle and outer core.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- To be able to interpret global geophysical information in terms of simple models of planetary interiors.
- Understanding of heath flow through the Earth's surface and implications for crust formation and plate tectonics. To be able to understand the possible forms of convection in the mantle and core, and the constraints of fluid motion from geophysical observations.
- To understand and evaluate the different methods used to search for exoplanets. Deducing chemical and physical properties for other planets by compariom to those of the Earth.
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Reading List
Planetary Sciences, Imke de Pater & Jack J. Lissauer, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
New Theory of the Earth, Don L. Anderson, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Earth_Planetary Structure |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Wyn Williams
Tel: (0131 6)50 4909
Email: wyn.williams@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Casey Hollway
Tel: (0131 6)50 8510
Email: earth.sciences@ed.ac.uk |
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