http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/people/rsmalley/CERI7280/CERI7280_Seismotectonics

CERI7280 Seismotectonics
Tu & Th 13:00-14:25 PM
CERI House 3 Class Room

Instructors: Chris Powel and Bob Smalley
Office hours: Open (stop by any time you see us in the office).

Possible mechanism for plate tectonics. From Holden & Vogt, EOS 1977.

Course Description:

Synthesis of earthquake, geophysical, geodetic and geological data to deduce the tectonic framework of active plate boundaries and intraplate seismic zones. Evolution of plate boundaries over time. Space-base geodetic techniques will be emphasized.

Basic knowledge of UNIX and MATLAB is helpful (necessary!).

Texts:

There is no text.

Course requirements:

Students must attend all lectures. Class absences must be discussed PRIOR to a missed class.

Homework assignments must be handed in on time. Homework will require some computer programming (MATLAB recommended).

The class will include a research project. The project must be approved before starting work. Each student will give a 20 minute presentation the last day of class.

Grading:

Whole letter grade (no ±).

30% homework, 35% class participation, 35% final project. There will be no final exam.

The class will include both student and instructor lead discussions on the assigned reading and material presented in class and participation in the class discussions will be important.

Project:

Each student will select a seismogenic region and design, implement and present a research project on that region. The region can be interplate (plate boundary) or intraplate (plate interior) activity and include earthquakes at all depths. The scale can be local (e.g. individual seismic structure or earthquake) to regional (e.g. a complete orogen or plate boundary).

A sample outline for a regional scale project could be:
    1. Describe the past and present tectonics of the region and relate this to plate tectonic activity.
    2. Describe the earthquake activity and the relationship to tectonics.
    3. Describe the geological and geophysical data used to study the region.
    4. Discuss a possible driving force for the earthquake activity.

The topic should be discussed with the instructors, decided on and approved no later than October 11 (Fall break). Each student will give a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation on their project the last day of class. A five page project report, the power point, and all scripts/programs/macros prepared should be submitted by the scheduled Final Exam.

Classes:

(Links open a pdf of the ppt file presented in class. The ppt files were made on a Mac and may not display properly - especially math - on a PC. The pdf files show the math correctly on the PC, but don't properly display slides with animation.)

Aug 23 Tu Class 01 Week 1	Plate Tectonics and earthquake relationship. Class_1.pptx	Reading and class student discussion leader for Tu, Aug 30. Isacks, Oliver, and Sykes: Seismology and the new global tectonics first half, up to but not including, the section starting with "Compatability of Movements on a Worldwide Scale" on p 25. Oluwaseun Fadugba.
Aug 25 Th Class 02 Week 1	Rotation vectors and poles. Class_2.pptx, invert4euler.pptx	Reading and class student discussion leader for Th, Sep 01. Isacks, Oliver, and Sykes: Seismology and the new global tectonics - second half, starting with section "Compatability of Movements on a Worldwide Scale" on p 25. Eric Jambo.
Aug 30 Tu Class 03 Week 2	Discuss Isacks, Oliver and Sykes Part 1 - Oluwaseun Fadugba (25 mins). Plate boundary motions, triple junctions. triple junctions, Chris' notes 1
Sep 01 Th Class 04 Week 2	Discuss Isacks, Oliver and Sykes Part 2 - Eric Jambo (25 mins). Polar wander paths. polar wander paths, Chris' notes 2	Reading and class student discussion leader for Th, Sep 08. DeMets C, Gordon RG, Argus, DF. and Stein, S.: Current plate motions and DeMets, C., R. G. Gordon, D. F. Argus, and S. Stein: Effect of recent revisions to the geomagnetic reversal timescale on estimates of current plate motions. Arushi Saxena.
Sep 06 Tu Class 05 Week 3	Plate reconstructions, Forces on plates. Reconstructions: Texas Through Time.ppt, Thomas.pptx, Karlstrom.ppt, Forces: Class 5.pptx
Sep 08 Th Class 06 Week 3	Discuss DeMets et al. Arushi Saxena (25 mins). Plate motions, Relative plate motion reference frames. Class6.pptx, for derivation of rotation matrix.	Reading and class student discussion leader for Th, Sep 15. DeMets, C., Gordon, R. G. and Argus, D. F.: Geologically current plate motions - skip section 5. Jia Zhang.
Sep 13 Tu Class 07 Week 4	Absolute plate motion reference frames. Class7.pptx, shear wave splitting notes.
Sep 15 Th Class 08 Week 4	Discuss DeMets et al. Jia Zhang (25 mins). Space based geodesy: plate motions and deformation - I. Class8.pptx	Reading and class student discussion leader for Th, Sep 22. Macdonald, Mid-Ocean_Ridges_Fine_Scale_Tectonic_Volcanic_and_Hydorthermal Processes within the Plate Boundary Zone. Chloë Glover.
Sep 20 Tu Class 09 Week 5	Space based geodesy: plate motions and deformation - II. Class9.pptx	Reading and class student discussion leader for Tu, Sep 29. Saria, E., E. Calais, D. S. Stamps, D., Delvaux, and C. J. H. Hartnady, (2014), Present-day kinematics of the East African Rift. Peter Matheny.
Sep 22 Th Class 10 Week 5	Active plate boundary examples - Part 1. Oceanic Spreading boundary. class student discussion leader: Chloë Glover.
Sep 27 Tu Class 11 Week 6	No Class - ESSA meeting and Oklahoma earthquake fieldwork	Reading and class student discussion leader for Tu, Oct 4. Gerya. T. (2012). Originand models of oceanic transform faults, Tectonophysics, 522-523, 34-54, and Basile, C. (2015). Transform Continental margins - part 1: Concepts and Models, Tectonophysics, 661, 1-10. Arushi Saxena.
Sep 29 Th Class 12 Week 6	Active plate boundary examples - Part 2. Continental Spreading boundary. class student discussion leader: Peter Matheny. Africa.pptx, Matheny.pdf	Reading and class student discussion leader for Th, Oct 6. TB Gerya, T.V., Chapter 2: Intra-oceanic Subduction zones. Jia Zhang.
Oct 04 Tu Class 13 Week 7	Active plate boundary examples - Part 4. Oceanic and Continental Strike-slip boundary. class student discussion leader: Arushi Saxena.
Oct 06 Th Class 14 Week 7	Active plate boundary examples - Part 5. Ocean-Ocean subduction class student discussion leader: Jia Zhang. Ocean-Ocean Subduction Zones System.ppt, slabs.pptx, Class14.pptx	Reading and class student discussion leader for Th, Oct 13. Barazangi and Isacks, (1976), Spatial distribution or earthquakes and subduction of the Nazca plate beneath South America. and Jordan et al., (1983), Andean tectonics related to geometry of subducted Nazca plate. and Russo et al., (2010), Subduction of the Chile Ridge: Upper mantle structure and flow. Oluwaseun Fadugba.
Oct 11 Tu Week 8	No Class - Fall break.	Fall break, No Class. Reading and class student discussion leader for Tu, Oct 18. Feldel and Bilham, (2006), Great Himalayan earthquakes and the Tibetan plateau (pdf of paper includes supplement, 3d-def (tar file for mac), input data set 1, input data set 2. and de la Torre et al., (2007), Earthquake processes of the Himalayan collision zone in eastern Nepal and the southern Tibetan Plateau The Feldel and Bilham paper uses 3d-def to model elastic deformation. I've put the seminal paper, Savage (1983), for this type of modeling on the web page. Eric Jambo.
Oct 13 Th Class 15 Week 8	Active plate boundary examples - Part 6. Ocean-Continent and Ridge subduction. class student discussion leader: Oluwaseun Fadugba. Fadugba.pdf	Reading for Th, Oct 20. Schulte, S. M. and Mooney, W. D. (2005), An updated global earthquake catalogue for stable continental regions: reassessing the correlation with ancient rifts. Geophysical Journal International, 161: 707–721. doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2005.02554.x
Oct 18 Tu Class 16 Week 9	Active plate boundary examples - Part 7. Continent-Continent subduction. class student discussion leader: Eric Jambo.	Reading for Tu, Oct 25. Boyd, O. S., R. Smalley Jr., and Y. Zeng (2015), Crustal deformation in the New Madrid seismic zone and the role of postseismic processes, J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 120, 5782–5803, doi:10.1002/2015JB012049.
Oct 20 Th Class 17 Week 9	Global distribution of intraplate earthquakes. Chris	Reading for Th, Oct 27. Mazzotti, S., & Townend, J. (2010). State of stress in eastern and central North America seismic zones. Lithosphere, 2(2), 76-83.
Oct 25 Tu Class 18 Week 10	GPS in New Madrid. class student discussion leader: Peter Bob Class18.pptx	Reading for Tu, Nov 1. Nyamwandha, C. A., C. A. Powell, and C. A. Langston (2016). A joint local and teleseismic tomography study of the Mississippi Embayment and New Madrid seismic zone. J. Geophys. Res., 121. doi: 10.1002/2015JB01761.
Oct 27 Th Class 19 Week 10	Focal mechanisms. class student discussion leader: Jia Zhang. CEUS Eq Overview, Intraplate, Chris' notes on stress rotation	No reading for Th, Nov 3. Presented in class: Zoback, World Stress Map, Sonders.
Nov 01 Tu Class 20 Week 11	NMSZ tomography. class student discussion leader: Eric Jambo New Madrid Seismic Zone	Reading for Tu, Nov 8. Zhan et al., 2016.
Nov 03 Th Class 21 Week 11	NMSZ earthquakes Chris	Reading for Th, Nov 10. Powell and Thomas.
Nov 08 Tu Class 22 Week 12	NMSZ geodynamic modeling. class student discussion leader: Arushi Saxena. Chris' NMSZ FM ppt Chris' strength ppt	Reading for Tu, Nov 15. Baird, A. F., S. D. McKinnon, and L. Godin (2010), Relationship between structures, stress and seismicity in the Charlevoix seismic zone revealed by 3-D geomechanical models: Implications for the seismotectonics of continental interiors, J. Geophys. Res., 115, B11402, doi:10.1029/2010JB007521.
Nov 10 Th Class 23 Week 12	ETSZ. class student discussion leader: Chloe Glover. Chloe Powell and Thomas paper Chris' ETSZ ppt	Reading for Th, Nov 17. Biyrol et al.
Nov 15 Tu Class 24 Week 13	Charlevoix class student discussion leader: Oluwaseun Fadugba. Chris' Charlevoix tomo ppt	Reading for Tu, Nov 22. Liu and Stein, 2016.
Nov 17 Th Class 25 Week 13	Charlevoix tomography Chris Chris' Biryol tomography ppt
Nov 22 Tu Class 26 Week 14	Spatiotemporal earthquake occurrance Chris
Nov 24 Th Week 14		Thanksgiving, No Class.
Nov 29 Tu Class 27 Week 15		Class project presentations. Class project presentations. We need 90 minutes, regular class is 85 minutes, so we will go 5 minutes over.

(Changes to the notes presented in class are sometimes made based on questions/comments during the class or for something that needs correcting. The files at the links above are therefore not completely static during the semester.

Homework (Assigned and due dates):

On Tuesday of each week we will start class with a 20-30 minute, student lead discussion of a seminal paper on Seismotectonics/Plate Tectonics. One student will be previously assigned to make a 5-10 minute summary, that can include powerpoint if needed, and then lead a class discussion of the paper for the remaining discussion time.

Additional files/link:

     CERI Computer information CERI Computer Network Facts (and some opinion) (last updated 2011, somewhat out of date)

    A short history of Plate Tectonics and Euler Poles from University College London (link to a local copy here)

    The Nobel Prize of Geophysics - a review of the major contributions to the development of Plate Tectonics

    Relationship of the continents to plate tectonics - Molnar (plate tectonics is really about how the oceans work)

    Barazangi and Dorman Seismicity Map paper

   Bird (2003) An updated digital model of plate boundaries, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems. Digital line data for plate boundaries available by FTP, and Google Earth^® KMZ file of plate boundaries.

    I've not tried it, but this web page has GMT5 code instructions to plot the Bird 2993 plate boundary data set. The link to the data set with the header information added does not work, but I found the data set here.

    Global strain rate model.

A series of general audience books on the geology and geological history of North America by John McPhee - ' Annals of the Former World' series - 1) Basin and range, 2) In suspect terrain, 3) Rising from the plains, 4) Assembling California (also available together as single volume - Annals of the Former World, ~$8 used on Amazon).