Prerequisite: None
Course status: Core
Credit Rating: 12 credits
Total hours spent: 120 hours [45 hours lectures, 30 hours Tutorials, 15 hours Assignments, and 30 hours independent study]
Course Objective(s)
o To bring an understanding of the type of motions of lithospheric segments, causes of these movements and the resulting structures and other features and their implications to environmental change, economic geology and hazards.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
o Explain the evolution of different tectonic settings using geophysical techniques.
o Understand and describe the role of tectonic processes in the evolution of Continents.
o Explain the relationships between the occurrence of mineral deposits and tectonic settings.
o Develop the linkage between environmental changes and hazards with tectonic settings.
Course Structure
Introduction to Geotectonics; Internal Structure of the Earth; Plate Tectonic Framework; Plate motions and Mechanisms of Plate Tectonics; Plate Tectonic Settings.
Course Content
Internal structure of the Earth: The Crust, The mantle; Plate-Tectonics: Historical Perspective, Continental Drift, Sea Floor Spreading; Plate-Tectonics: Framework Plates and Plate Margins, Relative Plate Motions, Hotspots and Absolute Plate Motions, True Polar Wander, Direct measurements of relative Plate motions and Mechanisms of Plate Tectonics; Plate-Tectonics: Settings, Oceanic Ridges, Transform and Trans-current Faults, Subduction Zones, Continental Rifts, Mountain Range; and 5 Plate-Tectonics – Implications Environmental change, Economic Geology and Natural Hazards.
Assessment
Coursework 40%, Final Examination60%.
Key Textbooks:
1. Kearley P. Klepeis, K.A. and Vine F. J. (2009). Global Tectonics, Wiley-Blackwell.
2. Keller E.A. and Pinter N. (2002). Active Tectonics, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
3. Condie, C. K. (1989). Plate Tectonics and Crustal Evolution, Pergamon Press.
4. Davies, G.F., (1999). Dynamic Earth, Cambridge University Press.
Turcotte, D.L. and Schubert, G., (2002). Geodynamics, Cambridge University Press