ERT 470LLB—Fracture & Flow Earth Materials

This course bridges the gap between traditional descriptive techniques of geo-material characterization and advanced quantitative and experimental geoscientific methods. The course introduces state-of-the-art techniques used in structural geology, rock mechanics, volcanology, and petrophysics for the characterization and simulation of geologic processes. It covers the fundamentals of experimentation on rocks, minerals, magmas, and fluids and how to employ their results to understand and simulate geologic processes. The course is aimed at advanced undergraduate students as well as graduate students interested in learning common experimental techniques, why they are useful and where the limitations to experimental geosciences lie. Topics include the rheology of magmas and lavas, rock deformation and failure, and fluid flow in porous media. The course is accompanied by hands-on lab work where students apply the theoretical knowledge covered in the lectures in experimental campaigns. This course is dual listed with GLY 570.