GE4560 Earthquake Seismology
Fall semester 2011
3 credits
Description and scope of the course:
This course is concerned with the physics of earthquakes and seismic energy propagation, seismic hazard analysis, and seismic methods to determine Earth structure.
Download a PDF of the syllabus here.
Current Earthquake Information from IRIS
Instructor:
Dr. Greg Waite
Dow 428
Office phone: 906.487.3554
e-mail: gpwaite AT mtu DOT edu
Lecture:
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1405-1455 in Dow 610.
Office hours:
Wednesday 3-5 or by appointment or any other time I am in my office.
Text books:
Stein, S. and M. Wysession, (2003). An Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, and Earth Structure, Blackwell Publishing. This is an excellent general-purpose seismology textbook that also covers advanced topics.
Kramer, S.L., (1996). Geotechnical Earthquakes Engineering, Prentice Hall. We will sample a couple of chapters from this book; it will not be required, but is recommended for those interested in earthquake engineering.
Prerequisites: GE3000/GE3050, PH2100, MA2160, or permission from instructor. A linear algebra course (MA2320/MA2330) is useful, but not required. Many homework assignments will be done in Matlab, but you need not be an expert in Matlab to take the course.
Readings: Journal articles and book sections will be assigned. You will be quizzed on reading assignments occasionally.
Course web page: http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~gpwaite/teaching/eqseismo
Grades: Final grade will be based upon homework (30%), quizzes (5%), class participation (5%), final project (30%), and exams (30%).
A sampling of interesting and useful links:
General Course Outline (Some lectures or partial lectures are posted below as PDFs):
| Week | Date | Lecture Topics | Homework |
| Part 1: General seismology
|
| 1 | Aug 29 | Motivation, reviews of vectors and tensors, and 1D wave equation. | Read S&W Ch 1, Ch 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, & A6.
|
| 2 |
Sep 5 |
No Class Monday (Labor Day) or Friday (K Day) Stress, strain, constitutive equations and seismic waves. |
Read S&W Ch 2.3,2.4
|
| 3 |
Sep 12 |
Stress, strain, constitutive equations and seismic waves continued. |
Read S&W 2.5 |
| 4 |
Sep 19 |
Ray theory: Snell's law, eikonal equation, Fermat's and Huygen's principles. |
Read S&W 2.6 |
| 5 |
Sep 26 |
Reflection and transmission |
Read S&W 2.7 |
|
| 6 |
Oct 3 |
Surface waves, dispersion, Exam 1 |
Read S&W 2.7, 2.8 |
|
| Part 2: Earthquake hazard assessment
|
| 7 |
Oct 10 |
Earthquake source parameters, statistics and catalogs |
Read S&W 4.6, 4.7 |
|
| 8 |
Oct 17 |
Strong ground motion, deterministic and probabalistic seismic hazard assessment |
Read Kramer 3 |
|
| 9 |
Oct 24 |
Probabalistic seismic hazard assessment continued |
Read Kramer 4 |
|
| 10 |
Oct 31 |
Earthquake location, focal mechanisms, directivity |
Read S&W 7.2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 |
|
| 11 |
Nov 7 |
Exam 2 Anisotropy and attenuation |
Read S&W 3.6, 3.7 |
|
| Part 3: Earth structure
|
| 12 |
Nov 14 |
Tomography |
Read S&W 7.3 |
|
|
Nov 21 |
Thanksgiving Break - No Classes |
|
|
| 13 |
Nov 28 |
Receiver functions, waveform modeling |
Read S&W 6.3 |
|
| 14 |
Dec 5 |
Hazard assessment presentations |
|
|
| Exam week |
Dec 12 |
|
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|
| |
Schedule will be updated throughout the semester.
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