Global Tectonics (Level 6)
Overview
- Credit value: 15 credits at Level 6
- Convenor: Professor Gerald Roberts
- Assessment: two interpretative exercises (15% and 25%) and a 2.5-hour examination (60%)
Module description
In this module you will gain a global understanding of causes and consequences of present and past plate tectonic and associated geodynamic processes.
Indicative syllabus
- Earth’s internal structure and and lithosphere
- Recognition of plates and forces that drive plate motion
- Evolution of rifts to ocean spreading and development of rifted (passive) margins
- Orogenesis: mountain building associated with ocean-continent and continent-continent collision
- How plate tectonics effect environmental change
Lectures will be reinforced by case studies that include Antarctica and the Scotia Sea, the Andes, Himalaya-Tibet and SE Asia, together with interpretative exercises based on field evidence.
Learning objectives
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- work with information from a diverse range of sources
- interpret field observations and analytical data
- organise and display such data in graphical and tabular form according to professional standards
- generate interpretations derived from research activity and report these in a professional style.