Global Tectonics
Overview
- Credit value: 15 credits at Level 5
- Convenor and tutor: Professor Andy Carter
- Prerequisite: Introduction to Geology
- Assessment: two interpretative exercises (15% and 25%) and a 2.5-hour examination (60%)
Module description
This module aims to provide a global understanding of causes and consequences of present and past plate tectonic and associated geodynamic processes.
Indicative module content
- The internal structure of the Earth and its outer shell
- Elements of plate tectonic theory. What are plates? How do they move?
- Models for direction, magnitudes and rates of plate motion
- Mineral composition and thermo-mechanical influences on global tectonics
- How do plates and plate margins evolve through time?
- Subduction zone processes extension and rifting
- Global tectonics and sedimentary basin development
- Reconstructing plate collision histories and the development of large orogens