Investigating Earth's Structure

This subject explores the structure and dynamics of planet Earth. It focuses on the large-scale processes that control the different types of rock that make up our planet, where those rocks are found and how they change over geological time. The subject emphasises the formation and evolution of surface features such as mountain belts and basins. As such, this subject provides the essential theoretical and practical framework to understand the fundamental geological processes involved with the rock cycle, including the later modification of rocks through deformation and metamorphism. These topics provide a conceptual framework for later geoscience subjects. Lectures, practicals and fieldwork will cover three linked themes: (1) solid Earth geophysics, (2) large scale tectonics, its drivers and its links to the formation of different rock types, and (3) deformation and secondary structures in rocks.