Results for GEOPHYS

The physics and chemistry of volcanic processes and modern methods of volcano monitoring. Volcanoes as manifestations of the Earth's internal energy and hazards to society. How earth scientists better forecast eruptive activity by monitoring seismic activity, bulging of the ground surface, and the discharge of volcanic gases, and by studying deposits from past eruptions. Focus is on the interface between scientists and policy makers and the challenges of decision making with incomplete information. Field trip to Mt. St. Helens, site of the 1980 eruption.

(Formerly GEOLSCI 30N) Science fiction writers craft entire worlds and physical laws with their minds. While planetary formation in the real world is a little different, we can use fantastical places and environments from film, television, and literature as conversation starters to discuss real discoveries that have been made about how planets form and evolve over time. The class will focus on the following overarching questions: (1) What conditions are required for habitable planets to form? (2) What types of planets may actually exist, including desert worlds, lava planets, ice planets, and ocean worlds? (3) What kids of life could inhabit such diverse worlds? (3) What types of catastrophic events such as supernovas, asteroid impacts, climate changes can nurture or destroy planetary habitability? Change of Department Name: Earth and Planetary Science (Formerly Geologic Sciences).

Preference to freshman. Natural hazards, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, hurricanes, and fires, and how they affect people and society; great disasters such as asteroid impacts that periodically obliterate many species of life. Scientific issues, political and social consequences, costs of disaster mitigation, and how scientific knowledge affects policy. How spaceborne imaging technology makes it possible to respond quickly and mitigate consequences; how it is applied to natural disasters; and remote sensing data manipulation and analysis. GER:DB-EngrAppSci

Is the "Big One" overdue in California? What kind of damage would that cause? What can we do to reduce the impact of such hazards in urban environments? Does "fracking" cause earthquakes and are we at risk? Is the United States vulnerable to a giant tsunami? The geologic record contains evidence of volcanic super eruptions throughout Earth's history. What causes these gigantic explosive eruptions, and can they be predicted in the future? This course will address these and related issues. For non-majors and potential Earth scientists. No prerequisites. More information at: https://stanford.box.com/s/zr8ar28efmuo5wtlj6gj2jbxle76r4lu

(Staff)

Required for new students entering the department and undergraduate majors. Department faculty introduce the frontiers of research problems and methods being employed or developed in the department and unique to department faculty and students: what the current research is, why the research is important, what methodologies and technologies are being used, and what the potential impact of the results might be. Graduate students register for 1 unit (Mondays only), undergraduates for 3 units which include a discussion section (Mondays and Wednesdays). Offered every year, autumn quarter.

The Central Valley of California provides a third of the produce grown in the U.S., but recent droughts and increasing demand have raised concerns about both food and water security. The pathway that water takes from rainfall to the irrigation of fields or household taps ('the water course') determines the quantity and quality of the available water. Working with various data sources (measurements made on the ground, in wells, and from satellites) allows us to model the water budget in the valley and explore the recent impacts on freshwater supplies.

Introduction to the foundations of contemporary geophysics. Lectures link important topics in contemporary Geophysics ("What we study") to methods used to make progress on these topics ("How we study"). Topics range from plate tectonics to natural hazards; ice sheets to sustainability. For each topic, we focus is on how the interpretation of geophysical measurements (e.g., gravity, seismology, heat flow, electromagnetism and remote sensing) provides fundamental insight into the behavior of the Earth. The course will includes a required all-day Saturday field exercise Feb 02/10 (rain-date: 02/17). Prerequisite: CME 100 or MATH 51, or co-registration in either.

Grappling with the big questions of sustainability and climate change, requires that we have ways to measure ? as we cannot manage what we cannot measure. This course, Taking the Pulse of the Planet introduces a new research and teaching initiative at Stanford ? also called Taking the Pulse of the Planet, which has the following goal: to have in place a global network of satellite, airborne, land/water-based sensors to support the real-time adaptive management of planetary health and human activities. Measurements will be made at the spatial and temporal scales required to inform the development and implementation of new policies addressing critical issues related to climate change, sustainability, and equity. Tapping into rapid advancements in sensor technology and data science over the past decade, we can now image and monitor many components of the Earth system and human activities. With the launch of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, we wish to celebrate, through this course, the powerful role that advancements in technology ? specifically sensors ? and advancements in data science are playing in addressing the global challenges in sustainability and climate change. This will be a lecture class for undergraduates and graduate students designed to introduce them to the incredible array of sensors and data sets now available. We will finish the quarter with group projects that will involve the making and deployment of sensors around campus. The course will be designed to accommodate students at any level, with any background, with no required pre-requisites. In most of the assignments, we will be using Google co-lab to work with various types of sensor data. We anticipate drawing to this course both data-science-savvy and data-science-interested students. Therefore, we have developed online modules that are designed to help any student get up to speed on the "jargon" and the computational approaches used in the class.

Introductory application of continuum mechanics to ice sheets and glaciers, water waves and tsunamis, and volcanoes. Emphasis on physical processes and mathematical description using balance of mass and momentum, combined with constitutive equations for fluids and solids. Designed for undergraduates with no prior geophysics background; also appropriate for beginning graduate students. Prerequisites: CME 100 or MATH 52 and PHYSICS 41 (or equivalent).

(Formerly GEOLSCI 127 and 227) Planets and stars form together, from collapsed cores in interstellar molecular clouds. This is a very active area of research, and the book Protostars and Planets VII (2023) consists of up-to-date review chapters covering various aspects of the field. This seminar will cover the portions of the book focusing on planet formation and exoplanets. It will meet once per week to discuss an individual chapter, with students expected to come to class with questions about each week's reading assignment. There are no prerequisites for this course, but students should have some facility with reading scientific literature. Change of Department Name: Earth and Planetary Science (Formerly Geologic Sciences).

Most problems in Earth Science are dazzling and beautifully complex. Abstracting from this natural complexity to identify the essential components and mechanisms of a natural system is perhaps the most important, but commonly overlooked, task for developing testable mathematical models for Earth and Environmental Science. This course focuses on conceptual model development, rather than addressing the variety of formal mathematical techniques available for the analytical analysis or numerical simulation of a model. Recommended Prerequisites: CME 100 or MATH 51 (or equivalent)

This course provides a survey of the rapidly growing field of machine learning in the physical sciences. It covers various areas such as inverse problems, emulating physical processes, model discovery given data, and solution discovery given equations. It both introduces the background knowledge required to implement physics-informed deep learning and provides practical in-class coding exercises. Students have the opportunity to apply this emerging methodology to their own research interests across all fields of the physical sciences, including geophysics, climate, fluids, or other systems where the same technique applies. Students develop individual projects throughout the semester. Recommended Prerequisite: Calculus (e.g. Math 21), Differential Equations (e.g. MATH 53 or PHYSICS 111) or equivalents.

(Formerly GEOLSCI 230) Lectures and laboratory experiments. Properties of rocks and geomaterials and how they relate to chemo-mechanical processes in crustal settings, reservoirs, and man-made materials. Focus is on properties such as porosity, permeability, acoustic wave velocity, and electrical resistivity. Students may investigate a scientific problem to support their own research (4 units). Prerequisites: Physics 41 (or equivalent) and CME 100. Change of Department Name: Earth and Planetary Science (Formerly Geologic Sciences).

Echo seismogram recording geometry, head waves, moveout, velocity estimation, making images of complex shaped reflectors, migration by Fourier and integral methods. Anti-aliasing. Dip moveout. Computer labs. See http://sep.stanford.edu/sep/prof/. Offered every year, autumn quarter. *The Geophys180 cross-listing is considered an advanced undergraduate course.

Introduction to geophysical methods that can be used for imaging and characterizing groundwater systems. Recurring periods of drought and flooding in California have led state and local water agencies to search for ways to capture flood water and use it to recharge (refill) the over-pumped groundwater systems. The course this year will be structured around analyzing a new geophysical data set to identify optimal locations for recharge. The data set: 26,000 kilometers of electromagnetic data, acquired with a helicopter-deployed system, which image the groundwater systems of the Valley to a depth of ~300 m. We will analyze these data to find optimal sites for recharge by mapping out the variation in sediment type and identifying pathways for flow. Pre-requisite: CME 100 or Math 51, or co-registration in either.

Field-, lab-, or computer-based. Faculty supervision. Written reports.

For seniors writing a thesis based on Geophysics research in 196 or as a summer research fellow. Seniors defend the results of their research at a public oral presentation.

Experimental, observational, or theoretical honors project and thesis in geophysics under supervision of a faculty member. Students who elect to do an honors thesis should begin planning it no later than Winter Quarter of the junior year. Prerequisites: department approval. Seniors defend the results of their research at a public oral presentation.

(Former GEOLSCI 150) Focus is on written and oral communication in a topical context. Topics from current frontiers in earth science research and issues of concern to the public. Readings, oral presentations, written work, and peer review. Change of Department Name: Earth & Planetary Sciences (Formerly Geological Science)

Required for new students entering the department and undergraduate majors. Department faculty introduce the frontiers of research problems and methods being employed or developed in the department and unique to department faculty and students: what the current research is, why the research is important, what methodologies and technologies are being used, and what the potential impact of the results might be. Graduate students register for 1 unit (Mondays only), undergraduates for 3 units which include a discussion section (Mondays and Wednesdays). Offered every year, autumn quarter.

The ability to present your research in a compelling, concise, and engaging manner will enhance your professional career. I will work to convince you that the best way to capture an audience and leave a lasting impression is to tell a story, do a demo, or pick a fight.___The goal of a talk is not to show people how much work you did, how capable and dedicated you are, or how much you know. We don't care about any of those things. Instead, we want to learn something new and important, something that changes our perspective and influences our research. We want to be inspired, shocked, or moved. ___ So, in the opening minutes of a talk, you must plant your flag and make your case. You are forecasting the arc of your story, rather than introducing your topic. If, for example, your very first three words are, "I will argue" you're on a good path. In these crucial opening minutes, you've either hooked them or lost them. ___ The course is taught as a series of stand-and-deliver exercises with feedback from the other students and revision on the fly. You'll do exercises on talk openers and closers, physical demos, conference talks, job interviews, press interviews, and funding pitches. We also tackle scientific graphics, focusing on builder slides and posters. Special guests will enrich the course, including a graphic designer, Adobe Illustrator mavens, headhunters, entrepreneurs, and TV reporters?.This is a 'flipped' class, so there are no lectures. Instead, students receive Class Notes before each week's classes, and a Postscript Letter afterwards. Grades are completely optional: 70% in-class exercises, 30% final presentation, such as your upcoming conference presentation. ___ It's important to take this course when you have research to present. My pledge is that everyone will come away a more skilled and confident speaker than they were before. ___ Anonymous 2022 Course Evaluation Comments: "Truly the best course that I have taken in my life. There is simply an incredible amount of wisdom to be gained from this course. To no exaggeration, your life will be changed, and you will forever see presentations differently after this experience of a lifetime. It's also accessible to undergrads as long as you have a research project." ___ "By far, the best class I've taken at Stanford. Will change your entire perspective on presenting research." ___ "This is by far the best and most helpful course I have taken in all 5 years at Stanford. This course is really a must for anyone and has given me a huge confidence boost for public speaking in all scenarios. Ross is a fantastic instructor and makes the class a welcoming and collaborative environment." ___ "Ross is an engaging teacher with years of experience doing public speaking in academic, government, and business settings. This class is well worth the time that it takes to prepare the short talk exercises. Highly recommend this class for anyone looking to improve their speaking skills."

Echo seismogram recording geometry, head waves, moveout, velocity estimation, making images of complex shaped reflectors, migration by Fourier and integral methods. Anti-aliasing. Dip moveout. Computer labs. See http://sep.stanford.edu/sep/prof/. Offered every year, autumn quarter. *The Geophys180 cross-listing is considered an advanced undergraduate course.

Imaging principles exemplified by means of imaging geophysical data of various uncomplicated types (bathymetry, altimetry, velocity, reflectivity). Adjoints, back projection, conjugate-gradient inversion, preconditioning, multidimensional autoregression and spectral factorization, the helical coordinate, and object-based programming. Common recurring issues such as limited aperture, missing data, signal/noise segregation, and nonstationary spectra. See http://sep.stanford.edu/sep/prof/.

Introduction to the foundations of contemporary geophysics. Lectures link important topics in contemporary Geophysics ("What we study") to methods used to make progress on these topics ("How we study"). Topics range from plate tectonics to natural hazards; ice sheets to sustainability. For each topic, we focus is on how the interpretation of geophysical measurements (e.g., gravity, seismology, heat flow, electromagnetism and remote sensing) provides fundamental insight into the behavior of the Earth. The course will includes a required all-day Saturday field exercise Feb 02/10 (rain-date: 02/17). Prerequisite: CME 100 or MATH 51, or co-registration in either.

Introductory application of continuum mechanics to ice sheets and glaciers, water waves and tsunamis, and volcanoes. Emphasis on physical processes and mathematical description using balance of mass and momentum, combined with constitutive equations for fluids and solids. Designed for undergraduates with no prior geophysics background; also appropriate for beginning graduate students. Prerequisites: CME 100 or MATH 52 and PHYSICS 41 (or equivalent).

(Formerly GEOLSCI 127 and 227) Planets and stars form together, from collapsed cores in interstellar molecular clouds. This is a very active area of research, and the book Protostars and Planets VII (2023) consists of up-to-date review chapters covering various aspects of the field. This seminar will cover the portions of the book focusing on planet formation and exoplanets. It will meet once per week to discuss an individual chapter, with students expected to come to class with questions about each week's reading assignment. There are no prerequisites for this course, but students should have some facility with reading scientific literature. Change of Department Name: Earth and Planetary Science (Formerly Geologic Sciences).

Most problems in Earth Science are dazzling and beautifully complex. Abstracting from this natural complexity to identify the essential components and mechanisms of a natural system is perhaps the most important, but commonly overlooked, task for developing testable mathematical models for Earth and Environmental Science. This course focuses on conceptual model development, rather than addressing the variety of formal mathematical techniques available for the analytical analysis or numerical simulation of a model. Recommended Prerequisites: CME 100 or MATH 51 (or equivalent)

This course will introduce students to the theories and techniques involved in measuring and quantifying the chemical composition of solid materials using X-ray spectroscopy. The course will be largely focused on electron beam instruments including scanning and transmission electron microscopes (SEM-EDS and TEM-EDS) and Electron Probe Microanalyzer (EPMA-EDS; EPMA-WDS), with the laboratory component consisting of a combination of instrument training and data collection on multiple electron beam instruments, coupled with in-lab exercises covering the methods associated with the evaluation, processing, and presentation of X-ray data. Students will also learn to utilize multiple cutting-edge data quantitative spectroscopy software packages. The goal of this course is to provide graduate students with the tools required to make informed decisions when designing projects that involve understanding the composition(s) of solid materials at the nano- and micro-scales. Introduce students to the theory and technique behind determining the chemical composition of solid materials using X-ray spectroscopy. (CROSS-LISTED WITH EPS 216 and GEOPHYS 236)

Despite forming in the inner solar system from broadly similar starting materials, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the Moon each represent a unique outcome of the planetary formation process. Processes occurring deep inside planets drive the evolution of planetary crusts and atmospheres, which both control planetary habitability. This course explores how geophysical approaches such as gravity, topography, seismology, heat flow, and magnetism provide insight into the thermal and chemical histories of each rocky world. We cover how planetary scientists study ancient processes such as core formation, impact cratering, magnetic field generation, mantle convection, and tectonics by a combination of spacecraft measurements, modeling, and laboratory analyses of extraterrestrial materials. Recommended prerequisites: PHYSICS 41, 43, and MATH 51 or CME 100, or instructor consent.

This course provides a survey of the rapidly growing field of machine learning in the physical sciences. It covers various areas such as inverse problems, emulating physical processes, model discovery given data, and solution discovery given equations. It both introduces the background knowledge required to implement physics-informed deep learning and provides practical in-class coding exercises. Students have the opportunity to apply this emerging methodology to their own research interests across all fields of the physical sciences, including geophysics, climate, fluids, or other systems where the same technique applies. Students develop individual projects throughout the semester. Recommended Prerequisite: Calculus (e.g. Math 21), Differential Equations (e.g. MATH 53 or PHYSICS 111) or equivalents.

On-the-job-training for master's and doctoral degree students under the guidance of on-site supervisors. Students submit a report detailing work activities, problems, assignment, and key results. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: written consent of adviser.

(Formerly GEOLSCI 230) Lectures and laboratory experiments. Properties of rocks and geomaterials and how they relate to chemo-mechanical processes in crustal settings, reservoirs, and man-made materials. Focus is on properties such as porosity, permeability, acoustic wave velocity, and electrical resistivity. Students may investigate a scientific problem to support their own research (4 units). Prerequisites: Physics 41 (or equivalent) and CME 100. Change of Department Name: Earth and Planetary Science (Formerly Geologic Sciences).

Statistical and computational methods for inferring images from incomplete data. Bayesian inference methods are used to combine data and quantify uncertainty in the estimate. Fast linear algebra tools are used to solve problems with many pixels and many observations. Applications from several fields but mainly in earth sciences. Prerequisites: Linear algebra and probability theory.

Radar remote sensing, radar image characteristics, viewing geometry, range coding, synthetic aperture processing, correlation, range migration, range/Doppler algorithms, wave domain algorithms, polar algorithm, polarimetric processing, interferometric measurements. Applications: surfafe deformation, polarimetry and target discrimination, topographic mapping surface displacements, velocities of ice fields. Prerequisites: EE261. Recommended: EE254, EE278, EE279.

Earthquake and volcanic deformation, emphasizing analytical models that can be compared to data from GPS, InSAR, and strain meters. Dislocation and crack models of faults. Dislocations in layered and elastically heterogeneous earth models. Models of volcano deformation, including sills, dikes, and magma chambers. Viscoelasticity, post-seismic rebound, and viscoelastic magma chambers. Selected topics including: gravity changes induced by deformation and elastogravitational coupling; Poro-elasticity, coupled fluid flow and deformation; earthquake nucleation and rate-state friction.

Required for graduate students in their first two years (six quarters total), and strongly encouraged for all members of the Department. This course consists of a lecture by a different speaker each week, distinguished scientists selected by students and faculty to present a wide cross-section of Geophysics. Occasional sessions are devoted to general topics of interest to the Department of Geophysics. Invited experts introduce their research problems, methods and results. Offered every year, autumn and winter and spring quarter.

Research in reflection seismology and petroleum prospecting. May be repeated for credit.

Research on the use of geophysical methods for near-surface environmental problems. May be repeated for credit.

Research on physics and mechanics of earthquakes, volcanoes, ice sheets, and glaciers. Emphasis is on developing theoretical understanding of processes governing natural phenomena.

Research on the origin, major structures, and tectonic processes of the Earth's crust. Emphasis is on use of deep seismic reflection and refraction data. May be repeated for credit.

Research on the acquisition, processing, and analysis of radio geophysical signals in observing the subsurface conditions and physical processes of ice sheets, glaciers, and icy moons.

Research on rock physics and geophysical methods for stochastic methods for subsurface modeling

Reflection: Understanding the mechanics of ice sheets and ice shelves.

This seminar gives an overview of the latest developments in the area of scientific machine learning.

(Formerly GEOLSCI 384) Research on the use of laboratory geophysical methods for the characterization of the physical properties of rocks and their response to earth stresses, temperature, and rock-fluid interactions. May be repeated for credit. Change of Department Name: Earth and Planetary Science (Formerly Geologic Sciences).

Research on Source and Structural Seismology of the Earth. May be repeated for credit.

Research on volcanic processes. May be repeat for credit

Research on the application of paleomagnetism to study planetary processes such as dynamo field generation, geodynamical evolution, and impact cratering. May be repeated for credit.

Research on the dynamics of multi-phase systems that are fundamental to many geophysical problems such as ice sheets and volcanoes.

Research applications, especially crustal deformation measurements. Recent instrumentation and system advancements. May be repeated for credit.

Research in Geophysics

TGR Project

TGR Dissertation