Università Roma Tre

Introduction: overview of Earth's interior structure and geophysical remote-sensing methodologies: current knowledge and open questions. Mathematical background: vector operations and transformation, matrix algebra, vector calculus. Gravity: Newton’s formula, gravitational potential, Laplace equation and its solution in spherical harmonics, Earth’s shape: reference ellipsoid and geoid, Isostasy, Airy and Pratt’s models, gravity anomalies: measurements, interpretation and applications. Earth’s rotation: centripetal and centrifugal acceleration, Milankovitch’s cycles, acceleration of Coriolis. Geomagnetism: Dipolar magnetic field, Earth’s magnetic field and its morphology, Laplace eq., internal and external contributions, dipole Earth’s field and higher terms, power spectrum, reference field, regional and local anomalies. The magnetic minerals. Secular and rapid variations. Magnetic surveying: measure and interpretation of magnetic anomalies. Thermal balance of the Earth: solar radiation and internal heat, radioactivity, heat transport: conduction, convection, steady-state conductive equation, time-dependent conduction, heat flow in continents and oceans: applications, mantle geotherms. Physical properties: elasticity: linear elasticity, stress and strain, elastic parameters, constitutive equations. Rheology: rheology of fluids, Navier-Stokes equation, rheological models, anelasticity: visco-elastic deformation at seismic frequencies. Seismology: P and S seismic waves, surface waves, free oscillations. Propagation and attenuation of plane and spherical waves, ray theory, Earthquakes’ origin, determination of hypocentral parameters, seismographic networks, magnitude, energy, seismic moment, time and space distribution of Earthquakes, focal mechanisms. Earth’s seismic structure, anisotropy, inverse theory: body-wave tomography, surface-wave tomography.

- Lowrie, Fundamentals of Geophysics, Cambridge University Press, pp 1-375
- Stein and Wysession, An introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, and Earth Structure Blackwell Publishing, pp. 1-498
- Appunti delle lezioni distribuite durante il corso.