Università Roma Tre

The environment of celestial bodies; the Solar System; the shape and size of the Earth; the main motions of the Earth (rotation and revolution); the long-term movements of the Earth; the Earth-Moon system.

The Earth as an integrated system: interaction between the different systems of the planet (biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, cryosphere), the earth's atmosphere, climate and meteorological phenomena, renewable and non-renewable natural resources.

The materials of the Earth: minerals, the lithogenetic processes, the lithogenetic cycle, the magmatic rocks, the sedimentary rocks, the metamorphic rocks, the bedding and the deformation of the rocks.

Volcanic phenomena: magma and volcanic activity, the main types of eruptions, shape of volcanic buildings, products of volcanic activity, the geographic distribution of volcanoes, volcanoes and man (the volcanic risk).

Seismic phenomena: the theory of elastic rebound, the seismic cycle, types of seismic waves and their propagation and registration, the force of an earthquake (scales of intensity and magnitude), the geographic distribution of earthquakes, the seismic activity and the man (seismic risk)

Plate tectonics: the internal structure of the Earth, the structure of the crust, the Earth's magnetic field, Earth’s internal heat, the convective mantle, from the hypothesis of the drift of the continents to the formulation of the theory of plate tectonics.

Capire la Terra
J.P. Grotzinger, T-H Jordan
(Terza edizione italiana condotta sulla settima edizione americana)

Il Globo Terrestre e la sua evoluzione
E. L. Palmieri e M. Parotto
Sesta Edizione (2008)

Geologia Strutturale
H. Fossen
(Edizione Italiana, a cura di Giulio Viola)

Educational material distributed during the course

Introduction on rock rheology: brittle and ductile behaviour; rock deformation in brittle and ductile enviornemnts; regional tectonics

-B. A. VAN DER PLUIJM, S. MARSHAK. W.W, "EARTH STRUCTURE" (2ND ED.), NORTON, 2004.