Introduction
to Mineral Physics
"Mineral Physics 101"
A COMPRES Graduate Seminar
Mineral Physics 101 is an entry level graduate course
in mineral physics. The course was taught in Spring
2012 and Spring 2014. Materials from the course are
available in several venues. The
overview materials and many of the guest lectures are posted on the SERC
web site. All the materials used in
the course as well as recordings of all the sessions are available by
request.
The objective of the course is to familiarize students with mineral physics topics and techniques so that they can comfortably read research literature in mineral physics. Students will learn enough about these experimental techniques so that they can evaluate the strength of scientific claims made by mineral physicists and form informed opinions about controversies in high pressure geophysics.
Topics include: equations of
state, tensors, stress, strain and elasticity, Brillouin
spectroscopy, the multi-anvil apparatus, synchrotron diffraction, high pressure
deformation experiments, high pressure ultrasonic measurements, diffusion and
partitioning at high pressure, Raman and IR spectroscopy at high pressure, high
pressure phase equilibria, the diamond anvil cell, melts at high pressure,
nuclear inelastic scattering, and Mossbauer spectroscopy. This course was designed for graduate students in
the physical sciences with undergraduate degrees in geoscience, physics or
chemistry. It is targeted at an audience
that has at minimum had calculus, inorganic chemistry and first year physics,
and exposure to crystallography either through mineralogy or solid state
physics/chemistry.
The modules written for the course, which include
many of the guest lectures, are posted on the SERC
web site. An overview of the class
as it was taught in 2012 is available here:
http://faculty.unlv.edu/pburnley/COMPRESMP101_2012.html
An overview of the class as it was taught in 2014 is available here:
http://faculty.unlv.edu/pburnley/COMPRESMP101_2014.html
Additional materials including all readings, and guest lectures, recordings of paper discussions and homework sets are available via a password protected website. For access please contact Pamela Burnley (Pamela.Burnley@unlv.edu).