GEOL0046 Deep Earth & Planetary Modelling

This module provides an introduction to modern methods to simulate the deep Earth, including computer simulations and experiments. It includes a high level of practical work.

Coordinator: Prof Dario Alfe

Module details

Title	Deep Earth and Planetary Modelling
UG Code	GEOL0046
Coordinator	Prof Dario Alfe
Other Contributors	Dr Monica Pozzo
Term	2
Credit	15 credits
Written Exam
Coursework	100% - 1,2,3,4 < 1000 words (25% each)
Pre-Requisites	None
Maths & Stats Content and Requirement	simple trigonometry, differentiation and integration of simple functions, logarithms
Total Number of Hours of Student Work	188 hours
Hours of Lectures/Seminars	20 hours
Hours of Practicals/Problem Classes	20 hours
Hours of Tutorials	0
Days of Fieldwork	0
Other	None

Content

• Basic thermodynamic concepts and their relation to microscopic physics. 1st and 2nd law of thermodynamics. The direction of natural processes.
• Probability and its relation to Entropy. The partition function.
• Thermodynamic potentials: Helmholtz free energy, Gibbs free energy, Enthalpy. Equivalent formulations of the 2nd law.
• The Boltzmann and Gibbs distributions, canonical and gran-canonical averages, sampling methods.
• Calculating free energies with modern computational methods to simulate materials at high pressure and temperature.
• the Earth internal structure.
• earth's core composition, temperature and transport properties.
• phase diagrams and phase boundaries within the Earth.
• Practical examples, e.g. thermal expansion of materials. Hands on computer experiments.

AIMS

The course aims to provide an understanding of key topics in modern techniques to simulate the deep Earth, with particular emphasis to atomistic computer simulations. Specific examples from current research will be presented.

Outcomes

Students will become familiar with the following concepts:

• Elements of thermodynamics and statistical physics
• Modern computational methods to simulate materials at high pressure and temperature.
• Phase diagrams.
• The Earth internal structure.
• Earth's core composition, temperature and transport properties.

Practical and transferable outcomes

• Use of computer simulations to calculate phase diagrams, both at zero and at finite temperature.
• Equation of states and how to use them to find thermodynamic stability of materials at high pressure and temperature.
• Comparison theory-experiment and critical evaluation of predictive power of theoretical simulation methods.
• Use of phase diagrams to interpret planetary bodies interiors. 
• IT skills.