Class 1: Synopsis

 

 

In this first class, we first spent some time discussing how the papers will be chosen for this seminar to: i) explore some aspects of geological fluid mechanics, ii) provide background to complement departmental seminars, and iii) practice distilling the literature and contributing to scientific discusions.

 

There were 15 of us at this first class, 13 of whom kindly responded to the following questions:

á            What do you hope to get out of this class?

á            What aspect of science interests you most?

á            What is your area of research?

á            What is your favorite color?

 

Gillean Arnoux

á            fluid dynamics principals, modeling of mantle flow

á            process of learning new ideas and how natural processes work

á            geophysics

á            teal

Miles Bodmer

á            better understanding of fluid dynamics (not taken fluid dynamics)

á            learning details of things you don't pay much attention to; inner workings of processes

á            seismology

á            olive green

Dustin Carroll

á            understand ice flow over long time-scales

á            make observations and combine w. mathematical models to determine how a system works

á            physical oceanography

á            brittish racing green

Jiangzhi (Arthur) Chen:

á            discuss topics relevant to personal research in pore fluid flow

á            the possibility of getting complicated systems from simple principles

á            fluid flow in fault gouge zones

á            purple

Dylan Col—n:

á            fill a hole in understanding of physics and mathematics that can be applied to current research

á            the processes that form the modern world

á            volcanology

á            red

Al Handwerger

á            hope to learn more fluid dynamics because it may provide an answer to a problem in research on nonlinearities in slow-moving landslides

á            understanding processes and controls relating to landslides and landscapes

á            geomorph. slow-moving landslides, earthflows

á            green

Julia Irizarry

á            get an introduction to fluid mechanics and its applications

á            making quantitative models that explain qualitative observations

á            new student working with Alan

á            olive

Jill Marshall

á            broaden knowledge on application of fluid dynamics

á            whatching science change and evolve, while being part of the trajectory

á            intersection of biology, landscape, climate and rock properties

á            plaid

Madison Myers

á            get some of the foundation of fluid dynamics

á            the puzzles and questions

á            understanding magma storage conditions for large magma systems

á            purple

Brian Penserini

á            general interest in fluid mechanics wiht hope to find a specific interestin the field - may work on geodynamic models

á            interest in processes that control landscapes

á            geomorphology - possibly tectonic geomorphology

á            blue

George Roth

á            equation/principles to describe small-scale fluid dynamics

á            observation of natural phenomena

á            master of the ocean

á            won't say

Rob Skarbek

á            no comment or lost card

Kristin Sweeney

á            increase knowledge of fluid dynamics

á            find the doable questions in a complicated world

á            landscape evolution

á            brown

Brandon VanderBeek

á            better understanding of fluid dynamics; haven't taken a class before

á            potential to work on new ideas

á            geophysics/seismology - active source

á            purple

 

Readings:

 

G.K. Batchelor, 1.2 The continuum hypothesis, in: An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics, CUP, 1967, pp. 4–6.

á            discussed situations where the continuum hypothesis breaks down, e.g. at transitions where the granularity of porous media becomes important so that the related concept of REV is impractical

á            discussed how measuring instruments and data collection (e.g. in geomorphology) must be chosen to address problems relevant to a particular scale of problem

á            example problem skating along the edge of continuum treatments: Arthur's fault mechanics / shear localization problem

R.S. Anderson and S.P. Anderson, Guiding principles, in: Geomorphology – The Mechanics and Chemistry of Landscapes, CUP, 2010, pp. 6-8.

á            noted emphasis on connections between conservation laws and transport rules in many very different systems

á            discussed neocatastrophist view and how this arises not from belief that physics changed, but more that dominant physical principals change and empirical laws cannot be extrapolated beyond the regime in which they are developed

á            example problem of extreme events beating out more mundane and frequent behavior: Kristin's stream incision on Collier lava flow

O.M. Phillips, 2.6 Two theorems, in Geological Fluid Dynamics – Sub-surface Flow and Reactions, CUP, 2009, pp. 31–33.

á            discussed caveat regarding buoyancy effects - derivations fall apart when divergence of velocity is nonzero, and counter-examples from buoyancy driven flows (e.g. convection) are both commonplace and easily understandable; still, we didn't come up with a more intuitive understanding for why buoyancy would change things so much - further thoughts appreciated

á            achieved consensus on path of least resistance