Graduate Student Opportunities

The breadth and diversity of the faculty and facilities within the Department of Geology and Geophysics and the Center for Tectonophysics at Texas A&M University provide a graduate student a unique opportunity for advanced studies in a broad range of topics in structural geology and tectonophysics. Research in the Center emphasizes the integration of field, theory and experimental approaches to solving pure and applied problems.

Graduate students at Texas A&M become associates of the Center for Tectonophysics by choosing a faculty advisor that is an associate of the Center and by completing the tectonophysics core curriculum. Most students of the Center matriculate in the Department of Geology & Geophysics.

The program has strong ties to the petroleum industry, government research laboratories, and the geotechnical industry. Our M.S. and Ph.D. students are extremely successful in finding employment in these areas. In addition, a significant number of former Ph.D. students hold academic positions at national and international universities.

The John W. Handin Laboratory for Experimental Rock Deformation is the centerpiece of the research program and has a broad variety of experimental systems allowing studies of deformation and transport behavior of rock at physical and chemical states simulating surface to upper mantle conditions.

Faculty associates and graduate students have successfully acquired research funding from a diversity of funding sources including federal (National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, U. S. Geological Survey, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Southern California Earthquake Center), state (TAMU, OUR, ARP/ATP), and private and industrial (Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society, ExxonMobil Production Research, ExxonMobil Upstream Technology, Japan National Oil Corp, Marathon Oil, Mobil, Phillips, Shell, and Westbay Instruments) sources.

For further information email the Center.

Financial Support

Graduate students are supported through teaching and research assistantships. Teaching assistantships are awarded through the Department of Geology and Geophysics. Research assistantships are available through externally funded government and industry grants and contracts. Competitive scholarships also are available both through the Department of Geology and Geophysics and the Center for Tectonophysics.

Course Work

Center faculty offer course work in structural petrology, experimental rock deformation, geomechanics, advanced structural geology, and a variety of additional topics through seminar courses.

Tectonophysics Core Curriculum

GEOL 665: Structural Petrology
GEOP 615: Experimental Rock Deformation
GEOL 664: Mechanical Analysis in Geology or GEOP 611: Geomechanics
Advanced Course (e.g., GEOL 667: Structural Geology II)

Tectonophysics Course Descriptions

GEOL 665. Structural Petrology. (2-3). Credit 4.
Mechanisms of rock deformation from single crystal to mountain range;
techniques of mapping stresses and strains and for inferring physical
conditions and mechanical behavior at time of deformation; laboratory
assignments on descriptive techniques include petrographic
microscope-universal stage methods, field procedures and data analysis.
Prerequisites: GEOL 303, 312; approval of instructor.
GEOP 615. Experimental Rock Deformation. (2-3). Credit 4.
Results of laboratory testing of mechanical properties of rocks at high
pressure and temperature; interaction of theoretical, experimental, petrofabric
and field studies of rock deformations as applied to problems in structural
geology, seismology and engineering; philosophy of experimentation,
apparatus design, data interpretation and extrapolation. Prerequisite: GEOP
611 or GEOL 665 or approval of instructor.
GEOL 664. Mechanical Analysis in Geology. (3-0). Credit 3.
Mechanical analysis of geological problems based on concepts of stress,
strain, strength, elasticity, viscosity and plasticity; folding, faulting, dike
formation, hydraulic fracturing, magma and glacial flow, and cooling of
magmatic bodies. MATH 253; approval of instructor.
GEOP 611. Geomechanics. (3-0). Credit 3.
Development of continuum mechanics and its application to rock deformation;
stress, strain, stress equilibrium, constitutive relations; governing equations
for elastic solids and viscous fluids formulated and used to solve elementary
boundary-value problems which have application to structural geology and
solid-state geophysics. Prerequisite: MATH 221 or equivalent.
GEOL 629. Tectonics. (3-0) . Credit 3.
Study of the geology of North America by examining the accumulation and
deformation of the rock units involved. Structural form and style are
emphasized, but the entire geologic history is investigated. Emphasis
is placed on the processes by which structures develop rather than
memorization of facts. Prerequisite: approval of instructor.
GEOP 657. Interior of the Earth. Credit 3.
GEOP 690. Theory of Geophysical Research. (2-0). Credit 2.
Theory and design of research problems and experiments in various subfields
of geophysics; communications of research proposals and results; evaluation
of current research of faculty and students and of that in the scientific
literature. May be repeated for credit.
GEOL or GEOP 689. Special topics in ... Credit 1 to 4.
Selected topics in an identified area of geology. May be repeated for credit.
Approval of instructor.
Examples:
GEOL 689. Special topics in Adavanced Structural Geology.Credit 3.
GEOL 689. Special topics in Brittle Faulting. Credit 3.
GEOL 689. Special topics in Active Tectonics in Engineering Evaluations. Credit 3.
GEOL or GEOP 681. Seminar. (1-0). Credit 1.
Reports and discussions of current research and selected from geologic literature.
Prerequisite: Graduate classification.
Examples:
GEOL 681. Origin and Interpretation of Veins in Sedimentary Rocks. Credit 1.
GEOL 681. Geometry of Normal Faults. Credit 1.
GEOL 681. Taiwan: Geophysics, Active Tectonics and Sedimentation. Credit 1.
GEOL 681. Geometry of Thrust Faults. Credit 1.
GEOL 681. Tectonic Geomorphology. Credit 1.
GEOL or GEOP 685. Problems. Credit 1 or more each semester.
A course to enable graduate students to undertake limited investigations outside
their thesis or dissertation research and not covered in established curricula.
Prerequisites: Graduate classification; approval of advisor.
GEOL or GEOP 691. Research. Credit 1 or more each semester.
Original research on problems in various phases of geology. Research for thesis
or dissertation.

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Center for Tectonophysics
Department of Geology & Geophysics
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-3115