Tracks
Tracks are recommended, coherent combinations of courses combined from the total programme. They are meant to help students design their own curriculum and to facilitate specialisation within the programme. On this page you will find information about the three tracks offered within the Earth Structure and Dynamics programme.
An in-depth geophysical approach to understand the deep interior of the Earth and other planets
This track offers you an in-depth geophysical approach to understanding the structure, composition, and dynamics of the deep interior of the Earth and other planets. Courses address seismology, the dynamics of the mantle and lithosphere, geopotential fields, and applied geophysics as well as state-of-the-art computational methods. Research covers the entire spectrum of geophysics, from seismic tomography to geodynamic modelling of plate-tectonic processes and associated surface deformation and seismicity.
Suggested courses for this track:
Crustal and lithospheric scale processes including the formation and evolution of sedimentary basins and mountain belts.
This track is a combined track for a hybrid Geology-Geophysics profile. Tthe focus lies on the evolution of sedimentary basins, orogens, and the crust-lithosphere system in the context of plate tectonics for a combined geology-geophysics profile. The track allows you to combine observational and field-based geological analysis with quantitative aspects of geophysics. Courses and research primarily cover fields situated at the spatial scale interface between the Physics of the Deep Earth and Planets and Earth Materials tracks.
Suggested courses for this track:
Deformation, metamorphic and igneous processes operating in the crust and upper mantle
The focus of the Earth Materials track is on deformation, metamorphic and igneous processes operating in the crust and upper mantle. Courses address the physics and chemistry of rocks, minerals, and melts and how the behaviour of these materials controls geodynamic processes. Your research can range from unravelling orogenic, seismic and volcanic events to exploring Earth’s early history, the origin of geological resources, mantle rheology, and the response of crustal rocks to geological storage of CO2, green hydrogen or radioactive waste.