The final term paper consists of a detailed analysis of the "Active Tectonics" of a study area or of a particular process or phenomena related to active deformation. I will suggest some project ideas, but you may pick a topic that relates to what you work on for your thesis work, or may choose a problem that you are simply interested in, perhaps chosen from examples in the literature.You will choose an area, fault zone, volcano, plate boundary, experimental or theoretical topic, or tectonic process by the third week of class, and have the opportunity to discuss your project several times during the semester.
Your final product will be a fully formatted research paper, including figures (redrafted or your own original figures) in Geology or Geophysical Research Letters format. Information about these journals, and their respective style, length and submission information can be found at the Geology and GRL manuscript preparation web pages. You should choose between the two journals based on your target audience.
The final class meeting will involve short presentations on your course project.
More detailed information on how to develop the course projects can be found in the course handout.
Here are a few things that might help you with the writing of the paper itself. It is never to early to start putting words to paper, even before you have done any analysis.
Most recent update: August 15, 2018