Stefan Wiemer: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2016

Name Prof. Dr. Stefan Wiemer
FieldSeismology
Address
Schweiz. Erdbebendienst (SED)
ETH Zürich, NO H 61
Sonneggstrasse 5
8092 Zürich
SWITZERLAND
Telephone+41 44 633 38 57
E-mailstefan.wiemer@sed.ethz.ch
DepartmentEarth Sciences
RelationshipFull Professor

NumberTitleECTSHoursLecturers
364-1058-00LRisk Center Seminar Series Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 50.
0 credits2SH. Gersbach, D. Basin, A. Bommier, L.‑E. Cederman, H. R. Heinimann, H. J. Herrmann, W. Mimra, G. Sansavini, F. Schweitzer, D. Sornette, B. Stojadinovic, B. Sudret, S. Wiemer
AbstractThis course is a mixture between a seminar primarily for PhD and postdoc students and a colloquium involving invited speakers. It consists of presentations and subsequent discussions in the area of modeling complex socio-economic systems and crises. Students and other guests are welcome.
ObjectiveParticipants should learn to get an overview of the state of the art in the field, to present it in a well understandable way to an interdisciplinary scientific audience, to develop novel mathematical models for open problems, to analyze them with computers, and to defend their results in response to critical questions. In essence, participants should improve their scientific skills and learn to work scientifically on an internationally competitive level.
ContentThis course is a mixture between a seminar primarily for PhD and postdoc students and a colloquium involving invited speakers. It consists of presentations and subsequent discussions in the area of modeling complex socio-economic systems and crises. For details of the program see the webpage of the colloquium. Students and other guests are welcome.
Lecture notesThere is no script, but a short protocol of the sessions will be sent to all participants who have participated in a particular session. Transparencies of the presentations may be put on the course webpage.
LiteratureLiterature will be provided by the speakers in their respective presentations.
Prerequisites / NoticeParticipants should have relatively good mathematical skills and some experience of how scientific work is performed.
651-1694-00LSeminar in Seismology0 credits1SS. Wiemer, D. Fäh, D. Giardini
AbstractShort seminars on a variety of popular topics in Seismology. The seminars present current problems and research activities in the seismological community.
ObjectiveUnderstanding of a broad scope of current problems and state-of-the-art practice in seismology.
651-3341-00LLithosphere Information
Prerequisite: successful completion of Dynamic Earth I and II is mandatory.

Course will no longer take place after HS16.
3 credits2VS. Wiemer, E. Kissling
AbstractComprehensive understanding of role and evolution of oceanic and continental lithosphere in global plate tectonics and evolution of earth. Understanding principles of theoretical and experimental geothermics and fundamentals of mantle and lithosphere rheologies.
ObjectiveComprehensive understanding of role and evolution of oceanic and continental lithosphere in global plate tectonics and evolution of earth. Understanding principles of theoretical and experimental geothermics and fundamentals of mantle and lithosphere rheologies.
ContentConcept of lithosphere-asthenosphere system in plate tectonics. Physics, chemistry, and rheology of crust and uppermost mantle. Thermal, chemical, and mechanical evolution and destruction/subduction of oceanic lithosphere and evolution of continents. Continental growth, example Europe. Fundamentals of rheology and geothermics of the mantle-lithosphere-crust system.
Lecture notesDetailed scriptum in digital form and additional learning moduls (www.lead.ethz.ch) available on intranet.
Literaturesee list in scriptum.
Prerequisites / NoticePPT-files of each lecture may be played back for rehearsal on www.lead.ethz.ch.
651-4103-00LEarthquakes Source Physics Information
Does not take place this semester.
The course unit will be offered again in the autumn semester 2017.
3 credits2GS. Wiemer
AbstractThis course teaches the fundamental principles to understand physical processes leading to and governing earthquake source ruptures. To obtain that understanding we cover topics ranging from friction and fault mechanics up to earthquake source descriptions. The acquired understanding will be applied to a topic of choice to practice research skills.
ObjectiveThe aim of the course is to gain a thorough understanding of the physical processes leading to and governing earthquake source ruptures. Finally, this understanding will be applied to analyze a state-of-the-art earthquake physics topic of choice.
ContentWe will cover a range of topics, including:
- Earthquake basics: definitions, faults, elastic rebound theory, and source parameters.
- Introduction to elastodynamics: strain, stress, equation of motion.
- Mathematical description of the source:
- Representation theorem, point and extended sources, source spectra.
- Energy partitioning
- Source dynamics: Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics
- Fault mechanics and friction
- Seismic cycle: inter-, co-, and post-seismic processes
- Aseismic creep and slow slip transients
- Earthquake source inversion and data assimilation
- Recurrence models
- Modeling of dynamic ruptures and seismic cycles

After a theoretical understanding has been acquired, we invite students to apply this knowledge to their topic of preference by presenting a group of state-of-the-art and/or classical papers as a final project. This will require them to understand and evaluate current challenges and state-of-the-art practices in earthquake physics. Additionally, this stimulates participants to improve their skills to:
- critically analyze (to be) published papers
- disseminate knowledge within their own and neighboring research fields
- formulate their opinion, new ideas and broader implications
- present their findings to an audience
- ask questions and actively participate in discussions on new scientific ideas
Lecture notesCourse notes will be made available on a designated course web site. An overview of the discussed principles are available in the three books mentioned below.
Literature- The Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting by Ch. Scholz (2002), Cambridge University Press

- Quantitative Seismology by K. Aki and P.G. Richards (2nd edition, 2002), University Science Books.

- Source Mechanisms of Earthquakes, Theory and Practice by Udias, Madariaga and Buforn (2014), Cambridge University Press.
Prerequisites / NoticeThis concerns a bi-yearly course that will be taught again in Fall 2017.

The course will be evaluated in 2 parts:
- a two hours final exam at the end of the course,
- a presentation discussing a topic of chose based on a group of suggested papers

The course is worth 3 credit points, and a satisfactory total grade (4 or better) is needed to obtain 3 ECTS. The final writing exam has a weight of 70% and the presentation weighs for 30%.

The course will be given in English.
651-4271-00LData Analysis and Visualisation with Matlab in Earth Sciences3 credits2GS. Wiemer, G. De Souza, T. Tormann
AbstractThis lecture and the corresponding exercises provide the students with an introduction to the concepts and tools of scientific data analysis. Based on current questions in the Earth Sciences, the students solve problems of increasing complexity both in small groups and singly using the software package MATLAB. Students also learn how to effectively visualise different kinds of datasets.
ObjectiveThe following concepts are introduced in the course:
- Effective data analysis and visuatlisation in 2D and 3D
- Working with matrices and arrays
- Programming and development of algorithms
- Learning to effectively use animations
- Statistical description of a dataset
- Interactive data-mining
- Uncertainty, error propagation and bootstrapping
- Regression analysis
- Testing hypotheses