Gravity Exploration - Geosciences 495; 2cr
Professor: Steve Sheriff
Grading: Based on exams, problem sets, project reports, participation
Spring 2007 - Syllabus
The Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience (Los Alamos National Lab)
The Society of Exploration Geophysics scholarships

• 1/22/07: Problems, Mass, moment, gravity (Newton, Maskelyne), and mantle/core
• 1/29: Spherical coordinates, more on mass, moment, and density with depth, Press' Monte Carlo approach, equatorial bulge.
• 1/30: Chauvenet's principle, moment-mass problem, the Earth-Moon system, tidal friction, lunar recession (4.4 +/-0.6 cm/yr),
• 2/5: Matrix solutions (1, 2), linear density with depth,
• 2/12: International Gravity Formula (gth), the geoid (NGS, PNW, US, world geoid),
• 2/19: Presidents (dead) day
• 2/26: Free Air and Simple Bouguer Corrections
• 3/5: Terrain density, density from FAA, interpreting Bouguer anomalies, topography & anomalies, case study: Nyack
• 3/12: The buried sphere, ambiguity and uniqueness. Problem: use Excel to graph the anomaly over two buried spheres, one atop the other (parameters in class). Intro (from Tony Berthelote) on the gravity problem in the Clark Fork Valley - class project.
• 3/19: Discuss your homework, 2 side-by-side spheres, topography & anomalies, Bouguer anomalies: Missoula Valley, Northern Rockies, US, NE Missoula Valley (Hennes ppt), Missoula Valley(ppt), regional demo.
• 4/2: Basic GPS, differential GPS, GPS error (1, 2, 3, 4), drift corrections, self assessment: USGS example, operating the CG3, measuring table height, operating the GPS unit. The gravity project, and gravity flow chart.
• 4/9: Operation of the Pro-XRS Trimble GPS units and Pathfinder Office.
• 4/16: Field Day - class time replaced by time for your field work. Tony Berthelote has scheduled Monday afternoon to show Jenica and Joel around the field sites - all are invited; see Tony.
• 4/23: Review your data acquisition to date. GravcadW and modeling
• 4/30: Data review, discussion - I'll provide terrain corrections after you send me data.
• 5/7: Final Exam Time: Monday May 7, 3:20 - 5:20