Course Descriptions

graduate

 

Graduate Course Descriptions


6130:6230: Graduate Seminar
Cr. 1-2 per semester. (0-2;1-2).


6198:6298:6398:6598:6698:6798:6998: Special Problems
Cr. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, or 9 per semester. Prerequisite: consent of instructor or approval of chair.


6199:6299:6399:6499:6599:6699:6999: Master's Thesis
Cr. 1-9 per semester.


6325: Remote Sensing
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor. Remote sensing methods, capabilities and limitations of methods, digital image processing, and applications of remote sensing.


6326: Applications of Geographic Information Systems
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor. Remote sensing methods, capabilities and limitations of methods, digital image processing, and applications of remote sensing.


6331: Seismic Data Processing
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: Consent of instructor. Detailed use of seismic exploration tools and routines in a variety of real scenarios, both two- and three-dimensional, involving land and shallow- and deep-water marine data.


6332: Air Pollution Meteorology
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: GEOL 4341 and GEOL 4342 or consent of instructor. Meteorological factors influencing air quality. Atmospheric dispersion and characteristics, land use and topographic effect, local circulations, effects of cloud and precipitation, long range transport, exchange between troposphere and stratosphere.


6333: Geofluid Dynamics
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: MATH 3363 or consent of instructor. Basic concepts of geofluid dynamic equations, fluid kinematics, principles of irrotational and rotating fluid motion, compressible and incompressible flow, boundary-layer theory, Boussinesq assumptions, hydrodynamic instability, perturbation dynamics, Rayleigh instability theorem, thermal convection, linear and nonlinear theories, Benard cells, and dynamic similitudes in geofluid systems such as atmosphere and ocean.


6334: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: MATH 3363 or consent of instructor. Emission sources and chemical transformations of urban, regional, and global scale air pollution including ozone, particulates, and acids deposition.


6335: Air Pollution Modeling
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: MATH 3363 or consent of instructor. Numeric modeling techniques used in air quality models. Computation of pollutant transports and solution of chemical reactions. Effects of reducing NOx and/or VOC emissions on Houston ozone problems. Perform numerical experiments using an operational air quality modeling system.


6336: Boundary Layer Meteorology and Turbulence
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: MATH 3363 or consent of instructor. Boundary layer mean and turbulent motions, convective and stable boundary layers, boundary layer scaling and similarity theory, turbulence closures, and boundary layer modeling.


6337: Atmospheric Physics
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: MATH 3363 or consent of instructor. Physical principles in atmospheric sciences, including thermodynamics, radiative transfer, cloud physics and wave dynamics.


6338: Paleoclimate and Global Change
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor. Natural and anthropogenic global climate change, paleoclimates and paleogeography, evolution of the atmosphere, greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, ocean-atmosphere coupling, solar activity, Milankovitch cycles, effects of global change on agriculture, water resources and energy use.


6339: Igneous Petrology
Cr. 3. (2-3). Prerequisites: GEOL 3371 and GEOL 3335 or consent of instructor. Integration of geochemical, geological, and petrographic data in the interpretation of the origin of igneous rocks.


6341: Geochemistry
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: GEOL 3371 and GEOL 3335 or consent of instructor. Principles of geochemistry, mineral-water stability relationships, isotope geochemistry, phase equilibria, and trace elements in igneous rocks.


6343: Geochemistry of Natural Waters
Cr. 3. (1-6). Prerequisites: graduate standing in NSM or Engineering, and consent of instructor; recommended: GEOL 6341. Field trips required; cost to be defrayed by student. A laboratory- and field-oriented course designed to teach chemical and isotopic analytical techniques.


6344: Stable Isotope Geochemistry
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: graduate standing in NSM or Engineering, consent of instructor, and GEOL 6341 (or consent of instructor). The application of stable isotope techniques to earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences. Fundamental concepts of isotope equilibrium, mass balance, and kinetics are emphasized.


6345: Hydrochemistry
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: GEOL 1330 and GEOL 6341 or CHEM 4370 or CHEM 4373, and graduate standing in Natural Sciences and Mathematics or Engineering, or consent of instructor. Application of thermodynamic principles to predict reactions in fluid-rock systems under low- and high-temperature and pressure conditions.


6347: Sandstone Petrography
Cr. 3. (2-3). Prerequisites: GEOL 3371 and GEOL 3335. Interpretation of provenance, depositional environment, and diagenesis of sandstones by petrographic analysis.


6348: Carbonate Petrography
Cr. 3. (2-3). Prerequisites: GEOL 3371 and GEOL 3335. Discussion and petrographic and hand-specimen analyses of the origin and diagenesis of carbonate strata and their depositional environments.


6350: Advanced Structural Geology
Cr. 3. (3-0). For geology majors. Prerequisites: GEOL 3145, GEOL 3345, and MATH 2433. Analysis of geologic structures using surface and subsurface data.


6356: Paleoecology
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Weekend field trips required; cost to be defrayed by student. Principles of paleoecology and analysis of modern and ancient invertebrate populations.


6357: Terrigenous Sedimentology
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: GEOL 3350. Weekend field trips required; cost to be defrayed by student. Concepts and techniques concerning the processes and products related to the transportation and deposition of terrigenous sedimentary rocks.


6358: Terrigenous Depositional Models
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: GEOL 4358, or consent of instructor. Modern terrigenous depositional systems as a basis for the interpretation of ancient terrigenous sedimentary rocks. Field trip(s) may be required, cost to be defrayed by student.


6359: Geological Analysis
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: GEOL 3145, GEOL 3345, GEOL 3150, GEOL 3350, and MATH 2433; or consent of instructor. Statistical techniques for analysis of geologic data and selection of statistical models appropriate to geological problems.


6363: Carbonate Sedimentology
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: Consent of instructor. Field trip(s) required; cost to be defrayed by student. Discussion of the origins and criteria of recognition of carbonate accumulations from different depositional environments.


6366: Hydrogeology
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: CHEM 1332, MATH 1432, GEOL 1330, and PHYS 1312, graduate standing in Natural Sciences and Mathematics or Engineering, or consent of instructor. Field trips may be required; cost to be defrayed by student. Interdisciplinary study of groundwater, emphasizing the geologic aspects of groundwater flow and chemistry.


6367: Advanced Hydrogeology
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: GEOL 6366 and MATH 2433, and graduate standing in Natural Sciences and Mathematics or Engineering, or consent of instructor. Advanced topics in hydrologic field methods and groundwater principles for saturated and unsaturated media, contaminant transport and numerical simulation of fluid flows.


6368: Fluvial Hydrology
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: graduate standing in Geosciences or Engineering, or consent of instructor. The flow of water and sediment in both overland and channelized flow conditions, including the hydrologic effects of changing land use.


6369: Isotope Geochronology
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: GEOL 3335 and GEOL 3370, or consent of instructor. Commonly used radiogenic isotopic systems and their applications in geochronology, petrology, and tectonics.


6371: Isotope Geochemistry
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: consent of instructor. The fundamentals of the isotope systems used in the geosciences. The basics of both stable, radioactive, and radiogenic isotopes will be discussed. Fundamental concepts of geochronology and stable isotope fractionation and their relevance to tectonics, stratigraphy, climate, and meteorology will be discussed.


6375: Regional Tectonics Seminar
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: GEOL 3345. Geologic history of specific regions within a plate tectonic framework. Origin and evolution of sedimentary basins, development and evolution of rifts, plate boundaries and orogenic belts. Geologic regions selected will vary.


6376: Advanced Tectonics and Sedimentation
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Field trip may be required; cost to be defrayed by student. Examination of sedimentary rocks and sedimentary basins that form near plate boundaries.


6377: Space Geology
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Planetary bodies and satellites in the solar system, meteorites, asteroids, comets, impact cratering, and shock metamorphism.


6380: Sequence Stratigraphy
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: GEOL 3350 or consent of instructor. Subdivision of basin fills into genetic packages, lithostratigraphic, chronostratigraphic, biostratigraphic, seismostratigraphic and sedimentological bases for correlation, mapping of facies and stratigraphic prediction.


6382: Plate Tectonics
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: GEOL 3345 and GEOL 3350. The historical development of the plate tectonic theory and its seismological basis; kinematics of plate motion, geometry, and evolution of plate mosaics; geologic analysis of the structure and history of plate boundaries and ancient orogenic belts.


6385: Introduction to ArcInfo GIS
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Utilization of ArcInfo Geographic Information Systems to capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, integrate and display all forms of geographically referenced information.


6386: Igneous Petrogenesis and Plate Tectonics
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: GEOL 3371 and GEOL 3335. Major element, trace element and radiogenic characteristics of magmas generated in different tectonic settings, processes responsible for chemical diversity of magmas, and petrogenetic models for magmatism in terms of global tectonic processes.


6387: Reservoir Geophysics
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Reservoir characterization using geophysical methods, including time-lapse seismic and permanently-instrumented reservoirs.


6388: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of instructor. Introduction to Geographic Information Systems used in management, analyses and graphical presentation of spatial data set.


6389: Geographic Information Systems for Geologists
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: GEOL 6388 or consent of instructor. Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS, ArcInfo, Spatial Analyst, 3-D Spatial Analyst) in geology, geophysics, geohazards, hydrology, environmental geosciences, petroleum geology and geophysics.


6391: Seismic Modeling (also ECE 6391)
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: graduate standing in NSM or Engineering, or consent of instructor. Use of ray theory, finite difference, finite element, and pseudo-spectral analysis techniques as well as scaled physical modeling in simulating seismic wave propagation. Emphasis on understanding wave phenomena for hydrocarbon exploration.


6392: Migration of Seismic Data (also ECE 6392)
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: graduate standing in NSM or Engineering, or consent of instructor. Covers methods for processing seismic data to obtain a picture of the subsurface in both two and three dimensions.


6393: Three-Dimensional Seismic Exploration I
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: GEOL 4330 or equivalent. Interpretation of the spatial component of three-dimensional seismic data in geologic structure and stratigraphy with emphasis on hydrocarbon exploration.


6394: Three-Dimensional Seismic Exploration II
Cr. 3 (3-0). Prerequisite: GEOL 4330 or equivalent Interpretation of the amplitude component of three-dimensional seismic data in predicting lithology and hydrocarbons. Correlation with logs, AVO, impedance inversion and reservoir characterization.


6397: Selected Topics in Geology
Cr. 3 per semester or more by concurrent enrollment. (3-0). Prerequisite: consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. Current topics in geology and geophysics.


6399:6699:6999:7399:7699:7999: Master's Thesis
Cr. 3, 6 or 9 per semester.


7320: Seismic Velocity
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: GEOL 7333. Factors governing seismic velocities in earth materials, methods of measuring velocity, and velocity inversion techniques needed to determine earth parameters; applications of velocity data to exploration geophysics.


7321: Multicomponent Seismic Processing
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: GEOL 7333 and GEOL 7341, or consent of instructor. Multicomponent seismic acquisition techniques, multicomponent and converted-wave processing, vector prestack depth migration.


7322: Seismic Inversion: Current Concepts
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: GEOL 7332 or GEOL 7333, or consent of instructor. Applied mathematical concepts and geophysical applications of two and three dimensional inversion of seismic data, emphasizing its applications in hydrocarbon.


7323: Borehole Geophysics
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: Consent of instructor. Links borehole data to surface geophysical data. Rock physics, petrophysics, borehole seismics including VSP, borehole gravity and electromagnetics, well-logging methods.


7330: Potential Field Methods of Geophysical Exploration
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: MATH 3363 or consent of instructor. Theory of gravitational and magnetic fields; gravity and magnetic instruments and field procedures; reduction and quantitative interpretation of gravity and magnetic data.


7333: Seismic Wave and Ray Theory
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: MATH 3321 or consent of instructor. Fundamental concepts and foundations of wave and ray theory with implications for the processing of seismic data.


7334: Survey of Field Procedures in Noise Reduction
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: MATH 3364 and GEOL 7333, or consent of instructor. Field procedures for noise reduction; digital and analog filtering of seismic data; Fourier transforms, convolution, auto-correlation, cross-correlation, and deconvolution; application to exploration problems.


7337: Wave-theoretical Seismic Processing 1
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Objectives, strategies, strengths and limitations of current seismic reflection data processing.


7338: Wave-theoretical Seismic Processing 2
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Wave theoretical principles, wavelet estimation, multiple-attenuation, migration and migration-inversion.


7341: Geophysical Data Processing
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: MATH 3363 or consent of instructor. Principles and methods in processing of geophysical data, particularly those in discrete form, with emphasis on sampling theory, Fourier analysis, model fitting, and image processing.


7366: Geophysics of Plate Margins
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: GEOL 4330. A study of the use of geophysical measurements (e.g., gravity, heat flow, seismic refraction, etc.) in interpreting the evolution of past and present plate margins.


8198:8398:8498:8698:8798:8898:8998: Doctoral Research
Cr. 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, or 9 per semester. Prerequisites: consent of instructor and approval of chair.


8199:8299:8399:8499:8599:8699:8999: Doctoral Dissertation
Cr. 1-9 per semester. Prerequisite: admission to candidacy as a doctoral student. Doctoral dissertation work in progress.