Geomorphology
Quantitative examination of processes that shape Earth's surface. Introduction to fluvial, hillslope, and glacial mechanics. Essentials of weathering, soil formation, runoff, erosion, slope stability, sediment transport, and river morphology. Landscape evolution in response to climatic and tectonic forcing. Application of terrestrial theory to planetary surfaces. Additional instruction in geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing analysis, field measurement techniques, and numerical modeling of surface processes. Students taking the graduate version complete different assignments.
Fall 2004 · Surface Processes and Landscape Evolution
Topics
- Introduction, Geomorphic Systems
- I. Flow Mechanics
- I. Flow Mechanics and II. Alluvial Channels
- III. Flow Around Bends
- IV. Sediment Transport
- V. Alluvial Profiles
- VI. Erosional Channel Networks
- VII. Bedrock Channels
- VII. Bedrock Channels and VIII. Hillslope Evolution
- VIII. Hillslope Evolution
- VIII. Hillslope Evolution and IX. Mass Wasting
- IX. Mass Wasting
- Climate-Tectonic Interactions
Prerequisites & course information
Subject meets with 12.463 Prereq: ( Calculus I (GIR) , Physics I (GIR) , and 12.001 ) or permission of instructor Acad Year 2027-2028: U (Fall) Acad Year 2028-2029: Not offered 3-3-6 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2004
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.