Geodynamics
Geodynamics examines how the Earth's crust and mantle deform, taught through MIT's OpenCourseWare. The course works through the mechanics of rock and mineral behavior under stress, covering brittle fracture, elastic response, linear and nonlinear viscous fluids, and viscoelastic materials that combine solid and fluid behavior over geologic time. Lectures connect these rheological models to real processes: fault mechanics, mantle convection, lithospheric flexure, and the flow that drives plate tectonics. Materials include lecture notes, problem sets, and readings drawn from structural geology and continuum mechanics, aimed at students who already have a grounding in calculus and basic physics. The course does not chase a single narrative so much as build a toolkit, showing how the same mathematical framework describes a bending tectonic plate and a slowly creeping glacier. As MIT OpenCourseWare, all materials are free to access under a Creative Commons license with no certificate offered.