Anderson, 2003

From GeoMod

Anderson, R.S., 2003. Introducing Earth Sciences Students to Modeling Using MATLAB Exercises, Eos Trans. AGU, 84(46), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract ED31C-1175, 2003.

While we subject our students to math and physics and chemistry courses to complement their geological studies, we rarely allow them to experience the joys of modeling earth systems. Given the degree to which modern earth sciences relies upon models of complex systems, it seems appropriate to allow our students to develop some experience with this activity. In addition, as modeling is an unforgivingly logical exercise, it demands the student absorb the fundamental concepts, the assumptions behind them, and the means of constraining the relevant parameters in a problem. These concepts commonly include conservation of some quantity, the fluxes of that quantity, and careful prescription of the boundary and initial conditions. I have used MATLAB as an entrance to this world, and will illustrate the products of the exercises we have worked. This software is platform-independent, and has a wonderful graphics package (including movies) that is embedded intimately as one-to-several line calls. The exercises should follow a progression from simple to complex, and serve to introduce the many discrete tasks within modeling. I advocate full immersion in the first exercise. Example exercises include: growth of spatter cones (summation of parabolic trajectories of lava bombs); response of thermal profiles in the earth to varying surface temperature (thermal conduction); hillslope or fault scarp evolution (topographic diffusion); growth and subsidence of volcanoes (flexure); and coral growth on a subsiding platform in the face of sealevel fluctuations (coral biology and light extinction). These exercises can be motivated by reading a piece in the classical or modern literature that either describes a model, or better yet serves to describe the system well, but does not present a model. I have found that the generation of movies from even the early simulation exercises serves as an additional motivator for students. We discuss the models in each class meeting, and learn that there are many ways to accomplish the exercise, some more efficient than others. One of the more satisfying outcomes of this teaching is that a community of modelers is born, all speaking the same language. The networking among these students well after the end of the class greatly increases the leverage of the class as a learning experience.