UES201 Homework Assignment Submission

Mayukh Nath Sr no - 09951 11.9.2013

Homework 1
Problem 1
Newton's law of universal gravitation can be used to calculate the mass of sun. Gravitational force of sun on earth is,
GM m r2

where M = mass of sun, m = mass of earth and r = distance of earth from sun. Also, centripetal force to sustain the revolution of earth is,
mv 2 r

Where, v = speed of earth in its orbit = 2r/T. (T is time period of revolution) Equating both, we have
GM = v2 r

M =

v2 r 4 2 r 3 = G GT 2

We have

So,

r = 1.5 1011 m, G = 6.67 1011 m3 kg 1 s2 and T 365.26 solar days = 365.25 24 3600 s = 3.156 107 s. M= 4 2 (1.5 1011 )3 kg = 2.01 1030 kg (6.67 1011 ) (3.156 107 )2

Problem 2

Stations that do not need FAC: 1, 6, 8 Stations where FAC is to be added: 2, 3, 4, 7 Stations where FAC is to be subtracted: 5, 9, 10

Problem 3 Problem 4
Free air correction of gravity for height h (in meter) above geoid is 0.308h mGal. Now if l = height of one oor, FAC at nth oor is 0.308.n.l mGal. To obtain l a graph is plotted between FAC and 0.308n (Figure 1). The slope of this graph is l. Table 1: Calculations for graph in Problem 4
n -0.308n (mGal/m) FAC (mGal)

0 3 6 9 10
10 l = 40.1 m.

0 -0.924 -1.848 -2.772 -3.080

0.99 -1.891 -5.817 -9.7 -11.263

From gure 1, it is clear that l 4.01 m. So, height of the building is

Now, FAC at base, outside the building, is 0.99 mGal. So, approximate height of the site is (0.99/ 0.308) m = 3.21 m i.e. the site is situated 3.21 m below the geoid.

Figure 1: Graph of FAC vs 0.308n and its linear t

Linear fit of the data
2

-2

FAC (mGal)

-4

-6

-8
Adj. R-Square 0.99406 Value Intercept 1.38218 4.01112 Standard Error 0.32087 0.15496

-10

-12

Slope

-3.5

-3.0

-2.5

-2.0

-1.5

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

-0.308n (mGal/m)

Latitude, = 19.10. So, gravity at geoid is

g () = gE (1 + sin2 + sin4 ) = = 9.78(1 + 5.28 103 sin2 19.10 + 2.35 105 sin4 19.10) ms2 9.786 ms2 = 9.786 105 mGal

Problem 5

Homework 2
Problem 1
250 km of spreading of the Gulf of California occured in 5 million years. Speed of spreading = (250/5106 ) km/year = 5105 km/year = 5 cm/year. In the question, no data is given regarding the length of the invidual regions of the crust. So, it cannot be exactly concluded whether the spreading was uniform or not. However, the following observations can be considered:
Spreading of Matuyama and Gilbert chron crusts occured through periods

of 1.8 and 1.7 million years respectively, which are almost the same. Also, length of these strips appear almost the same in the diagram. through periods of 0.8 and 0.7 million years respectively and also appear to be of similar lengths.

So is the case of Brunhes and Gauss chron crusts, which were formed

So if the given diagram is drawn to scale, it can be said that spreading was roughly uniform.

Problem 2
The spreading of sea oor starts at mid-ocean ridges. So, the crust near the ridges are the newest crusts and as we go farther from the ridges we encounter older crusts. Now, in the given diagram, it can be seen that a mid-ocean ridge runs almost through the middle of the Atlantic ocean. So, isochrones are symmetrically distibuted about this ridge. Howeverm in Pacic ocean, the midocean ridge is very close to the western border of North America. So, the eastern part of the crust formed at this ridge subducts below North American plate, while the other part spreads westward underneath the whole Pacic ocean. So, sea oor gets older as we move from eastern Pacic to western Pacic resulting the assymetric distribution of isochrones.

Problem 3
The oldest crust in the area of seperation of Australia and Antarctica is in light green in the diagram. So, the continents of Australia and Antarctica were seperated about 60-70 million years ago. This happened much after the seperation of South America and Africa, which occured about 100-120 million years ago.

Problem 5
Part 1
(a) The Hawaiian-Emperor hot spot has been active for 59.6 million years, as that is the age of the oldest island of the chain (Suiko). (b)

Problem 6
If I is the inclination and p is the corresponding paleo-latitude, then we know that
tan I I = = 2 tan p tan1 (2 tan p )

At 20o south of equator, p = 20o . I = tan1 (2 tan(20o )) = 36.1o . Presently, the continent is at equator, as it has drifted 200 north. So, presently inclination is 0o . So, Change in inclination = [0 (36.1o )] = 36.1o .

Problem 7
We have,
tan I p = = 2 tan p tan1 tan I 2

Using this between I and p relation, the following table is obtained. Table 2: Calculations for paleo latitude (Problem 7)
Time (mya) Inclination (deg) Paleo-latitude (deg)

300 250 190 160 140 80 60 0

-54 -56 -55 -50 -38 0 10 43

-34.5 -36.5 -35.5 -30.8 -21.3 0.0 5.0 25.0

From the plotted graph (gure 2) it is obseved that paleo-latitude of the area was roughly constant during the period 300-175 mya and after that it has 5

steadily increased. So, the area is part of a plate that moved in the east-west direction, maintaining a constant latitude till 175 mya. After that for some reason, the direction of movement of the plate changed and it started moving northwards. Also, it may be further concluded that the continent this area belongs to, became seperated from another continent about 175 mya and moved towards north. Figure 2: Plot of paleo-latitude vs time (Problem 7)
30

20

10

Paleo-latitude

-10

-20

-30

-40

-300

-250

-200

-150

-100

-50

Time w.r.t. present (Million years)