In December of the third year, Part II students spend a week in Greece, mainly looking at the effects of active lithospheric extension.
Based upon recent research by members of the department, this trip is designed to reproduce research-level fieldwork to understand regions of tectonic activity. In addition to examining the fault systems that produce major earthquakes, students also learn how to use sedimentological and palaeontological information to estimate the rates of fault motion, and conversely how that deformation controls the distribution of sedimentary facies and ecological niches. Additionally, a suite of varied and recent igneous rocks provides the opportunity to examine the interactions between tectonic activity and magmatism. During this trip students learn the principles behind how to estimate the locations, magnitudes, and approximate recurrence intervals of major earthquakes, which between them form the basis of earthquake hazard assessment.