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Friday Earth Sciences Talk

Prof. Ruud Schotting (Environmental Hydrogeology), teaching math to our first-year students for several years.

Note that the Talk will be in a different than usual building/room!

Often complex hydrogeological phenomena can be analyzed and elucidated by using simple mathematics. There also exist extremely simple mathematical problems that appear to have an excessively complex solution or even have no solution at all…! In this FEST lecture examples of both of the aforementioned types of problems will be given. Two rather complex hydrogeological problems will be discussed and analyzed using simple mathematics: the dynamics of a fresh- saltwater interface in the subsurface and the unorthodox behavior of a contaminant plume in groundwater.

Both problems appear to have a very simple and elegant solution. The mathematics used to obtain these solutions will be presented such that nobody in the audience will get lost, and moreover it will be interlaced by funny side-stories and facts. In addition educational aspects of mathematics in the UU Earth Sciences curriculum will be discussed.

With the Friday Earth Sciences Talks (FEST) we intend to bring the departments of Earth Sciences and Physical Geography together. The aim is to present (mostly) Utrecht-based Earth Sciences in an accessible way in order i) to stay familiar with each other’s work across disciplines and ii) to help (in particular MSc.) students in their orientation on possible graduation specialisations and future careers. Alumni are also invited.