# Free self-paced course — Introduction to GMT for Geophysics (EarthScope)

**URL:** <https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/free-self-paced-course-introduction-to-gmt-for-geophysics-earthscope/6484>\
**Category:** Announcements\
**Created:** [August 28, 2026, 7:58pm UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/free-self-paced-course-introduction-to-gmt-for-geophysics-earthscope/6484 "2026-08-28T19:58:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Esteban82](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/esteban82/32/54_2.png) [@Esteban82](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/Esteban82)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 7:58pm UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/free-self-paced-course-introduction-to-gmt-for-geophysics-earthscope/6484/1 "2026-08-28T19:58:28Z")

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EarthScope Consortium is offering a free, asynchronous, self-paced course: **“Introduction to Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) for Geophysics”** (~30 hours).

No fixed schedule — work through it at your own pace, online, with just a computer and internet connection.

**Modules:**

1. Course Environment Introduction
2. Basic Coding
3. Introduction to GMT
4. GMT for Seismology
5. GMT for Geodesy
6. Advanced GMT

More info [here](https://www.earthscope.org/news/introduction-to-generic-mapping-tools-gmt-for-geophysics-self-paced-course-now-open/).

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**Author:** ![mkononets](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/mkononets/32/4029_2.png) [@mkononets](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/mkononets)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2026, 9:42am UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/free-self-paced-course-introduction-to-gmt-for-geophysics-earthscope/6484/2 "2026-08-29T09:42:36Z")

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Some remarks while going through the pre-course skills test.

NB: I’m not a geophysicist, but t’s been possible to understand the pre-course geophysical questions on my level - except Question 20 where my guess failed.

Question 16 answers do not make sense, as the command seems to be fully correct and downloads two earthquake events:

 ![Pre-course quiz question 16](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/uploads/gmt/original/2X/d/dc395d3ca8590013e7ffad58b3616434d62e292a.png)

question 14, the parameter `-F...` is incorrectly used. Also the output redirection character appears more than once on the command line. But the proposed answers do not make any sense:

 ![Pre-course quiz question 14](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/uploads/gmt/original/2X/a/a4368284a925d36a48547eec0b7777be1dcc0417.png)

Question 9, I thought these arguments are called options, but many of these are mandatory, not optional (unless my English fails me miserably). I would call these `command-line arguments` instead to avoid the suspected ambiguity:

 ![Pre-course quiz questions 9](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/uploads/gmt/original/2X/5/584ec151a0eed7b34a3b94aa2b07158960e364de.png)