Information and Departmental Plan of Study
The intellectual excitement of modern geosciences is fueled by our exploration of the dynamic forces and delicate balances that mold our planet and have rendered it conducive to life for much of its history. Our landscape is continually reshaped by the movement of cold continents atop the hot, viscous mantle, and our lives are altered by the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that attend their collision. Rocks that cover Earth's surface sink to great depths and transform under enormous temperatures and pressures, perhaps to be uplifted as mountains and exposed to future generations by the forces of erosion. The ocean and atmosphere engage in a continuous and complex dialogue that controls Earth's climate. Chemical reactions operating within microorganisms and on a variety of mineral and other natural surfaces are integrated into large geochemical fluxes, which distribute the resources needed for life, and life in turn alters these fluxes. This process operates within the framework of biological evolution, in which diverse organisms appear, evolve, and vanish, sometimes leaving a transfigured world in their wake. All of these processes influence our daily lives in profound and surprising ways.
Many of the great challenges to humanity, today and in the future, involve processes that are studied by Earth scientists, leading to a rapidly increasing role for the field in issues of environmental regulation and public policy. A background in the Earth sciences is an essential component of contemporary education. Practicing geoscientists study nature both in the field and in the lab. To an ever-increasing degree, they must quantify observations with the aim of not only describing the past but also predicting the future of our planet, often with the aid of rigorous laboratory and field experiments, and intensive computation and modeling. The diversity of processes that characterize Earth as a whole requires geosciences to be an extraordinarily interdisciplinary field with direct connections to mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. As a result of these connections, the geosciences department frequently draws students from many backgrounds. Many of our most successful graduates begin their undergraduate careers in subjects ranging from physics to English. The Department of Geosciences (link is external)(link is external) welcomes this intellectual variety, and our undergraduate program allows flexibility while stressing the importance of a sound understanding of the basic sciences.
Prerequisites
Prerequisites for declaring the geosciences concentration vary by track, but all require MAT 104, COS 126, and either GEO 202 or GEO 203.
The Microbiology (MB), Environmental Geochemistry (EC), and Oceans, Atmosphere, and Climate (OA) tracks all require GEO 202. The Geology and Earth History (GE) and Geophysics (GP) tracks require GEO 203.
By the end of junior year, students in every specialization must take either GEO 422 or ORF 245.
If a student meets one set of prerequisites but would like to switch specializations, accommodations can be made with a member of the Undergraduate Work Committee (UWC).