ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT:
MISSION STATEMENTWe use Earth’s history, environment, and physical processes to teach creative and critical thinking and to develop an understanding of Earth Systems as a basis for rational societal action. We foster scientifically literate, broadly educated students with quantitative skills who understand subtle connections between disciplines in an environmentally stressed world. We develop new knowledge in the geosciences and transmit that knowledge to students, the public, and the broad scientific community via our teaching and writing.
We expect our students to graduate with skills in scientific observation, experimental design, and interpretation of experimental results and observations pertinent to:
- Understanding roughly 4.6 * 109 years of Earth history and the physical processes which lead to Earth’s current state
- Understanding and recognizing the evolution and interplay of species, landforms, and environmental systems
- Lifelong education, learning, and appreciation for geological and interdisciplinary research
- Appreciating the fundamental beauty of a complex Si-O-Al-Fe dominated system that
- via the latent heat of crystallization, supports our magnetosphere and modulates solar input thereby providing for second order attributes such as air, water, and fire
- via the expulsion of byproducts from radioactive decay, drives Earth’s physical-chemical state, deep systems, orogenic processes, and morphology of the surface
- via the simple interplay of heat, water, and a few cations, supports the biofilm (that C-O-H infected layer, less than 20 km thick, also known as the green slime)
- comes full-circle in that it seeks a minimum energy configuration, while obeying a principle of least-work, much like geologists.
How do we do this? Take a look at our courses, research, and facilities.
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Layout and Design by Brian W. Collins, updates and current content by Aaron Deskins ©2005/2006
