The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
offers programs of study and research in the basic Earth sciences;
in geology, the science of the solid Earth, in geochemistry, devoted
to understanding the chemistry of the solid Earth and natural waters;
in hydrogeology, the study of the role of groundwater in geologic
processes and environmental hydrology; in geophysics, concerned
with a quantitative description of physical processes in the Earth
and planetary sciences; in physical oceanography, the study of
ocean currents and waves, and their role in climate; in atmospheric
sciences, particularly the dynamics of atmospheric circulation
both on earth and other outer planets and their satellites; and
in paleoecology and evolutionary biology, the study of the relationships
between organisms and their environment today and in the geologic
past.
The department's primary goals are basic
research and the training of scholars who will contribute to the
future of these disciplines. The programs emphasize basic principles
and concepts rather than applied aspects.
The flexible undergraduate program lets
the student, in consultation with a faculty adviser, devise a program
that is challenging, individual, and rigorous. The graduate program
develops skill in research through independent investigation under
the general guidance of one or more members of the faculty, backed
up by relevant course work. The department gives particular emphasis
to the integration of experimental investigation, theoretical calculation,
and quantitative field observations.
