Introduction

 

The Department of Geology offers graduate work leading to a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Geology. The M.S. program requires a total of 30 semester hours of graduate credit including 4 semester hours for thesis research. The department enrolls approximately 10 new graduate students annually and has concentrated its efforts in two primary areas of inquiry -- applied geology and tectonics.

Financial assistance is available on a competitive basis in the form of graduate assistantships and departmental grants. Research assistantships are funded by faculty grants are also available. Many graduate students also take advantage of the part-time employment opportunities with government agencies and consulting firms in the immediate area.

The Department of Geology has facilities and laboratories for various types of research in engineering geology, geochemistry, hydrogeology, mineralogy, paleontology, petrology, sedimentology, and structural geology. In addition, the department maintains two thin-section laboratories, a map library, a mineral museum, and three on-campus groundwater wells.

Support equipment includes: Trimble-GPS equipment and software, X-ray diffractometer and related software, X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and related software, Atomic Absorption spectrometer, 12 channel enhanced seismometer, infrared spectrometer, gravimeter, and magnetometer. Students have access to two Sun workstations with ArcGIS, instructional PC laboratory with several Macintoshes, plus geologic (including ArcView) and word processing software.

Graduate Main Page

Graduate Program Page