Geology and Related Earth Sciences
This program examines mineral resources, including exploration techniques and processes which form reserves of oil, metals, and minerals. While studying active faulting, the fossilizing of animals and plants, and reconstructing how they lived, paleontologists use the fossils in sedimentary rock to determine the age of the rock. Understanding earth processes from oceans and rivers to the deep crust and mantle, including surface water and groundwater quality, rocks and minerals, geochemistry, and processes of the formation of rocks are the focuses of this field. All this information is put together to help with earthquake prediction, hazard assessment and study of recent earthquakes. Satellites and space probes provide new data about the geology and history of the earth and other planets, preserved in layers of rock. Geologists use these layers to develop a chronological record of earth’s climate, mountain building, and the history of life. Where the surface of the earth has been bent or broken by immense tectonic forces, geologists analyze the deformed rocks to determine the history of those events.
Degrees Offered: M.S., Ph.D.
Required Standardized Test: GRE
Application Deadlines: Fall: Feb. 1, Spring: Sept. 15
Graduate Program Director:
Paula Noble, noblepj@unr.edu