Academic expertise. Research prowess. Student success.

There’s a whole world of discovery in the ground beneath your feet. From the shifting of tectonic plates to the eruption of volcanoes, learn about the Earth and all of the natural processes that have shaped it over time.

Department faculty, researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students pursue field, laboratory, experimental, and modeling studies of geological and environmental problems around the world. The department's excellent facilities and technical personnel support a range of methods and the department's ideal location also provides ready access to the many natural laboratories of Nevada, California and the western United States. Research specialties include Earth and planetary surface processes, geodynamics, volcanology, geochemistry, petrology, earthquakes and seismology, mineral and energy resources, hydrology and hydrogeology.

Recent news from the Department

A group of 29 people smile for a photo under a shady, leafy tree.

University revives National Geothermal Academy to meet growing workforce demand

A course this summer will focus on geothermal drilling techniques and safety

A group of people outside in a mountainous setting with blue skies and leafy trees behind them. They are all smiling for a photo, with some people standing on some fence railings in a second row.

Center for Land Surface Hazards receives Track II NSF funding

$15 million will employ interdisciplinary science to study dangerous natural hazards

Two people stand outside a building with the sign "American Innovative Materials."

New endowment gives economic geology program a boost

Proceeds from a land sale will support the Ralph J. Roberts Center for Research in Economic Geology