Graduate Program, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, 310 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612-624-1333; fax: 612-625-3819)

The modern earth sciences are a remarkable synthesis of the physical and biological sciences. They are at the forefront of inquiry into and solutions of most of the major issues involving the global environment: climate, oceans, freshwater in all its forms, natural resources, and natural disasters. Like no other field, they integrate all the systems, from surface to great depth, from physics to chemistry to biology, and over all of geologic time and all geographic scales. The program includes the fields of structural geology, tectonics, petrology, hydrogeology, geomorphology, sedimentology, surface processes, geochemistry, biogeochemistry, biogeology, chemical oceanography, mineralogy, mineral and rock magnetism, rock and mineral physics, geodynamics, seismology, geostatistics, planetary geology, and geophysics and applied geophysics. Students may accommodate other areas of interest such as engineering geology, environmental geology, materials science, soil science, and paleoecology by choosing a minor or supporting field from outside the program.

The minor is established individually with approval by the graduate studies committee.