"Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice." - Will Durant
The responsible development and continued use of our natural resources is of key concern for the 21st Century. The geosciences provide expertise in water, energy, building materials, and ores (minerals and metals). Modern society does not function without vast quantities of those resources. Citizens educated and trained, both technically and in terms of policy management, is crucial to sustainability. Our department has several research and teaching programs that address these needs. In the broad field of energy, our program is focused on training of graduates students through classes and research dedicated to the exploration for and responsible development of petroleum, both for conventional and unconventional resources. Petroleum geology is broadly interdisciplinary, requiring the integration of several fields: sedimentology, stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, structural geology, organic geochemistry, petrophysics, reflection geophysics, seismic interpretation, thermal modeling and fluid migration.
Similarly, economic geology is broadly interdisciplinary, requiring integration across petrology, stratigraphy, structural geology, tectonics, geochemistry, geophysics, thermal modeling and fluid migration. Research in this field is currently collaborative and primarily driven by faculty in the petrology group.