The Field

Geology is the scientific discipline that studies the Earth. As geologists, we seek to better understand the components and architecture that make up Planet Earth, the processes that constantly change and shape the Earth we live on, the socio-economic challenges that these changes present to sustainability of life and human society, and the history of the Earth through geologic time from the origin of the Solar System to the present and even into the future.

Geology is a broad field, with interests ranging from climate science, coastal processes, Earth's interior, global change, landscape processes, minerals and rocks, life environments & evolution, natural hazards such as earthquakes and volcanoes, ocean science, tectonics, water science, and more.

Geologists employ a wide array of technical skills, including diverse field observations & data collection, image interpretation, computer-based mapping, GIS, laboratory-based chemical & physical analysis tools, mathematical modeling, programming and data analysis, to name a few.

Regardless of specialization and career path, geologists commonly apply their learning in the following ways:

to interpret Earth’s systems, their interrelationships, and effects on each other.
to comprehend the scale and magnitude of deep time, the impact of different time scales on geologic processes, and time’s relationship to major geological and biological events in the geologic record.
to recognize key surface processes and their connection to geological features and possible natural and man-made hazards.
to analyze and interpret the chemical and mechanical processes that are involved within each stage of the Rock Cycle.
to analyze and interpret plate tectonic and deformation processes, the relationship to Earth’s structure, and the resultant geological structures and natural hazards.
to analyze and interpret the chemical and mechanical processes that are involved in the Water Cycle and important aspects related to water being a natural resource.
to relate the distribution of natural resources to geological processes, explain how natural resources are formed, used, and extracted, and understand their relative availability.
to analyze and explain the Earth’s changing climate over various time scales and analyze the environmental, social, and geological impacts of these changes.