Earth Sciences

• CAS ES 101: The Dynamic Earth
  Introduction to the dynamic Earth, including plate tectonics, earthquake hazards and volcanic hazards, mountain-building processes; igneous, and metamorphic processes; surface processes, erosion, soil, and sediment formation; and hydrogeology. Interactions among the lithospheric, hydrospheric, atmospheric, and biospheric systems are emphasized. Three hours lecture, two hours lab, including field trips. Carries natural science divisional credit (with lab) in CAS.
• CAS ES 105: Environmental Earth Sciences
  Geological processes in environmental science; groundwater quantity and quality; geological resource supply and recovery; earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural hazards; landforms, climate, desertification, glaciation, and ocean circulation patterns. Three hours lecture, two hours lab, including field trips. Carries natural science divisional credit (with lab) in CAS.
• CAS ES 140: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Other Natural Disasters
  Explores the large natural events that affect us; examines their geologic causes, as well as their natural and human consequences. Topics include earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, impacts of extraterrestrial objects, andother near-surface disasters, with an emphasis on destructive solid-earth phenomena. Carries natural science divisional credit (without lab) in CAS.
• CAS ES 142: Introduction to Beach and Shoreline Processes
  Coastal processes including tidal currents, wave action, longshore transport, and estuarine circulation; barrier island and spit formation; study of beaches, dunes, and marshes; effects of tectonics, glaciers, and rivers on beaches and coastal morphology. Cape Cod field trip. Carries natural science divisional credit (without lab) in CAS.
• CAS ES 144: Oceanography
  Examines the physical, chemical, and biological processes by which the oceans serve as an agent to accelerate or moderate the pace of global change. Dynamic nature of the oceans on both a short- and a long-term scale is emphasized. Carries natural science divisional credit (without lab) in CAS.
• CAS ES 222: Mineralogy
  Introduction to mineral properties, chemistry, structure, and petrographic microscope. Minerals in Earth systems including the dynamic interior, surface, environment, and societal uses. Minerals as recorders of past Earth processes and conditions. Three hours lecture, three hours lab, field trip.
• CAS ES 301: Structural Analysis of Rocks
  Deformation of rocks and minerals, stress, strain; kinetic and dynamic analysis of folds, faults, joints, rock fabrics; regional settings of rock structures; interpretation of geological maps. Three hours lecture, three hours lab, and occasional field trips.
• CAS ES 302: History of Earth
  Introduction to earth history; origin of the earth and solar system; origin and evolution of life; mass extinctions; interpretation of the geological record of earth history; measurement of geological time; plate tectonics and the formation of mountains; continents and ocean basins. Three hours lecture, two hours lab, with occasional field trips.
• CAS ES 317: Introduction to Hydrology
  Introduction to the science of hydrology and to the role of water as a resource, a hazard, and an integral component of the Earth's climatic, biological, and geological systems.
• CAS ES 331: Sedimentology
  Properties and classification of clastic and carbonate sediments and sedimentary rock; processes that form, transport, and deposit sediments; environments of deposition; diagenesis; methods of analysis. Three hours lecture, three hours lab, and occasional field trips.
• CAS ES 333: Earth Surface Processes
  Evolution of Earth's landscapes. Topics include weathering rates, soil development, mass-movements and slope stability, tectonic geomorphology, glacial and periglacial geomorphology, and the effects of climate change on landform development. Three hours lecture, two hours lab.
• CAS ES 351: Paleoclimatology and Paleoceanography
  Examines causes and effects of climate change throughout Earth's history. Topics include ice age climates and glaciations; oceanic history; linkages between Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets; tectonic effects; ice-core, coral, and marine sediment records; El Niño, terrestrial extinctions.
• CAS ES 360: Geodynamics I
  (Meets with GRS ES 660.) Introduces basic physical principles of Earth's structure and dynamics. Driving mechanisms and plate motion; reflection, refraction seismology, magnetism, gravity and the Geoid, heat flow, tomography, mantle convection. Oceanic and continental lithosphere in active tectonic regions.
• CAS ES 371: Introduction to Geochemistry
  (Meets with GRS ES 671.) Chemical features of Earth and the solar system; geochemical cycles, reactions among solids, liquids, and gases; radioactivity and isotope fractionation; water chemistry; origins of ore deposits; applications of geochemistry to regional and global problems.
• CAS ES 401: Senior Independent Work
  
• CAS ES 402: Senior Independent Work
  
• CAS ES 423: Marine Biogeochemistry
  Oceanic nutrient and biogeochemical cycling in the context of the marine response to global change. Links between local and global scales are emphasized. Topics include oceanic productivity, iron limitation, and oceanic glacial-interglacial biogeochemistry. Three hours lecture, one hour discussion. (Offered alternate years.)
• CAS ES 424: Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology
  Recognition and interpretation of common igneous and metamorphic rocks, both in hand sample and in thin section; the relationships between rocks and the tectonic environments in which they formed. Three hours lecture, three hours lab, and occasional field trips.
• CAS ES 440: Marine Geology
  Examines the evolution of ocean basins and marginal seas, changes in structure and composition of ocean basin throughout the last billion years, and the contribution of oceanic geological processes to the chemistry and biochemistry of earth.
• CAS ES 443: Terrestrial Biogeochemistry
  The patterns and processes controlling carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Links between local and global scales are emphasized. Topics include net primary production, nutrient use efficiency, and biogeochemical transformation. Meets with CAS BI 443/643.

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