Courses

• CAS ES 333: Earth Surface Processes
  Evolution of Earth's landscapes, including modification associated with climate change, tectonic processes, glacial & periglacial geomorphology, and physical & chemical weathering; implications for understanding landscape and climate evolution on Mars. Three hours lecture, two hours lab, occasional field trips.
• 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.
• CAS ES 483: Geodynamics II: Fluids and Fluid Transport
  Large- and small-scale phenomena in oceanic, atmospheric, and landsurface fluids. Properties of gases and liquids; surface body forces; statics; flow analysis; continuity and momentum conservation. Darcy's Law; potential, open channel, and geostrophic flow; dimensional analysis; diffusion, turbulence.
• CAS ES 491: Directed Study in Earth Sciences
  Individual instruction and directed research of a selected topic.
• CAS ES 492: Directed Study in Earth Sciences
  Individual instruction and directed research of a selected topic.
• CAS ES 514: Dynamic Landsurface Hydrology
  Land surface hydrology with emphasis on the unsaturated zone. Development and applications of physics governing transport of water, vapor, and heat in soils and the near surface atmosphere. Effects of vegetation, topography, and water table on runoff, evapotranspiration, and recharge. (Offered alternate years.)
• CAS ES 515: Transport Processes in Soils
  Focus on understanding the basic mechanisms by which gas, water, and solutes are transported in soils. Students learn how to quantify soil transport processes using mathematical models that have important applications to a wide array of environmental and hydrological problems.
• CAS ES 533: Quantitative Geomorphology
  Quantitative analyses of surface processes that lead to landform evolution and landscape change. Emphasizes study of analytical techniques in understanding specific depositional and erosional processes; models of global landscape change; tectonic and climatic geomorphology.
• CAS ES 534: Ice-Age Systems
  Paleo-evironmental analyses of global climate change during cold-Earth periods, from Pre-Cambrian Snowball Earth to the last deglacial cycle; discussion of geochemical and geophysical proxies used in climate reconstructions. Readings from primary literature; occasional field trips. (Offered alternate years.)
• CAS ES 539: Coral Reef Dynamics: Shallow Waters, Deep Time
  Tropical reefs-- diverse, complex, and ancient-- exhibit lawful cycles of growth, degradation, and regeneration. Explore these through observations on the Belize Barrier Reef in fossil reef environments and through laboratory experiments. Insights are applied to reef conservation in today's changing world. Also offered as CAS BI 539.
• CAS ES 543: Estuaries and Nearshore Systems
  Physical and ecological processes interacting in estuarine and nearshore environments, including salt marshes, beaches, lagoons, deltas, and in wave- and tide-dominated regimes. Lectures complemented by extensive field work oriented toward individual and group research projects.
• CAS ES 545: Tropical Oceanography of the Caribbean Sea
  In-depth treatment of physical, biogeochemical, geological, and biological oceanography of the Caribbean, oriented toward development of research project to be fulfilled during ES 546. BU and SEA faculty jointly teach. Taught in Woods Hole as part of BUMP Marine Semester.

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