Courses

• CAS EN 593: Studies in Literature and the Arts
  Topic for Spring 2016: Films of Steven Spielberg. Intensive study of films by Steven Spielberg and some of the novels he adapted for the screen. Topics include: the blockbuster mentality, childhood sentimentalities, and made-to-order visionary experience. Weekly screenings. Also offered as CAS CI 548.
• CAS EN 594: Studies in Literature and the Arts
  Topic for Spring 2016: The Sister Arts. Explores intimate but conflicted relations between word and image in western culture. Centers on case studies, from ancient Greece to modern America, that illustrate the means by which artists and writers have attempted to combine showing and telling. Also offered as CAS AH 598.
• 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 107: Introduction to Climate and Earth System Science
  Introduction to the Earth as an integrated system composed of interacting biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere subsystems. Major themes include earth system stability, instability and capacity for change on all time scales, including human-induced climate change. Carries natural science divisional credit (with 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 191: Freshman Climate Science Seminar 1
  Climate change seminar for students at the freshman level.
• CAS ES 192: Freshman Climate Change Seminar 2
  Climate change seminar for students at the freshman level.
• 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 305: Rock Deformation and Structure
  Foundations of rock deformation and structural geology in a plate tectonics context. Emphasizes identification and analysis of rock structures in hand sample and in the field, collection and interpretation of 2D and 3D structural data, and synthesis of geologic histories.
• 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 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 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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