Earth & Environment

• CAS EE 395: Sustainability Science: Earth House Practicum 1
  Learn and live sustainability through theory and practice in BU's Earth House. Explore and enact options to enhance sustainability through technology, policy and behavioral change. Propose specific actions toward achieving the longer-term goal of a carbon-neutral Earth House.
• CAS EE 396: Sustainability Science: Earth House Practicum 2
  Learn and live sustainability through theory and practice in BU's Earth House. Explore and enact options to enhance sustainability through technology, policy and behavioral change. Propose specific actions toward achieving the longer-term goal of a carbon-neutral Earth House.
• CAS ES 105: Crises of Planet Earth
  After covering the origin of the universe, earth and life, the course examines two topics: natural hazards, including earthquakes and volcanoes; and human impacts on Earth, including climate change, ozone depletion, pollution, and increasing demands on mineral and energy resources. Carries natural science divisional credit (with lab) in CAS. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Quantitative Reasoning I, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Scientific Inquiry I
  • Quantitative Reasoning I
  • Research and Information Literacy
• 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. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Quantitative Reasoning I, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Scientific Inquiry I
  • Quantitative Reasoning I
  • Research and Information Literacy
• 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. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking.
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  • Scientific Inquiry I
  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Critical Thinking
• CAS ES 144: Introduction to Oceanography
  Examines the physical, geological, chemical, and biological processes that govern that oceans with a focus on how the ocean is impacted by and also moderates 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. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Ethical Reasoning.
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  • Scientific Inquiry I
  • Ethical Reasoning
• CAS ES 300: Earth's Rocky Materials
  Utilizing an Earth Systems approach, this course begins with the mineral phases of the core and mantle. Crustal mineralogy and petrology follow, examining how minerals and the rocks that contain them are produced by magmatic, metamorphic, hypothermal, and surface processes. Weekly two-hour labs and a required field trip. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Quantitative Reasoning I.
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  • Scientific Inquiry II
  • Quantitative Reasoning I
• 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
  An introductory course to the science of hydrology and its relation to issues concerning water as a resource, a hazard, and an integral component of the Earth's climatic, biological, and geological systems. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Quantitative Reasoning I, Teamwork/Collaboration.
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  • Scientific Inquiry I
  • Quantitative Reasoning I
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• 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 Ni?o, terrestrial extinctions.
• 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.
• 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. Also offered as CAS GE 483.
• 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.

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