Modern Geology and environmental Earth sciences are really interdisciplinary fields and
in our department, we investigate this
from the ground up . . . from the bedrock,
that includes also the hydrosphere the
biosphere, where we live, and also the
atmosphere, and that's particularly
important because we're changing our
climate so significantly by what we're
putting into the atmosphere.
So, the cool thing about being a geologist is that you have all the tools that you need to
look back in time and understand how
things like the climate has changed and
use that information to understand how,
maybe, the Antarctic or Greenland ice
sheets may respond to climate warming in the future, but it's not just things like
glaciers that we can look at in the past,
we can also look at things deep in the
earth and understand how it can sculpt
our surface today.
Everything that humans are interested in in the natural world in terms of preservation
exploration management, it's connected to the solid earth in some way.
So one of the things I really love about my
research is the opportunity to spend a
lot of time outside doing field geology
both in places like here in Vermont and
around New England, but also in places
sort of far-flung like Mongolia and
Papua New Guinea.
So there's a real satisfying outdoor
component to the work, but then we bring samples home to the lab and then
there's a technical and analytical side.
To look at the mechanisms of interaction between Earth and humans, how do we impact our planet?
How is our planet impacting us? Geology, the Earth Science, is not only about Earth and we can go out
in the sky in space and look at the same
mechanisms on other planets.
In our department, we do a lot of research
that links observations of the solid earth
to the environmental issues that we
face as a society today, and that includes
climate change, that includes water quality issues, that includes earth hazards.
Did you know that ancient earthquakes 
are preserved in the rock record?
this black material is glass that was 
produced by friction during an earthquake.
We can actually pull this out and date it and find out when that earthquake happened.
We speak out on these issues, for example, in TV or radio interviews
to really make sure that the general public also knows what our findings are.
So, in Geoscience we
teach our students a whole lot of
transferable skills that are going to be
useful to them whether they go into
industry, academia, or consulting. They
learn how to gather data in the field,
they learn how to reduce data, then learn
how to write reports and they learn
how to present their findings to the public and to specialist audiences.
So our students, they learn all kinds of things in the geology department
that lets them go out and get jobs.
The other great thing about being a geology major is that it's actually a really rigorous science,
so your job as a geologist to observe the world around you and collect data and then quantitatively understand
what it all means together. You're gonna
be a really well-trained scientist and employers
will understand that and see that.
My favorite thing about this department is that it's actually a very tight-knit community, and
there are professors that we work very closely together, we all work on projects together, and
we know our students really well in this department.
My favorite thing about this department is probably how easy it is to communicate with all of the professors.
I love how helpful
everyone is.
I really like how open the faculty are to stop by.
I just love this small like homey feel of the geology department. You kind of, once you start spending time here, you get to know everyone and it really feels like a
a home where you can learn about awesome stuff.
I think my favorite thing about
the department is a sense of community.
I really love it because you go outside, and your labs ARE field trips.
I also found the geology department a
little too late. As a sophomore I made it
my minor instead of my major . . . totally
regret it . . . wish I was a geology major
because the department is just so great.
and we're lucky to be right in Burlington, which has many of its own perks: the lake and the mountains . . . we're surrounded
 
