Earth Sciences

Overview

The Department of Geography and Earth Sciences offers Earth Sciences graduate students the opportunity to pursue both applied and academic research through access to extensive field, laboratory, and computing facilities.

Areas of Research

The Earth Sciences faculty offer courses and are active in research areas that include surface and groundwater hydrology, vadose zone processes, geochemistry, marine geology and volcanology, biogeochemistry, mineralogy, structural geology, applied geophysics, remote sensing, soil science, Quaternary geology, surficial processes, fluvial processes, depositional environments, biodiversity, landscape ecology, urban ecology, sustainability, forestry, clastic and carbonate sedimentology, basin analysis, stratigraphy, coastal geology, paleoecology, macro- and micropaleontology, environmental geology, applied climatology, global fire modeling, biogeophysical modeling, climate model evaluation, terrestrial carbon cycle, aerosol physics and chemistry, air quality, renewable energies, numerical weather prediction, severe weather, tropical meteorology, and environmental epidemiology.

Program Objectives

The Earth Sciences program of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is designed to address a range of student needs and to be completed in two years of full-time study. Graduates of the program will employ their expertise in a wide variety of activities and will be prepared for careers such as environmental consultants, geologists in the energy and mining industries, regulators and applied practitioners in governmental agencies, and earth science teachers in secondary schools. The M.S. in Earth Sciences also prepares students for admission to traditional Geology, Atmospheric, Earth, and Environmental Sciences Ph.D. programs, as well as interdisciplinary Ph.D. programs such as Infrastructure and Environmental Systems.