About the Major

The Earth and Environmental Geoscience major offers content and skills relevant for today’s issues -- and a lot of fun.

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Earth and Environmental Geoscience Department

Geoscience is a dynamic, interdisciplinary field that studies the world around, under, and over us — rivers, climate, and planets as well as rocks, mountains, earthquakes, and more — and is highly relevant for providing answers for today’s needs and challenges. The major at W&L is flexible enough that you can take courses in several different areas of geosciences, from geophysics and tectonics to oceanography and climate change, GIS and remote sensing to hydrogeology and geomorphology.

Through your requirements, you learn

  • subject content
  • field, lab, and computer skills
  • scientific writing skills
  • presentation skills

Through additional opportunities, you can experience

  • research experiences, including a thesis
  • attending scientific conferences (supported by the Department of Earth and Environmental Geoscience)
  • an intensive Spring Term regional course for majors with 2- to 4-weeks in the field at a location such as the Grand Canyon, Iceland, New Zealand, or Greece (these trips are highly subsidized by the Department of Earth and Environmental Geoscience)
  • learn about different career paths