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Geology
at the University of Cincinnati
The Geology Department has
three principal goals for its undergraduate program:
1 to train geoscientists capable of solving scientific
and societal problems
2 to help students develop intellectual capabilities
to conceptualize, abstract, and analyze geologic problems
3 to develop in students an appreciation for scientific
methods.
Field trips are an integral part of the program and we not only routinely
take students throughout the tri-state area, but to Iceland, Alaska, British
Columbia, and New England, as well as throughout the eastern USA from
the upper peninsula of Michigan to the Carolinas.
We regard the Geology majors' field experience as a unique and
vital asset of the College. Indeed,
the College used Professor's Tom Lowell's Glacial Field Methods trip to
Alaska in August 2001 in a wide-reaching campaign to advertise and promote
its undergraduate programs.
In the early years a small group of scholars established excellent
programs in geomorphology, tectonics and structural geology, petroleum
and sedimentary geology, and paleontology.
Since then the geology department has continued to grow and to
keep pace with the rapidly changing field it represents.
In the 1970's the addition of more faculty and modern, well-equipped
laboratories allowed the department of geology to expand its course offerings
at both the undergraduate and graduate level. As a result, the number of students annually receiving Baccalaureate,
Masters and Doctoral degrees increased. Current programs offered by the department
are designed to address the vital issues of today that involve geological
information and require geological insight. Environmental and resource issues as well
as research into theoretical aspects of geology form the basis for our
undergraduate and graduate curriculum.
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Cincinnati lies in an area of considerable geological interest with
a variety of features that have attracted worldwide attention over the
years. It borders the Ohio River, formed as a
meltwater channel during the Pleistocene Ice Age to drain off water
from the huge melting ice sheets that extended from the Hudson Bay area
in Canada as far south as Cincinnati.
The glacial deposits left behind form much of the Ohio landscape
to the north. Underlying these deposits are layers of
richly fossiliferous limestone and shale bedrock formed in shallow seas
during the Ordovician Period of geologic time.
Below the Ordovician and other Paleozoic sedimentary rock lies
a basement of igneous and metamorphic rock that is only now being explored
by seismic means. Results
to date indicate the presence of ancient fault zones that may be related
to the original formation of the North American continent.
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