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Numerous critical challenges facing current and future generations are rooted in Earth Sciences. Humanity's ability to responsibly manage the environment, along with society's need to comprehend resource availability and development, depends on grasping geologic timescales and Earth's processes that shape rock, air, and water. At the University of New Mexico's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, education and scientific exploration of Earth, its atmosphere, water systems, celestial bodies, and our solar system form the core of our work.
The Department provides an extensive and growing selection of introductory and intermediate courses for undergraduates curious about our planet's fascinating systems (including an Earth Sciences Minor option). Undergraduate curricula focus on building comprehensive knowledge across Earth and Planetary Science disciplines, with research opportunities available for upper-level students in specialized areas. Graduate studies encompass climatology and paleoclimatology, crystallography and materials science, environmental geology, geochemistry, geomorphology, geophysics, geodynamics, geospatial analysis, hydrology, various petrology fields, paleontology (both invertebrate and vertebrate), mineralogy, paleomagnetism, planetary sciences, sedimentology, soils, stratigraphy, structural geology, tectonics, and volcanology.