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Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry
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Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry

Description

Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry concerns chemical and geochemical processes operating in a broad range of study areas: the oceans, the solid earth, the atmosphere, marine organisms, polar ice sheets, lakes, meteorites, and the solar system.

Areas of advanced study and research include the physical and inorganic chemistry of seawater; ocean circulation and mixing based on chemical and isotopic tracers; marine organic and natural products chemistry; geochemical interactions of sediments with seawater and interstitial waters; geochemistries of volcanic and geothermal phenomena; chemical exchanges between the ocean and the atmosphere; geochemical cycles of carbon, oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, and other elements; isotopic geochemistry of the solid earth and meteorites; atmospheric trace gas chemistry; paleoatmospheric composition recorded in polar ice cores, corals and sediments; and chemistry of lakes and other freshwater systems.

Studies are typically interdisciplinary and involve integration of chemical concepts with information about the physical, biological, or geological processes that influence natural systems. Students in the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry curricular group are encouraged to explore these links.

Program of Study

First-year students in the Marine Chemistry/Geochemistry program are required to enroll in the following core courses: SIO 210, SIO 260, and either SIO 240 or SIO 280. They should also expect to enroll in a variety of other courses as recommended by the student's faculty advisor, as well as to undertake some initial research activities. The interdisciplinary nature of research in marine and earth sciences is emphasized during this year; students are encouraged to take courses in several programs and even departments, and to select research problems of interdisciplinary character. By the end of the first year, thestudent should have selected an area of focus for their research activities, and have chosen a major professor.

 At the end of this first year students will take a Departmental examination focused largely on the materials taught in the core courses. As students advance into their second and third years they are still expected to take additional courses that are appropriate to their education and to their research focus, however they are also expected to make progress with their research, and to develop the independent research skills and program that will enable them to advance to Candidacy. After advancing to Candidacy (usually by the end of the third year), the student will be almost completely occupied with their dissertation research.

 

 

 
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