Geological Sciences

Course focuses on understanding how the Environment Impacts Human Health.  Air quality and water quality from both natural and anthropogenic sources can have a wide array of adverse health effects.  We will examine a wide array of contaminants, their health effects, and potential solutions. 

This course provides an overview of current research at the world-renowned Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Various Lamont researchers will present their latest research in earth, environmental, and climate science, providing students a cross-section of research projects across the LDEO divisions. Students are expected to attend each class, and meaningfully participate in class discussion.

Global Warming will dominate civic discourse and inform economic, social, and governmental policies throughout the 21st century, in all walks of life. This course will cover the basics of climate science, anthropogenic global warming, proposed solutions and policy challenges facing society in response to our changing planet. This course will increase your confidence and ability to engage in public discourse on the subject of climate change, climate change solutions, and public policy concerning our collective future.

The trip is restricted to first-years and sophomores from Columbia College/General Studies, Barnard College, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Early application is advised, please visit the course website below for the application deadline. A spring-break excursion focused on the geology of Death Valley and adjacent areas of the eastern California desert. Discussion sessions ahead of the trip provide necessary background. Details at: https://eesc.columbia.edu/content/eesc-un1010.

This is a lab that complements EESC BC 1002 and focuses on analyzing and quantifying how the environment impacts human health. Air quality and water quality from both natural and anthropogenic sources can have a wide array of adverse health effects. We will perform labs that help you understand the myriad of potential contaminants, their health effects, and potential solutions.

This goal of the lab is to have students collect and analyze their own data. Class will begin by teaching students Excel and quantitative skills to prepare the students for data analysis. Each week students will then collect and analyze their own data. Students will collect samples both in the lab and the field with analyses occurring in the lab.

Prerequisites: none; high school science and math recommended, including the names and symbols of the chemical elements, the notation of simple compounds (e.g., CO2), and the reading of basic graphs.
The history of life on Earth, treated as one example of how a living planet works, and used to ask what other living worlds, past, future, or elsewhere, might be like. The course begins with the fundamentals of Earth system science: reservoirs, fluxes, residence times, feedbacks, and the long-term carbon cycle. It then follows the major intervals of Earth history as defined by life, including the origin of life, the rise of oxygen, Snowball Earth and the origin of animals, the greening of the land, and the mass extinctions, with emphasis on how evolutionary events changed the planet’s biogeochemical cycles and on the idea of Earth as a self-regulating system (Gaia). The final part draws on comparative planetology and exoplanet science to ask how unusual Earth is, taking up Mars, the ocean worlds of the outer Solar System, biosignatures, the Drake equation, the Fermi paradox, and the “Dark Forest” hypothesis. There are four required field trips.

Recommended preparation: high school chemistry and physics; and one semester of college science. Exploration of how the solid Earth works, today and in the past, focusing on Earth in the Solar system, continents and oceans, the Earth's history, mountain systems on land and sea, minerals and rocks, weathering and erosion, glaciers and ice sheets, the hydrological cycle and rivers, geochronology, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, energy resources. Laboratory exploration of topics through examination of rock samples, experimentation, computer data analysis, field exercises, and modeling. Columbia and Barnard majors should plan to take W2200 before their senior year to avoid conflicts with the Senior Seminar.

Prerequisites: high school algebra. Recommended preparation: high school chemistry and physics.

 Role of life in biogeochemical cycles, relationship of biodiversity and evolution to the physical Earth, vulnerability of ecosystems to environmental change; causes and effects of extinctions through geologic time (dinosaurs and mammoths) and today. Exploration of topics through laboratories, data analysis, and modeling. REQUIRED LAB: EESC UN2310. Students will be expected to choose a lab section during the first week of class from the options listed in the Directory of Classes. Co-meets with EEEB 2002

The centerpiece of this course is a field trip that will take place during Spring Break. During the term-time the class will meet before the trip to prepare for it and after the trip to synthesize what was learned and to create a field guide.

Prerequisites: EESC 2200 The Solid Earth System or EESC 2100 The Climate System; can be taken concurrently. 

Enrollment Restrictions & Priorities: Due to limited number of spaces, enrollment requires the instructor's permission. All students who want to take the course must email the instructors - srh17@columbia.edu and slg41@columbia.edu . Priority is given to junior and senior majors and minors in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia College and the School of General Studies, and Barnard Environmental Science majors and minors. Non-DEES and Barnard Environmental Science students have been able to enroll in the past with the instructor's permission. By necessity (number of van seats) the course is limited to 15 students.

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 16 students. One year of college-level science. Primarily for Environmental Majors, Concentrators and Minors. Lecture, laboratory and field study of regional forest types from upland to coast and from urban to rural, forest ecosystem services, impacts of land-use and climate change on forests, reconstruction of past forests, forest pests, forest fires and forest conservation (corridors).  Field trip sites for data collection may include:  maritime, pine barrens, eastern deciduous and NYC urban forests.   Format: lecture, student presentations, short labs, data collection/analysis and field trips (some on a weekend day in April in place of the week day meeting). 

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 16 students. One year of college-level science. Primarily for Environmental Majors, Concentrators and Minors. This class looks at the response of wildlife (birds and plants) to climate change and land-use issues from the end of the last glaciation to the present. Case study topics are: (1) land-use and climate change over time: a paleoenvironmental perspective, (2) environmental transformations: impact of invasive plants and birds and pathogens on local environments and (3) migration of Neotropical songbirds between their wintering and breeding grounds: land-use, crisis and conservation. We visit wildlife refuges along a rural-suburban-urban gradient in order to observe and measure the role refuges play in conservation.  Format: lecture, student presentations, short labs, data collection/analysis and field trips (some on a weekend day in April in place of the week day meeting). 

This course focuses on the ecology, geology, and sustainability of Bermuda. Students will explore the local flora, fauna, geology and hydrology of various habitats in the context of environmental change brought on by issues such as rising global temperatures, invasive species, and development.  Students will also look into sustainability issues, such as energy, drinking water, solid waste, and wastewater issues, some of which the country addresses in unique ways. The course will also contrast some of these topics with those in the NYC area and other subtropical and tropical islands.

Classes will meet during the spring semester at Barnard in preparation for a field trip to Bermuda for five days during spring break. 

Students and faculty will use the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) field station for both lodging and laboratory facilities.  BIOS will provide bus and boat-based transportation.  

The excursions to caves, volcanic and pink sand beaches, outcrops, rare plant habitats and bird conservation areas in addition to engagement with the local experts at BIOS will provide an authentic opportunity to study the natural history of and environmental threats to an offshore island compared to our local environment in NYC.  

Students will take detailed field notes in Bermuda. After returning from the trip, they will focus on one or two aspects of the field trip and research related issues in depth. Topics will include:  transportation, energy acquisition, electricity generation, wind energy, solar power, carbon capture and storage, drinking water, waste management, sewage treatment and disposal, biological conservation, ecological restoration, social & environmental justice, economy, and food supply. Students are also encouraged to compare issues in Bermuda with NYC and other islands. 

The final products of the semester will be a detailed field journal, a mini research project  with an annotated bibliography and a poster summarizing the results.

Pre-requisites Chem 1 and Calculus I ; Co-requisites Chemistry II (CHEM1404 or equivalent) and Calculus II (MATH UN2030 or equivalent)
By the end of this course, students will understand: The biogeochemical cycles driving the composition of trace gas and aerosol species that are both long- and short-lived in the atmosphere that influence climate by directly interacting with radiation (i.e. greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, CFCs, aerosols) and those that do so mainly by altering the concentrations of other gases (OH, NOx, etc.); The effects of these gas and aerosol species on climate and atmospheric composition; Climate mitigation strategies that are being considered in response to climate warming.

This course is designed for undergraduate students seeking a quantitative introduction to climate and climate change science. EESC V2100 (Climate Systems) is not a prerequisite, but can also be taken for credit if it is taken before this course.

Process-oriented introduction to the law and its use in environmental policy and decision-making. Origins and structure of the U.S. legal system. Emphasis on litigation process and specific cases that elucidate the common law and toxic torts, environmental administrative law, and environmental regulation through application and testing of statutory law in the courts. Emphasis also on the development of legal literacy, research skills, and writing.

Prerequisites: Required: at least a semester of calculus and physics; any 1000-level or 2000-level EESC course. Computer models are essential for understanding the behavior of complex natural systems in geosciences. This course is an introduction to writing computer models to simulate Earth processes. Students will learn methods for numerical modeling of a variety of geoscience topics, such as nonlinear systems of air chemistry, ocean currents, atmospheric dispersion, and more. Simulations will be created by learning to program with a user-friendly language (Python). Student learning will be facilitated through a combination of lectures, in-class exercises, homework assignments and a final project on a student-selected topic.

Guided, independent, in-depth research culminating in the senior thesis in the spring. Includes discussion about scientific presentations and posters, data analysis, library research methods and scientific writing. Students review work in progress and share results through oral reports. Weekly seminar to review work in progress and share results through oral and written reports.

Guided, independent, in-depth research culminating in the senior thesis in the spring. Includes discussion about scientific presentations and posters, data analysis, library research methods and scientific writing. Students review work in progress and share results through oral reports. Weekly seminar to review work in progress and share results through oral and written reports.

Guided, independent, in-depth research culminating in the senior thesis in the spring. Includes discussion about scientific presentations and posters, data analysis, library research methods and scientific writing. Students review work in progress and share results through oral reports. Weekly seminar to review work in progress and share results through oral and written reports.

Guided, independent, in-depth research culminating in the senior thesis in the spring. Includes discussion about scientific presentations and posters, data analysis, library research methods and scientific writing. Students review work in progress and share results through oral reports. Weekly seminar to review work in progress and share results through oral and written reports.

Guided, independent, in-depth research culminating in the senior thesis in the spring. Includes discussion about scientific presentations and posters, data analysis, library research methods and scientific writing. Students review work in progress and share results through oral reports. Weekly seminar to review work in progress and share results through oral and written reports.

Guided, independent, in-depth research culminating in the senior thesis in the spring. Includes discussion about scientific presentations and posters, data analysis, library research methods and scientific writing. Students review work in progress and share results through oral reports. Weekly seminar to review work in progress and share results through oral and written reports.

In this course, students develop and complete a one-semester independent research project in an area of Climate System Science. Each student works closely with a research Mentor, and the course experience for all students is coordinated with a course Instructor. This course fulfills the Capstone experience for the Climate System Science major in DEES. This course cannot be combined with one semester of Senior Seminar UN3901, which is designed as a 1-year course.

Prerequisites: Permission of the chair required. Does not provide major credit. Advanced projects for students who have adequate backgrounds to work independently with guidance from a member of the faculty.

This course will examine geological problems from a standpoint of thermodynamic and kinetic theory. Theoretical thermodynamic concepts will be used to derive the crystallization depth and temperature of metamorphic and magmatic minerals, describe the solubility of volatile species in magmas, predict the composition of volcanic gas mixtures, model the nucleation and growth of crystals and bubbles in a melt and determine the chemical interaction between water and rock at the Earth’s surface. Kinetic treatments on the diffusion of heat and matter through crystals and melts will be used to constrain the timing of geological processes. Recommended preparation: Knowledge of mathematics at the level of partial differential equations; mineralogy (EESC 4113); and petrology (EESC 4701); or permission of the instructor.

An introduction to how the Earth and planets work. The focus is on physical processes that control plate tectonics and the evolution of planetary interiors and surfaces; analytical descriptions of these processes; weekly physical model demonstrations.

This course is a project-based learning (PBL) course where teams of climate science and data science students collaborate to create machine learning predictive models for challenges inspired by ongoing climate data science research. Students from different background will apply their prior knowledge, work together and teach each other in high-paced collaborative projects. Through a sequence of mini-projects, i.e., “challenges”, this course provides students a deeper understanding of using machine learning for climate science and support predictive capabilities. It provides training on a broad set of practical skills for climate data science research (e.g., handling geoscience data formats, data curation, cleaning and transformation, building ML workflow, and collaboration using cloud computing resources, Git and/or GitHub). It will also offer discussions on the opportunities and challenges of using climate science and projections in decision processes.

Minimal formal instruction on statistics, data science, machine learning, or climate science will be given. Project cycles run every 4 weeks, where we will have mini-group data projects. Groups will be formed randomly with students from both climate science and data science background. Project products will be peer-reviewed, in addition to evaluation by the instructional team.

Prerequisites: Introductory Biology. Earth Science and one course in ecology recommended. Treelines are the boundaries between forests and low stature alpine and tundra vegetation, thought to be controlled by climate and therefore likely to respond to climate change. In 1807 Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland described treeline as a global phenomenon and a bioclimatological reference that all other vegetation could be referenced against. Despite being clearly linked to climate, the mechanisms that control treeline formation and persistence remain an active area of scientific research and debate. The lack of a complete mechanistic understanding of how climate controls the location of treeline opens the important question of how treeline will respond to climate change. Furthermore, while physical site characteristics determine the potential location of treeline, trees may be absent for a variety of factors, complicating the predicted ecosystem response to a changing climate. These factors include local peculiarities of the environment, a regional lack of capable species, or a multitude of disturbances, including those caused by humans. This course is focused on the ecology treeline in light of global climate change and will provide students with a foundational understanding of fundamental ecological concepts as they pertain to this important ecological boundary between ecosystems and biomes. In addition, students will learn to (1) find, read, and discuss the primary scientific literature, and (2) communicate their findings via written, oral, and audio-visual formats. Topics include ecophysiology, population ecology, community ecology, biogeochemistry and ecosystem ecology.

Prerequisites: Physics W1201, Chemistry W1403, Calculus III, or equivalent or the instructors permission. EESC W2100 preferred. Physical and chemical processes determining atmospheric composition and the implications for climate and regional air pollution. Basics of physical chemistry relevant to the atmosphere: spectroscopy, photolysis, and reaction kinetics. Atmospheric transport of trace gas species. Atmosphere-surface-biosphere interactions. Stratospheric ozone chemistry. Tropospheric hydrocarbon chemistry and oxidizing power. Legacy effects of photochemical smog and acid rain. Current impacts of aerosol pollution and climate impacts of pollution reduction. 

Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: one year of chemistry. The course covers:  Factors controlling the concentration and distribution of dissolved chemical species within the sea; the physical chemistry of seawater; ocean circulation and biogeochemical processes that interact with each other to influence the distribution and fate of elements in the ocean. The course examines in some detail the two-way interaction between marine ecosystems and their chemical environment, and the implications of these interactions for distributions in the ocean of carbon, nutrients and trace metals. Although this course does not cover specific strategies that have been proposed for marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR) and ocean storage of carbon, it will cover the basic processes and principles underlying ocean mCDR strategies.    

What can 66 million years of ocean history tell us about ongoing global change? This course bridges marine geology, geochemistry, and climatology to reveal how ocean basins record Earth’s dynamic environment. We begin with the foundational tools of paleoceanography—sediments, stratigraphy, and proxies. Then, we dive into Earth’s most dramatic climate shifts: hyperthermal greenhouse events, the onset of polar glaciation, orbital climate drivers, and long-term carbon cycle evolution. Ideal for advanced students seeking to understand the rate, magnitude, and limits of natural climate variability.

Prerequisites: EESC UN2100 Earth's Environmental Systems: Climate System, EESC UN1030 Oceanography, EESC UN3031 Chemistry of Climate, EESC UN3109 Climate Physics, or Instructor permission. 

Communicating science well in the context of the earth and environmental sciences is critical. This science communication course will transect specific earth and environmental science disciplines to provide a foundational understanding of what it means to communicate science and how to do so effectively. Within this overarching theme of science communication, students will gain a comprehensive and holistic understanding of how to communicate earth and environmental science across a variety of formats and to a diversity of audiences. Practical outcomes include but are not limited to students learning 1) how to rationalize a research topic, 2) write a hypothesis driven proposal, 3) evaluate proposals, 4) produce clear and compelling graphics, 5) adopt the latest pedagogical approaches, and 6) present science findings to a diversity of audiences.

Seismic waves in layered media, matrix methods, free vibrations of the Earth, dislocation theory, source mechanics.