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Geosciences Current Courses

Fall 2025

Course Code Title/Instructor Meets
GEOS 141-01 Earth's Hazards
Instructor: Jorden Hayes
Course Description:
This course examines natural processes such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mass wasting events, and floods that have the potential to produce disastrous consequences for humans. All of these processes result from interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere and hydrosphere directly or indirectly, which is the realm of earth sciences. Increasing global populations and increasingly interdependent national economies mean that few disasters are now only local. This course will use examples such as case studies of recent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to examine how natural processes can be hazardous, and whether or not humans can anticipate and mitigate these kinds of hazards to prevent future disasters. Laboratory work will include analog experiments, field trips, and video analysis of historic disasters. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week.
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
KAUF 179
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, T
KAUF 146
GEOS 141-02 Earth's Hazards
Instructor: Jorden Hayes
Course Description:
This course examines natural processes such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mass wasting events, and floods that have the potential to produce disastrous consequences for humans. All of these processes result from interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere and hydrosphere directly or indirectly, which is the realm of earth sciences. Increasing global populations and increasingly interdependent national economies mean that few disasters are now only local. This course will use examples such as case studies of recent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to examine how natural processes can be hazardous, and whether or not humans can anticipate and mitigate these kinds of hazards to prevent future disasters. Laboratory work will include analog experiments, field trips, and video analysis of historic disasters. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week.
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W
KAUF 146
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
KAUF 179
GEOS 151-01 Foundations of Earth Sciences
Instructor: Peter Sak
Course Description:
How do mountains and oceans form? Why do the positions of continents shift? Can rocks bend or flow? What is the history of life on our planet? This course explores the materials that make up the Earth and the processes that shape it, both at and below the surface. Students will take field trips around the Carlisle area as well as complete analytical and computer laboratory activities in order to acquire basic field, laboratory, and computer modelling skills. This course serves as a gateway to the Earth Sciences major, but is also appropriate for non-majors. Three hours of lecture and three hours of lab per week.
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, M
KAUF 153
10:30 AM-11:20 AM, MWF
KAUF 179
GEOS 151-02 Foundations of Earth Sciences
Instructor: Peter Sak
Course Description:
How do mountains and oceans form? Why do the positions of continents shift? Can rocks bend or flow? What is the history of life on our planet? This course explores the materials that make up the Earth and the processes that shape it, both at and below the surface. Students will take field trips around the Carlisle area as well as complete analytical and computer laboratory activities in order to acquire basic field, laboratory, and computer modelling skills. This course serves as a gateway to the Earth Sciences major, but is also appropriate for non-majors. Three hours of lecture and three hours of lab per week.
10:30 AM-11:20 AM, MWF
KAUF 179
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, T
KAUF 153
GEOS 305-01 Earth Materials
Instructor: Ben Edwards
Course Description:
Completion of both GEOS 305 and GEOS 309 fulfills the WID Requirement. This gives students a basic understanding of the tools and techniques used in modern science to identify and characterize solid earth materials at the macroscopic (hand samples), microscopic (polarized light), and sub-microscopic (X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy) levels. Emphasis in the first part of the course will be on minerals, while the second part of the course will introduce students to characterization techniques of other solid earth materials (soils and rocks) and their conditions of formation. This course is required for the Earth Sciences major, and will be useful to students interested in agricultural science, archeology, environmental science, forensic science, planetary science, and solid state chemistry and physics. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. Prerequisites: 151 or permission of instructor. Completion of both 305 and 309 fulfills the WID graduation requirement. Offered every other year.
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W
KAUF 140
10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
KAUF 140
GEOS 307-01 Paleontology
Instructor: Marcus Key
Course Description:
Cross-listed with BIOL 301-02. A systematic study of the invertebrate and vertebrate fossil groups, plants, and their evolution and relationships to living forms. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. Prerequisite: 141, 142, or 151 or any 100-level BIOL course. This course is cross-listed as BIOL 301.
09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MWF
KAUF 152
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, F
KAUF 152