Faculty and students apply a variety of geological, geophysical, and geochemical approaches in studying the origin of ore deposits and for locating these deposits. Recent research themes and projects include:

• geochronology and clay mineral geochemistry of porphyry copper hydrothermal systems;
• metallogeny of South American base metal ore deposits;
• basin evolution in Mongolia;
• geophysical methods of mineral exploration including modeling and inversion of electromagnetic and seismic data in complex geological structures.

Faculty: C. Johnson, Petersen, Schuster, Zhdanov

Our Department offers a Petroleum Industry Career Path (PICP), which is open to all graduate students regardless of research area. PICP fosters those skills recognized as essential for new-hires by a recent poll of American oil companies: knowledge of geology and geophysics, computer skills, and the following key nontechnical skills: “critical thinking, willingness to learn, ethics, dependability, commitment, and initiative.” (Heath, C. P. M., 2003, Geological, geophysical, and other technical and soft skills needed by geoscientists employed in the North American petroleum industry, AAPG Bulletin, v. 87 (9), 1395-1410).

The PICP core, designed in consultation with industry representatives, consists of five half-semester modules: Petroleum Geology, Petroleum Basin Analysis, Seismic Interpretation, Prospect Evaluation, and Petrophysics and Well Logging (optional). For graduate students seeking greater PICP depth, the following courses are of interest: Petrophysics and Well Logging (full semester), Exploration and Engineering Seismology, Advanced Seismic Imaging, Seismic and Sequence Stratigraphy, Sedimentary Basin Analysis, and Advanced Sedimentology. Complementary programs include industry-led field short courses, summer internships with industry, and a career day for graduate students. For more details on PICP, please download the PICP brochure: 804K high-res PDF, or 76K low-res PDF.

Field trip to economic mineral deposits of Chile, led by Assoc. Prof. E. Petersen. Seismic reflection survey in Sinai, led by Prof. G. Schuster.