The Department of Earth Sciences undergraduate program is centred on core geology requirements but is also broadly based to encourage students to obtain exposure to a wide range of earth science disciplines including the environmental earth sciences. The department also offers Master’s and Ph.D. degree programs.
Faculty research interests centre in three broad overlapping research domains: Environmental Geoscience, Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, and Tectonics and Continental Evolution. Much of the department research is directed to better understanding earth-surface processes, or to the study of the character and evolution of the lithosphere, particularly in the North American Cordillera.
The Department’s courses and research areas are:
- Environmental Geoscience
- Tectonics & Continental Evolution
- Sedimentology & Stratigraphy
Collection intensity
SFU resources
Regional resources
Consortia and document delivery
General collection guidelines
- Physical geology: Earth system science, plate tectonics.
- Engineering geology: soil and rock engineering and forestry geotechnics, development of computer-assisted terrain mapping techniques; integrated GIS and engineering geological characterization of landslides; landslide analysis using integrated groundwater-slope stability methods; inventories of gentle-over-steep forest landslides in the BC interior; terrain attribute studies; terrain mapping and terrain stability assessment; application of advanced numerical modeling codes in slope engineering; risk analysis in forestry geotechnics; and rock avalanche and debris flow characterization.
- Hydrogeology: geostatistics, stochastic modeling, characterization and modeling of regional-scale aquifer systems, climate change impacts, groundwater-surface water interaction and seawater contamination, computational hydrogeology, geochemistry, geophysics, structural geology, field- and computer-based studies, the role of groundwater in slope stability, stable isotope geochemistry of mine waters, and an examination of the petrophysical properties of oil reservoir rocks using statistical methods.
- Natural Hazards: volcanoes and volcanism, landslides, environmental geology, glacial geology, sedimentology, sedimentary basins, earthquakes, paleoseismology, terrain analysis.
- Quaternary geoscience: glacial erosional and depositional environments, reconstructing ice sheets, reconstructing paleoclimate, Late Quaternary glacial stratigraphic record of southwestern BC, Cenozoic evolution of Yukon River, Cenozoic landscape evolution in southern BC, middle Pleistocene glacial events, Holocene glacier fluctuation in the Canadian Cordillera, paleoclimate reconstructions in the Coast and St. Elias Mountains, surficial mapping.
- Geology field techniques.
- Physical geology: Earth system science, plate tectonics.
- Mineralogy: mineralogy, optical mineralogy, crystallography, crystal chemistry.
- Igneous Petrology.
- Metamorphic Petrology.
- Geochemistry: geochemistry, aqueous geochemistry, isotope geochemistry, fluid inclusions, organic geochemistry.
- Geophysics: seismic (reflection and refraction), magnetics, borehole, electrical, electromagnetics, gravimetric observations, computer modeling, earthquake seismology, crust, mantle, geodynamics, heatflow, radiometric survey.
- Geochronology.
- Economic Geology and Ore Deposits: origin and classification of ore deposits, economic development of ore deposits, mineral extraction-environmental aspects, acid mine drainage.
- Structural evolution: structural geology, paleomagnetism, paleomagnetic methods, magnetostratigraphic dating.
- Tectonics: plate tectonics, global tectonics, neotectonics, crustal seismology, slab dynamics, tectonophysics.
- Geology field techniques.
- Physical geology - Earth system science, plate tectonics.
- Sedimentology - sedimentary petrology, classification of sedimentary rocks and minerals, depositional environments, provenance.
- Stratigraphic geology division - Historical geology: geologic time, continental drift Precambrian and Paleozoic geology, Mesozoic geology, Cenozoic geology, Quaternary geology, stratigraphy and sedimentology, lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, chronostratigraphy, sedimentology, sedimentary basins, sequence stratigraphy, allostratigraphy.
- Petroleum Geology - hydrocarbons, basin flow, reservoirs, maturation, well log analysis, petrophysics, horizontal drilling, core analysis.
- Basin Analysis.
- Paleontology and Ichnology - fossils and evolution, paleontology, paleobotany, paleozoology, ichnology, paleogeography, paleoenvironments, extinction.
- Geology field techniques.
- 4 Research Level
- A collection that contains the major published source materials required for doctoral study and independent research includes:
- A very extensive collection of general and specialized monographs and reference works.
- A very extensive collection of general and specialized periodicals.
- Extensive collections of appropriate foreign language materials.
- Extensive collections of the works of well-known authors as well as lesser-known authors.
- Defined access to a very extensive collection of owned or remotely accessed electronic resources, including bibliographic tools, texts, data set, journals, etc.
- Older material that is retained and systematically preserved to serve the needs of historical research.
- International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Section on Acquisition and Collection Development. (2001). Guidelines for a Collection Development Policy Using the Conspectus Model.
- A collection that contains the major published source materials required for doctoral study and independent research includes:
- Collection development is the responsibility of the Earth Sciences Liaison Librarian. Liaison with the Department is maintained through the Departmental Representative as well as with other faculty members when required. Regular contact with other Liaison Librarians and teaching Departments is nurtured through the sharing of relevant review material. Regular contact with other liaison librarians and teaching departments is nurtured through the sharing of relevant review material.
- The W.A.C. Bennett Library is the major location for the University’s Earth sciences collection.
- The University of British Columbia also has a large Earth sciences collection comprehending many branches of the discipline.
- SFU belongs to three consortia:
- Electronic Library Network;
- Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries
- Canadian Association of Research Libraries.
- Document delivery agreements exist with all three of these consortia which allow delivery of journals, articles and books from these libraries in a timely manner
- Holdings and direct requesting from another 40+ libraries are accessible through the Interlibrary Loan webpage and from many databases.
- SFU is also an partner in the Canadian Research Knowledge Network.
- Language: the emphasis is on the acquisition of materials in English.
- Treatment of subject: history of, practical, political, computer applications, statistical/mathematical, economics of, business/mgt/admin, legal aspects, social aspects, teaching of college or postgraduate level, general.
- Types of materials: collecting is split between monographs and journals with a preference for ordering online-only journals whenever possible.
- Date of Publication: emphasis is on current publications. Retrospective acquisitions are normally for the replacement of important titles which have deteriorated or disappeared.