Explores a series of environmental hazards (ozone depletion, El Nino, global warming) as examples of risk management. For each module, students will learn the scientific principles underlying each hazard and then will examine how social and economic policies were developed and implemented to mitigate the perceived risk. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

Lecture and lab. Students who wish to take only the lectures should register for V1411. What is the nature of our planet and how did it form? From geochemical and geophysical perspectives we explore Earth's internal structure, its dynamical character expressed in plate tectonics, and ask if its future behavior can be known. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

Lab Required.

Explore the geology of the sea floor, understand what drives ocean currents and how ocean ecosystems operate. Case studies and discussions centered on ocean-related issues facing society. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

The lectures of V1011. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

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

Previous enrollment limits suspended. Priority given to Columbia and Barnard earth science, environmental science, and environmental biology majors should they be reinstated at any point. Origin and development of the atmosphere and oceans, formation of winds, storms and ocean currents, reasons for changes through geologic time. Recent influence of human activity: the ozone hole, global warming, water pollution. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

Lab Required.

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

Previous enrollment limits suspended. Priority given to Columbia and Barnard earth science, environmental science, and environmental biology majors. Plate tectonics: origin and development of continents, landslides, volcanoes, diamonds, oil. Land-use planning for resource development and conservation. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: one term of college-level calculus, physics, and chemistry.

A concentrated introduction to the solid Earth, its interior and near-surface geology. Intended for students with good backgrounds in the physical sciences but none in geology. Laboratory and field trips.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: advanced calculus and general physics, or the instructor's permission.

Basic physical processes controlling atmospheric structure: thermodynamics; radiation physics and radiative transfer; principles of atmospheric dynamics; cloud processes; applications to Earth's atmospheric general circulation, climatic variations, and the atmospheres of the other planets.

Prerequisites: instructors' permission. Recommended preparation: some college-level physics or math.

Given in alternate years. Enrollment limited to 24 students. General introduction to fundamentals of remote sensing and image processing. Example applications in the Earth and environmental sciences are explored through the analysis of remote sensing imagery in a state-of-the-art visualization laboratory.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: introductory geology or the equivalent, elementary college physics and chemistry, or the instructor's permission.

Elementary crystallography and crystal structures, optical properties of minerals, mineral associations, and economic minerals. Laboratory: identification of minerals in hand specimens and use of the petrographic microscope.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: High-school biology, introductory college-level geology

Given in alternate years. Course is a survey of the biological and biogeochemical evolution of the Earth System. Students focus not only on a narrative of the panoply of biodiversity though time, but also on the development and the testing of evolutionary and geochemical hypotheses within a historical science. Case studies of mass extinctions and biological innovation as well as current topics and debates will be examined in detail. There are 4 full-day Field trips.

Prerequisites: general biology or instructor's permission.

Plant organismal responses to external environmental conditions and the physiological mechanisms of plants that enable these responses. An evolutionary approach is taken to analyze the potential fitness of plants and plant survival based on adaptation to external environmental factors. 2-hour lab on Fridays at Lamont.

Prerequisites: introductory geology or the equivalent. Recommended preparation: EESC W4113 and knowledge of chemistry.

Given in alternate years. Students not enrolled in terrestrial geology may elect to write a substantial term paper in lieu of the laboratory course. Compositional characteristics of igneous and metamorphic rocks and how they can be used as tools to investigate earth processes. Development of igneous and metamorphic rocks in a plate-tectonic framework.

Prerequisites: introductory biology or chemistry, or instructor's permission.

Given in alternate years. Enrollment limited to 20. Priority given to juniors and seniors. Analysis of modern wetland dynamics and the important ecological, biogeochemical, and hydrological functions taking place in marshes, bogs, fens, and swamps, with a field emphasis. Wetlands as fossil repositories, the paleoenvironmental history they provide, and their role in the carbon cycle. Current wetland destruction, remediation attempts, and valuation. Laboratory analysis and field trips.

Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: a solid background in mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

Physical properties of seawater, water masses and their distribution, sea-air interaction influence on the ocean structure, basic ocean circulation pattern, relation of diffusion and advection with respect to distribution of ocean properties, ocean tides and waves, turbulence, and introduction to ocean dynamics.

Prerequisites: high school science and mathematics.

Enrollment limited to 32. How the Earth works. The unifying concept of plate tectonics is used to examine surface and internal processes in the Earth, including earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain-building, ridge-axis hot springs, formation of continents, generation of petroleum. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

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

Previous enrollment limits suspended. Priority given to Columbia and Barnard earth science, environmental science, and environmental biology majors should they be reinstated at any point. Origin and development of the atmosphere and oceans, formation of winds, storms and ocean currents, reasons for changes through geologic time. Recent influence of human activity: the ozone hole, global warming, water pollution. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

Lab Required.

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

Previous enrollment limits suspended. Priority given to Columbia and Barnard earth science, environmental science, and environmental biology majors. Plate tectonics: origin and development of continents, landslides, volcanoes, diamonds, oil. Land-use planning for resource development and conservation. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

Lab Required.

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

Previous enrollment limits suspended. Priority given to Columbia and Barnard earth science, environmental science, and environmental biology majors. 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, demonstrations, computer data analysis, modeling, and field trips. Science Requuirement: Partial Fulfillment.

Lab Required.

Provides an introduction to natural science approaches essential to understanding central issues of sustainable development. Topics may include: climate, ecology/agriculture/biodiversity, energy, natural disasters, population dynamics, public health and water resources. Treatment includes background, methods and applications from selected settings throughout the world. Taught by specialists in a number of fields.

This course may be repeated for up to 9 points of credit if taken in different areas. Fee: to be determined. Field study in various geologic settings. Plans for the course are announced at the beginning of each term.

In Spring 2010, Prof. Sidney Hemming will lead a spring-break geological excursion to Mono Lake, CA, focused on the geology of Mono Lake and adjacent areas of the eastern Sierra. Discussion sessions (required) ahead of the trip provide necessary background. Enrollment limited to 20. The trip is restricted to first-years and sophomores from Columbia College/General Studies (16 places), Barnard College (2 places), and the School of Engineering and Applied Science (2 places). Early application is advised, and no later than November 13. Details at the following URL: http://eesc.columbia.edu/courses/w3010/

Discussion Section Required.

Prerequisites: introductory chemistry and environmental science or their equivalents, or instructor's permission.

Given in alternate years. Three problems are considered: the identity of the missing sink for fossil fuel CO2, the cause of the low atmospheric CO2 content during glacial time, and the possibility of a tie between tectonics and atmospheric CO2 content.

Fieldwork on weekends in April and two weeks in mid-May immediately following the end of examinations. Enrollment limited. Estimated expense: $250. The principles and practices of deciphering geologic history through the observation of rocks in the field, mapmaking, construction of geological cross-sections, and short written reports.

Prerequisites: introductory geology or instructor's permission.

Given in alternate years. Two required weekend field trips in March/April. An overview of sedimentology and stratigraphy for majors and concentrators in Earth and environmental sciences, and for graduate students from other disciplines. Lectures, class discussions, labs, and field exercises are integrated, with emphasis on processes, the characteristics of sediments and sedimentary rocks, interpretation of the geological record, and practical applications. Details at http://eesc.columbia.edu/courses/w4223/

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: introductory geology and one year of calculus. Recommended
preparation: higher levels of mathematics.

Introduction to the deformation processes in the Earth's crust. Fundamental theories of stress and strain; rock behavior in both brittle and ductile fields; earthquake processes; ductile deformation; large-scale crustal contractional and extensional events.

Prerequisites: introductory geology or the equivalent. Recommended preparation: EESC W4113 and knowledge of chemistry.

Given in alternate years. Students not enrolled in terrestrial geology may elect to write a substantial term paper in lieu of the laboratory course. Compositional characteristics of igneous and metamorphic rocks and how they can be used as tools to investigate earth processes. Development of igneous and metamorphic rocks in a plate-tectonic framework.

Given in alternate years. Recommended preparation: a solid background in basic chemistry. Introduction to geochemical cycles involving the atmosphere, land, and biosphere; chemistry of precipitation, weathering reactions, rivers, lakes, estuaries, and groundwaters; stable isotopes and radioactive tracers of transport processes in continental waters.

Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: a good background in the physical sciences.

Given in alternate years. Physical properties of water and air. Overview of the stratification and circulation of Earth's ocean and atmosphere and their governing processes; ocean-atmosphere interaction; resultant climate system; natural and anthropogenic forced climate change.

Prerequisites: physical geology.

Prepares students for research and oral exams with cross-disciplinary analysis of the plate-tectonic cycle. Driving forces and mantle convection, plate kinematics, magmatism, structure, thermal and chemical evolution of mid-ocean ridges and subduction zones, continental rifts and collisions, and hot spots. Includes literature readings of great debates, and emphasizes integration of geophysical, geological and geochemical observations and processes.