Facts

Key Allegheny Benefits

• An appreciation of the place and role of humanity on the Earth today and in the context of geologic time.
• Research skills developed by a hands-on, process approach to learning; independent study; and field experience.
• Critical reading, writing and thinking skills.
• Sound preparation for graduate study in geology and environmental geology.
• Excellent preparation for professional employment, especially in the environmental geology fields of hydrogeology and land use.
• An understanding of how the Earth works today and has worked through geologic time.

Allegheny Distinctions

• Small student-faculty ratio in a close, mutually supportive, collegial atmosphere.
• Strong commitment of faculty to teaching and providing students with a wide range of research opportunities.
• Three degree programs B.S. in Environmental Geology, B.S. or B.A. in Geology to serve different career objectives.
• Extensive field experience through in-course field trips, a week-long Junior Seminar trip, and independent study.
• Required Senior Project that demonstrates to employers and graduate schools the ability to complete a major independent research project.
• Extensive computing, analytical, field, and scale-modeling equipment accessible to all students. All students have access to all departmental facilities, producing special opportunities usually reserved for graduate students at other institutions.

Endorsements

• Allegheny is one of just 29 selective colleges/universities in the country most highly recommended for study in geology by Ruggs Recommendations on the Colleges. This list includes such schools as Brown, Carleton, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and William and Mary.
• "I can say without hesitation that the fieldwork I did in Alaska was the most important part of my academic undergraduate experience. Now that I'm in graduate school, I realize that the experience I got in Alaska is rare even for students at the graduate level." Chris Turner '98, graduate student in hydrogeology at Waterloo University.
• Department ranks in the top 2.5% among private, undergraduate institutions in production of eventual Ph.D.s in earth sciences since 1920.
• About 50% of students receive outside funding to complete out-of-state field research projects.
• "The number of graduates in geology has been greater at this institution [Allegheny] than at many other larger, research-oriented schools..." Independent reviewer's comments on departmental National Science Foundation grant proposal.

Facilities Strengths

• Lab and field equipment: Includes 5-meter flume/wave tank, 5-meter stream table, a half dozen ground-water modeling tanks, mobile drilling rig, geochemical field monitoring equipment, earth resistivity unit, thin sectioning and rock-mineral preparation equipment, polarizing microscopes, cathode luminescence microscope, x-ray equipment (x-radiograph, x-ray diffractometer, x-ray fluorescence), and a magnetic separator.
• Computers: Extensive capabilities including powerful computers, a scanner, image analysis equipment, plotters, and digitizing tablets.
• Bousson Environmental Research Reserve: 283 acres of College-owned property near campus is used for field labs and independent student and faculty research. The tract features diverse habitats, land uses, hydrology, and geology, as well as several different types of hydrologic monitoring equipment, including groundwater wells.

Student Research and Special Projects

Many geology/environmental geology students work with faculty on independent research projects. Projects commonly involve field work out of state (e.g. Alaska, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Saskatchewan). Although most students who work with faculty are seniors, about 25% of students have worked on independent projects with faculty prior to their senior year.

The Senior Project is the climax of a geology program. Every Alleghenian completes a Senior Project in her or his major field a significant piece of original work, designed by each student under the guidance of a faculty advisor. These projects demonstrate to employers and graduate schools a student's ability to complete a major assignment, to work independently, to analyze and synthesize information, and to write and speak persuasively. Senior Projects are proposed during the junior year in the Junior Seminar a class that emphasizes critical analysis of professional literature and of geology in the field via a week-long field experience. Senior Projects are commonly supported by grant funds, conducted out-of-state, and/or presented at national and regional meetings.

Recent Senior Projects

• "A paleohydrologic analysis of unusual bedforms produced by a catastrophic flood during the late Pleistocene, southeastern Saskatchewan "
• "Morphology changes associated with breakwater placement, Beach 10, Presque Isle Peninsula, Erie, Pennsylvania "
• "Degradation of water quality in coal region aquifers: A chemical response to physical conditions? "
• "Sedimentology of the upper shoreface prism related to beach profile dynamics, Duck, North Carolina "
• "Geochemical processes affecting groundwater chemistry within a wooded swamp along a flow path, Bousson Environmental Research Reserve "
• "Evaluation of differential subsidence and uplift in the early foreland basin upon deposition of the middle-late Jurassic Ellis Group, western Montana "
• "A practical application activity packet for middle and junior high school Earth Science classrooms: specifically designed to illustrate hands-on science"

Selected Student Achievements

• "The effect of root systems on the shear strength of forested soils in clearcut areas," one of several recent Senior Projects presented at regional Sigma Xi conferences. (Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, is an international honor society for scientists.)
• Prestigious U.S. Geologic Survey Summer Intern award given to students for outstanding performance in a geology field course.

Student/Faculty Presentations and Publications

• "New geologic mapping and geochemistry of early Tertiary volcanic rocks in the northern Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska" (presented at an annual meeting of the Geological Society of America)
• "Tide-dominated sedimentation of upper Jurassic sandstone near Great Falls, Montana" (presented at an annual meeting of the Geological Society of America)
• "Landfill siting as a forum for subsurface analysis and GIS applications in an environmental field geology curriculum" (presented at an annual meeting of the Geological Society of America)