Location:

Princeton, United States

Program Type:

Full Degree

Degree Level:

Doctorate

Specialty:

Geology

Program Overview

Program Description:

How does the Earth work? Why is it habitable? How will human activities affect its future? Research in our department spans an unusually broad range of subjects, encourages interactions among the subdisciplines listed below, and involves fieldwork, laboratory experiments, theory and numerical modeling. ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANIC SCIENCES: ocean and atmosphere systems interacting with the physical and chemical conditions of Earth's surface. BIOGEOCHEMISTRY: Geochemical and biological processes modify Earth's surface (atmosphere, soils, sediments, oceans, groundwater). GEOPHYSICS: Geophysics focuses on the physical properties of Earth at all scales, from atomic to global. GEOLOGY: The rock record contains information about the coevolution of life, climate and Earth's deep interior. ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANIC SCIENCES The coupled ocean and atmosphere system interacts with life to set the physical and chemical conditions of Earth's surface. At Princeton, we use multi-scale models of varying complexity to study stratosphere-troposphere interactions, the importance of topography and the terrestrial biosphere in regulating climate, the coevolution of atmospheric pCO2, ice volume and sea level, decadal to millennial oscillators in the climate system, and ocean tracers as a means to understand the cycling of climatically important molecules. BIOGEOCHEMISTRY Geochemical and biological processes modify Earth's surface (atmosphere, soils, sediments, oceans, groundwater). At Princeton, we study nutrient availability and biological productivity in the surface ocean, global nitrogen and carbon cycling, the importance of metals in oceanic and soil environments, ocean acidification, and the role of extremophiles in geochemical cycling on Earth and potentially Mars. GEOPHYSICS Geophysics focuses on the physical properties of Earth at all scales, from atomic to global. At Princeton, we study the physical properties of minerals in Earth's deep interior with high pressure experiments, we develop images of Earth's 3D structure using seismic tomography, we study the physics of earthquakes and the laws of friction, we model wave propagation using vast parallel computers, and we study subtle changes in Earth's gravity to model processes as diverse as plate tectonics and the growth and decay of ice sheets. GEOLOGY The rock record contains information about the coevolution of life, climate and Earth's deep interior. At Princeton, we study Earth's ancient magnetic field, the relative motion of continents, the growth, deformation, and stabilization of Earth's lithosphere, perturbations to the global carbon cycle, paleontological evidence for animal evolution and mass extinction, and the history of climate change.

Additional Program Information

Accreditation:

.

Financial Aid:

Yes