School of Arts and Sciences
Department of Earth and Climate Sciences

Courses

Spring 2024 Course Listing Course Info on SIS Approved Courses in Related Fields

Course Descriptions

The list below includes descriptions of undergraduate and graduate courses offered by the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences, though some courses may be taught more often than others. Please see the semester course listing above for the most up-to-date courses available. Descriptions for special topics seminars are updated each semester.

Visit the undergraduate page for course requirements for specific programs. For up-to-date information on course offerings, schedules, room locations and registration, please visit the Student Information System (SIS).

Undergraduate Courses

EOS 0001 Introduction To The Dynamic Earth with lab. The origin and occurrence of rocks and minerals of the earth's crust. Dynamic processes that form mountains, canyons, and ocean basins. Topics include volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, rock deformation, sedimentary environments, Earth's structure from crust to core, plate tectonics, and geologic time.

EOS 0002 Environmental Geology with lab. Geologic processes at the earth's surface. Groundwater, the development of erosional and depositional landforms, glaciation and climate, and sea level change. Modern geologic environments as analogs for past environments and climate. Geologic processes and humans. Field trips illustrating glacial and coastal environments. 

EOS 0005 Introduction To Oceanography. Physical, geological, biological, and chemical aspects of the world ocean. Origin of ocean basins, currents, tides, waves, biological productivity, and marine sedimentation in the shallow to deep realm. Influence of human activity along coasts. Recommendations: High School Chemistry.

EOS 0011 Mineralogy with lab. Physical and chemical properties, formation, and geologic occurrence of important economic and rock-forming minerals. Introduction to the use of the polarizing microscope. Laboratory emphasis on mineral identification and morphological crystallography. 

EOS 0012 Igneous And Metamorphic Petrology with lab. Classification, occurrence, and origin of igneous and metamorphic rocks. Laboratory emphasis on hand specimen and microscopic identification and interpretation. Recommendations: EOS 11 or permission of instructor.

EOS 0015 Mass Extinctions: The Past, Present, and Future of Biodiversity. The historical development of mass extinctions as a concept; the roles of volcanism, meteorite impacts, global warming, ice ages, and the evolution of novel species in causing mass extinctions; the effects of mass extinctions of biodiversity and ecosystem structure; and discussion of whether we in the midst of the 6th mass extinction.

EOS 0022 Structural Geology. Deformation of the earth's crust. Stress and strain analysis, plate tectonic theory, and description and interpretation of deformational structures in rocks. Kinematic analysis of structures. Prerequisite: EOS 1 or EOS 2.

EOS 0032 Geomorphology. Morphogenesis of landscapes. Classical through modern denudation theories. Weathering, soil formation, erosion, and deposition as influenced by climate, tectonics, and rock composition. Recommendations:  EOS 2 or permission of instructor.

EOS 0038 Principles of Paleontology. Introduction to the origin, evolution, morphology, and paleoecology of life forms throughout the history of the earth. Laboratory emphasis on description, classification, and recognition of the most important groups of invertebrate fossils. Prerequisite: EOS 1 or EOS 2 or BIO 14 or permission of instructor.

EOS 0042 Sedimentology And Stratigraphy. Processes of sedimentation in environments ranging from continental to marine settings; tectonic, climatic, and oceanographic processes, control sedimentation patterns in these environments, and their relative importance. Observational and interpretational skills in sedimentary rock description and classification through study of sedimentary structures, statistical analysis of sediment grain parameters, and diagenetic textures. Correlation techniques using litho- and biostratigraphy will be applied to depositional basins in case studies. Prerequisite: EOS 1 or EOS 2.

EOS 0051 Global Climate Change. Introduction to Earth’s climate system to better understand causes of present and future climate change. Emphasis placed on processes that control Earth’s modern climate, such as global energy budgets, the behavior of greenhouse gases, and features of global and regional climate systems such as El Nino South Oscillation. Prerequisite: EOS 1 or EOS 2 or EOS 5. 

EOS 0052 Paleoclimate. Examination of climate changes that took place on Earth during the last ~4 billion years with a focus on the proxy evidence for those changes and understanding of the mechanisms that caused them. This journey begins with the wrongly perceived “hell” of the Hadean and ends with Quaternary glaciations, the Holocene, the ““Hockey Stick,”“ and a glimpse into the near future. Prerequisite: EOS 51 or permission of instructor. 

EOS 0091 Geological Research. Guided laboratory and field research on one of a broad range of geological topics. Five hours (2 credits) to ten hours (3 credits) are required per week, including one hour of consultation with the research supervisor. Final written or oral presentation. Does not satisfy minor requirements.

EOS 0092 Geological Research. Guided laboratory and field research on one of a broad range of geological topics. Five hours (2 credits) to ten hours (3 credits) are required per week, including one hour of consultation with the research supervisor. Final written or oral presentation. Does not satisfy minor requirements.

EOS 0115 Quaternary And Glacial Geology. Climatic oscillation and glaciation of the past three million years. Glacial effects on landscapes, oceans, and organisms. Glacial processes and deposits. Techniques used to study chronology, environments, climatic change, and recent deposits, including isotopes, dating, fossil analysis, and paleomagnetism. Recommendations: EOS 2 or permission of instructor.

EOS 0131 Groundwater. (Cross-listed as CEE 113 and ENV 113).  The geology and hydrology of groundwater. Topics include: hydraulic properties of soils, sediments, and rocks; physics of groundwater flow; flow nets, modeling groundwater systems; geology of regional flow; aquifer exploration and water well construction methods; well hydraulics and aquifer testing; applications in the geosciences and in civil /geotechnical/environmental engineering. Recommendations: EOS 1 or 2, and MATH 32.

EOS 0133 Field Methods In Hydrogeology. (Cross-listed as CEE 114). Field aspects of hydrogeology, groundwater mapping and sampling, aquifer testing, well drilling, monitoring, and instrumentation of boreholes. Lecture and basic field methods to understand how monitoring and production wells are planned and drilled, and what types of geologic, geophysical, and geochemical data can be gathered for subsurface flow systems. A network of boreholes on the Tufts campus will be used as field sites to characterize subsurface parameters in the unsaturated and saturated zones, and study regional flow in an urban watershed. Field trips, quantitative analysis of hydrogeologic data. Recommendations: EOS 002 or equivalent.

EOS 0191 Special Topics. Exploration of special topics in Earth and ocean sciences through seminars or guided individual study.

EOS 0192 Special Topics. Exploration of special topics in Earth and ocean sciences through seminars or guided individual study.

EOS 0193 Senior Thesis A. Intensive laboratory or field investigations designed and carried out by the student, culminating in a written thesis and oral defense. Please see department website for specific details. Recommendations: Geological Science requirements and permission of instructor. This is a yearlong course. Each semester counts as 4 credits towards a student’s credit load. Students will earn 8 credits at the end of the second semester. Only one of EOS 0193 or EOS 0194 can count in the major course requirements.

EOS 0194 Senior Thesis B. Intensive laboratory or field investigations designed and carried out by the student, culminating in a written thesis and oral defense. Please see department website for specific details. Recommendations: Geological Science requirements and permission of instructor. This is part of a yearlong course. Each semester counts as 4 credits towards a student’s credit load. Students will earn 8 credits at the end of the second semester. Only one of EOS 0193 or EOS 0194 can count in the major course requirements.

Graduate Courses

EOS 0287 Subsurface Fluid Dynamics. (Cross-listed as CEE 287). Advanced theory in groundwater hydrology. Topics include: hydrodynamics of groundwater flow; Darcy's Law in porous sediments and fractured rocks;  fluid potential; flow nets and hodographs; vorticity of inhomogeneous fluids; physics of the unsaturated zone; two-phase flow in petroleum reservoirs and carbon sequestration; flow in deforming media; aqueous mass transport in reactive formations; fluid and heat transport in geothermal reservoirs.

Recommendations: MATH 51 and ES 8, or equivalents

EOS 0288 Groundwater Modeling. Numerical analysis of groundwater flow, with applications. Topics include: numerical formulation of the governing equations using finite difference, finite element, integrated finite difference, particle tracking, boundary element, and discrete element techniques; matrix and iterative solutions; algorithms for 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D flow; stability and accuracy; applications using popular USGS software in the public domain. Students will be expected to apply existing Fortran programs for 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D solutions as part of computational laboratory modeling assignments.

EOS 0289 Geofluids. Study of groundwater flow in geologic processes. Topics include: theory and equations governing coupled fluid flow with heat and mass transport in deep geologic systems; continental-scale groundwater flow; hydrogeologic applications in studies of weathering, sediment diagenesis, petroleum migration, hydrothermal ore formation, metamorphism, deformation and earthquake mechanics. This advanced course will introduce students to current literature and software for theoretical analysis of reactive hydrothermal flows in the Earth's crust.