Department of Geology
Welcome to the Department of Geology at Bryn Mawr College. In these pages you will find information about our courses and research, our students and faculty, our undergraduate and graduate programs, our history, our facilities, and our special events.
Geology News
A recent poll of 220,000 recent college graduates showed that 95% of geology majors said they were happy with their degree. We so rock.
Recent Department Highlights
Geology Students Win NASA Grant for Microgravity Research
The Bryn Mawr Microgravity Research Team - a group of seven Geology Majors - has been selected by NASA to fly on the "Vomit Comet", an astronaut training aircraft that simulates zero gravity. The team wrote the NASA grant themselves, mentored by Geology Assistant Professor Selby Cull, and will be simulating the effect of Mars gravity on Martian soil porosity. Read their blog here!
Bryn Mawr Geology Team to Leave for Arctic Research Expedition
Two Bryn Mawr students will join Geology Lecturer Lynne Elkins on a trip to the waters
north of Iceland next summer as Elkins and her fellow researchers try to better understand volcanic activity in the area. The researchers plan to explore the mechanisms driving the production of new ocean crust occurring at volcanic mid-ocean ridges like the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Arctic Ocean, and also to help explain anomalous volcanic activity occurring in the region.
The trip is funded by a National Science Foundation grant that Elkins and colleagues from the University of Wyoming received this summer to explore volcanic activity in a segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge known as the Eggvin Bank. Read more...
Geology Assistant Professor and the Search for Water on Mars
New Assistant Professor of Geology Selby Cull is among the researchers making headlines for a just-released article in the journal Scienceon the possibility of water on Mars. The news has been reported by most major media outlets world-wide.
Department and Alumni Activity :
- Student Summer Research Projects
- Senior Sarah Christian co-authors Nature paper on Mars
- A future Forensic Geoscientist at work
- Geology grad Alexi Ernstoff in the news: Flying Cars
- Student Research, Internships, and Field Camp Opportunities
Department Travel:
The Geology Department traveled to Costa Rica over Spring Break, 2012, to study the volcanoes