Department of

Geology


What drives the Earth’s water, tectonic, and climate systems? How have Earth’s life forms and environments changed over time? And how are humans affecting Earth systems today?

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Geology

Understand Your World

Get out of the classroom

Study geology in the field, from local streams and rock outcrops to destinations such as Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, and Canyonlands National Parks. Study glaciers in Norway, volcanoes in Japan, rivers in China, beaches in Australia, and mountains in New Zealand during semesters abroad.

Unearth the past

Southern Wisconsin was once covered by a tropical, shallow sea teeming with trilobites. Explore the rock record to understand how fossilized organisms evolved and why they went extinct.

Apply your skills to the water, climate, and energy challenges facing our society

Prepare for a career in the geosciences by designing a sustainable rain garden to reduce storm water runoff, comparing climate reconstructions in the Eocene to changes observed today, and learning about the environmental impacts of our dependence on non-renewable resources.

Tri-States Field Conference
Geology News

Tri-States Field Conference

Beloit students attended the 76th Tri-State Field Conference. This year the trip was headquartered out of Maquoketa, IA and focused on current research on the Paleozoic rocks of the Upper Mississippi River Valley. Field trip stops included exposures in quarries and along road cuts that contained abundant fossils and a visit to learn about extracting metals from mine waste at a superfund site for use in the transition to a green economy.

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Apr24th

Spring 2025 H.H. Woodard Lecturer - Dr. Roy Plotnick

The Fossil Record in the Far Future: Looking Back at the Anthropocene and the Sixth Extinction

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Group photo in front of Jane, the T. rex.

Geology Department Leads a Field Trip to the Burpee Museum of Natural History

The Geology Department took a group of students, faculty, and staff to the Burpee Museum to explore the Earth’s and the Wisconsin-Illinois stateline region’s natural history.

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