Explores a series of environmental hazards (ozone depeletion, El Nino, global warming) as examples of risk management. For each module, students will learn the scientific principles underlying each hazard and then will examine how social and economic policies were developed amd implemented to mitigate the perceived risk. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment

Lecture and lab. Students who wish to take only the lectures should register for V1411. What is the nature of our planet and how did it form? From geochemical and geophysical perspectives we explore Earth's internal structure, its dynamical character expressed in plate tectonics, and ask if its future behavior can be known. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

Lab Required.

Explore the geology of the sea floor, understand what drives ocean currents and how ocean ecosystems operate. Case studies and discussions centered on ocean-related issues facing society. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

The lectures of V1011. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

Prerequisites: None; high school chemistry recommended.

Survey of the origin and extent of mineral resources, fossil fuels, and industrial materials, that are non renewable, finite resources, and the environmental consequences of their extraction and use, using the textbook Earth Resources and the Environment, by James Craig, David Vaughan and Brian Skinner. This course will provide an overview, but will include focus on topics of current societal relevance, including estimated reserves and extraction costs for fossil fuels, geological storage of CO2, sources and disposal methods for nuclear energy fuels, sources and future for luxury goods such as gold and diamonds, and special, rare materials used in consumer electronics (e.g., "Coltan", mostly from Congo) and in newly emerging technologies such as superconducting magnets and rechargeable batteries (e.g., heavy rare earth elements, mostly from China). Guest lectures from economists, commodity traders and resource geologists will provide "real world" input.

Prerequisites: high school algebra. Recommended preparation: high school chemistry and physics.

Priority given to Columbia and Barnard earth science, environmental science, and environmental biology majors should enrollment limits be reinstated. Origin and development of the atmosphere and oceans, formation of winds, storms and ocean currents, reasons for changes through geologic time. Recent influence of human activity: the ozone hole, global warming, water pollution. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.Lab Required.

Prerequisites: high school algebra. Recommended preparation: high school chemistry and physics.

Priority given to Columbia and Barnard earth science, environmental science, and environmental biology majors should enrollment limits be reinstated. Plate tectonics: origin and development of continents, landslides, volcanoes, diamonds, oil. Land-use planning for resource development and conservation. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.Lab Required.

Provides an introduction to natural science approaches essential to understanding central issues of sustainable development. Topics may include: climate, ecology/agriculture/biodiversity, energy, natural disasters, population dynamics, public health and water resources. Treatment includes background, methods and applications from selected settings throughout the world. Taught by specialists in a number of fields.

Prerequisites: one term of college-level calculus, physics, and chemistry.

A concentrated introduction to the solid Earth, its interior and near-surface geology. Intended for students with good backgrounds in the physical sciences but none in geology. Laboratory and field trips.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: advanced calculus and general physics, or the instructor's permission.

Basic physical processes controlling atmospheric structure: thermodynamics; radiation physics and radiative transfer; principles of atmospheric dynamics; cloud processes; applications to Earth's atmospheric general circulation, climatic variations, and the atmospheres of the other planets.

Prerequisites: Calculus I and Physics I & II are required for Undergraduates who wish to take this course.

Enrollment limited to 24 students. General introduction to fundamentals of remote sensing and image analysis. Example applications in the Earth and environmental sciences are explored through the analysis of remote sensing imagery in a state-of-the-art visualization laboratory.Lab Required.

Prerequisites: calculus, differential equations, introductory physics.

Given in alternate years. An introduction to how the Earth and planets work. The focus is on physical processes that control plate tectonics and the evolution of planetary interiors and surfaces; analytical descriptions of these processes; weekly physical model demonstrations.

Prerequisites: Calculus, differential equations, one year of college physics, and EESC W4950 or its equivalent.

An introduction to properties of the Earth's mantle, fluid outer core, and solid inner core. Current knowledge of these features is explored, using observations of seismology, heat flow, gravity, geomagnetism, plus information on the Earth's bulk composition.

Enrollment: limited to 20. Priority given to senior natural and social science majors, then graduate students. Based upon the most current understanding of our planet our interactions, and how we make decisions, a new knowledge-based "green" framework is developed for our relationship to our planet and to each other as well as its general implications for human stewardship of our planet. This new knowledge-based framework is explored using case studies, class participation, and term papers on specific current scientific and policy issues like global warming that impact the sustainability and resilience of our planet.

Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: a solid background in mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

Physical properties of seawater, water masses and their distribution, sea-air interaction influence on the ocean structure, basic ocean circulation pattern, relation of diffusion and advection with respect to distribution of ocean properties, ocean tides and waves, turbulence, and introduction to ocean dynamics.

Given in alternate years. Suggested preparation: basic high school science and math. Lab is a hands-on introduction to geochronology, paleontology, and historical geology with field trips. (See V1401 for lectures.) Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.Lab Required.

Prerequisites: high school science and mathematics.

Enrollment limited to 50. How the Earth works. The unifying concept of plate tectonics is used to examine surface and internal processes in the Earth, including earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain-building, ridge-axis hot springs, formation of continents, renewable and non-renewable energy. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

Given in alternate years. Suggested preparation: basic high school science and math. Dinosaurs: a spectacular example of a common, highly successful form of life, dominant for 135 million years. Where did they come from? Why were they so successful? Why did they die out? A basic introduction to the interface between geology and biology. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.

Prerequisites: high school algebra. Recommended preparation: high school chemistry and physics.

Priority given to Columbia and Barnard earth science, environmental science, and environmental biology majors should enrollment limits be reinstated. Origin and development of the atmosphere and oceans, formation of winds, storms and ocean currents, reasons for changes through geologic time. Recent influence of human activity: the ozone hole, global warming, water pollution. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.Lab Required.

Prerequisites: high school algebra. Recommended preparation: high school chemistry and physics.

Priority given to Columbia and Barnard earth science, environmental science, and environmental biology majors should enrollment limits be reinstated. Plate tectonics: origin and development of continents, landslides, volcanoes, diamonds, oil. Land-use planning for resource development and conservation. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment.Lab Required.

Prerequisites: high school algebra. Recommended preparation: high school chemistry and physics.

Priority given to Columbia and Barnard earth science, environmental science, and environmental biology majors should enrollment limits be reinstated. Role of life in biogeochemical cycles, relationship of biodiversity and evolution to the physical Earth, vulnerability of ecosystems to environmental change; causes and effects of extinctions through geologic time (dinosaurs and mammoths) and today. Exploration of topics through laboratories, demonstrations, computer data analysis, modeling, and field trips. Science Requirement: Partial Fulfillment. REQUIRED: Lab EESC V2310. Students should see the Directory of Classes for lab sessions being offered and select one.Lab Required.

This three hour lab is required of all students who enroll in EESC V2300. There are currently four lab sections.Lab Required.

Prerequisites: One semester of college-level calculus and chemistry or the instructor's permission.

Basic science underlying the human impact on the carbon cycle and climate. Physical, chemical, and biological aspects of the natural and anthropogenically-perturbed carbon cycle. Topics include: socioeconomic factors driving human CO2 emissions; ocean and terrestrial biosphere sinks and their recent trends; CO2 on glacial-interglacial time scales; climate-carbon feedbacks; model predictions of climate change and their uncertainties; the IPCC process; ocean acidification; strategies for mitigation.

Fieldwork on weekends in April and two weeks in mid-May immediately following the end of examinations. Enrollment limited. Estimated expense: $250. The principles and practices of deciphering geologic history through the observation of rocks in the field, mapmaking, construction of geological cross-sections, and short written reports.

Prerequisites: introductory geology and one year of calculus. Recommended
preparation: higher levels of mathematics.

Introduction to the deformation processes in the Earth's crust. Fundamental theories of stress and strain; rock behavior in both brittle and ductile fields; earthquake processes; ductile deformation; large-scale crustal contractional and extensional events.

Prerequisites: Introductory Chemistry and Earth Science coursework.

This class will be an in-depth review of the field of stable isotope geochemistry and its application to environmental processes and problems. We will focus on the light elements and stable isotopes of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and Boron in water, carbonates and organic compounds and why they fractionate in the environment. The theoretical background for isotope fractionation will be discussed and the mechanics of how mass spectrometers analyze different isotope ratios will be reviewed. The utility of stable isotopes as tracers of environmental processes will be examined with respect to the disciplines of paleoclimatology, paleoceanography, hydrology and hydrogeology. A key part of the class will be instuctor-lead and student-lead review/critique of published papers in topics releveant to what is being discussed in class.

Given in alternate years. Recommended preparation: a solid background in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Factors controlling the concentration and distribution of dissolved chemical species within the sea. Application of tracer and natural radioisotope methods to large-scale mixing of the ocean, the geological record preserved in marine sediments, the role of ocean processes in the global carbon cycle, and biogeochemical processes influencing the distribution and fate of elements in the ocean.

Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: some background in fluids, as provided by courses like EESC W4925 or APPH E4200, or the instructor's permission.

Given in alternate years. Mixing and dispersion in the ocean is of fundamental importance in many oceanographic problems, including climate modeling, paleo and present-day circulation studies, pollutant dispersion, biogeography, etc. The main goal of this course is to provide in-depth understanding (rather than mathematical derivations) of the causes and consequences of mixing in the ocean, and of the properties of dispersion. After introducing the concepts of diffusion and turbulence, instruments and techniques for quantifying mixing and dispersion in the ocean are reviewed and compared. Next, the instabilities and processes giving rise to turbulence in the ocean are discussed. The course concludes with a series of lectures on mixing and dispersion in specific oceanographic settings, including boundary layers, shallow seas, continental shelves, sea straits, seamounts, and mid-ocean ridge flanks.

Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: a good background in the physical sciences.

Given in alternate years. Physical properties of water and air. Overview of the stratification and circulation of Earth's ocean and atmosphere and their governing processes; ocean-atmosphere interaction; resultant climate system; natural and anthropogenic forced climate change.

Prerequisites: College-level geology helpful but not required.

Given in alternate years. Enrollment limit: 20; EESC graduate students have priority. Introduces the physical and chemical processes which govern how and where ocean sediments accumulate. Major topics addressed are: modes of biogenic, terrigenous, and authigenic sedimentation, depositional environments, pore fluids and sediment geochemistry, diagenesis, major events in Cenozoic paleoceanography, and sediment stratigraphic principles and methods.