What you鈥檒l learn
Earth sciences provide the understanding to deal with tough public questions concerning听resource development听补苍诲听land use.听You鈥檒l learn to understand听natural resources and systems听crucial to solving resource problems. You鈥檒l identify the common听rock forming minerals听补苍诲听typical ores and gems听and identify rock types and the structures they form. As well, you鈥檒l learn to read maps and to judge the 3rd dimension of the subsurface.
Geoscience courses at Camosun are all core courses at universities and required background for professional registration as a听geoscientist with A.P.E.G.B.C. Whether you are hoping to satisfy personal curiosity about what the Earth is made of and how it works or career bound, Camosun is a good place to start.
Careers in Earth Sciences
Professional Geologists with degrees in Earth Science find and develop all the resources which cannot be grown or renewed. Growing population drives the demand for more, minerals, hydrocarbons, groundwater resources to be discovered, delineated, evaluated and produced along with environmental remediation to put the forest or lake back once complete.
Basic degrees allow work in mapping and evaluating for hardrock mineral exploration, softrock exploration for oil, gas, coal and water resources. You鈥檒l do development work on existing fields and mines, as well as听wellsite geology, core logging, and geophysics. You鈥檒l be involved in听environmental assessment and remediation. You鈥檒l also provide geohazards assessment for projects: roads, dams, bridges, pipelines, tunnels, mines, cities and towns.
Specialists in slope stability, coastal morphology, tsunamis, hydrogeology, earthquakes and volcanology help us听live with active landscapes. Geoscientists need to critically observe, cleverly interpret and carefully deal with all of the incredible complexities the Earth presents or that living environments and ecosystems require.
These careers are becoming more in demand and the desire for skilled and knowledgeable professionals is needed all the time. As long as we continue to need more wires, pipes, roads, bridges, wind turbines, solar panels, better solutions to old problems and environmental remediation there is a听growing job market and careers听for the foreseeable future.
Deep Time 鈥 A Big Picture Geological concept
罢丑别听rock record听contains all we can ever find out concerning the history of the Earth. Because geological features, like deltas from rivers or glaciers from ice ages, occur for common reasons, we can use them as a key to the past.
Physical, chemical, biological and geological systems all interact at many levels to give rise to many unique environments, as broad as oceans or ice caps or as narrow as a strip of beach or a stream channel.听While time is vast,听~4.6 billion years, the similar events and features tend to recur. Sea levels tend to rise and fall with daily to monthly tides or with Milankovitch cycles many tens to hundreds of thousands of years in their span. Sea levels rise and fall and occur over millions of years for tectonic causes such as new mid-ocean ridges or deep sea trenches, as well as for climate changes (ice ages and interglacials).
Against this backdrop of shifting physical environments, organisms and whole ecosystems need to adapt, migrate or die out to be replaced by newer forms.听Biological evolution听补苍诲听revolution听has even affected climate by changing Earth鈥檚 atmosphere many times since the听Archean. The sediments of the present and past ocean basins record what past climates and seas were like. We can even track their changes to say what might come next and in a sense be able to听scientifically predict the future.
Contact information
Victoria Conservatory of Music
General Questions? We want to hear from you!
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John Lee - Department Chair, Chemistry & Geoscience
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Contact听Admissions听for information about applying to Camosun.