Current Practices
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick Campus
Dept. of Geological Sciences
Gail M. Ashley
Undergraduate Director
Jan 2007
Departmental Profile
Research-oriented department (7 mass spectrometers, microprobe, etc)
15 full-time, tenured geology faculty; 10 additional PhDs
4 Joint faculty appointments with Marine Science, 2
Environmental Science, 1 Anthropology
Teach 2500 undergraduates in introductory courses
Dinosaur course (460:206 is the ranked best science course by
Rutgers football team
30 graduate students…act as Teaching Assistants in labs
25 undergraduate students (15% from under represented groups,
40% women). Produce ~ 8 majors a year
Geology Major (strengths)
1. Fundamentals
Chemistry (9 credits)
Physics (8 credits)
Calculus (8 credits)
2. Core Courses
Intro Geology (4)
Mineralogy (4)
Paleontology (4)
Sedimentology (4)
Geophysics (4)
Historical (3)
Petrology (4)
Structural Geology (4)
Stratigraphy (4)
Field Geology (3)
3. Integrated Skills
Writing
Sense of time & space
Team Work
Lab- observations & synthesis
Field –observations & synthesis
Critical Thinking
Writing
1. Tests – essay questions
2. Labs – reports
3. Term papers – Word processor
- critiqued and turned back for revisions
(revisions may improve grade)
Sense
of
time
Sense of space
Team Work and Field Observations
Lab Observations and synthesis
Petrographic Microscope
(rocks & minerals)
Geology Major (weaknesses)
1. No capstone course (to synthesize among courses)
2. No required electives, however we do offer upper level
Geomorphology
Hydrogeology
Marine Geology
Evolution & Geologic Time
The Quaternary Period
Geochronology
Environmental Geochemistry
3. No organized independent research program
Students can do independent research (3-6 credits)
4. No oral presentation requirement
Career Paths for Rutgers Graduates (Bachelors)
25 % - directly to graduate school
65% - directly to environmental companies
10% - K-12 teaching, law, business
10 % - Go to graduate school later
Recognizing the reality that the majority
of our students go to the private sector…………..
A portion of our lectures, lab excercises,
field trip excercises have an applied aspect.
(1) Coastal processes, sea level rise
(2) Naturally occurring arsenic in
bedrock… leaching into groundwater
(3) Heterogeneity of glacial deposits- the impact on
aquifers and waste disposal
New Jersey: The garden state
Population: 9,000,000 people
Density: 130 people per square mile.
~105 superfund sites
(1) Coastal processes, sea level rise
Second largest
“business” in New
Jersey is the coast
(recreation)
Continental glaciers
have advanced and
retreated many times
New Jersey has a
record of the last 2 or
3 advances
Glacial sediments range
from porous cobble
gravels to cohesive clays
Office of Superfund Remediation Technology Innovation (OSRTI).
Soil
Glacial Deposits
Bed Rock
Sedimentological properties of glacial deposits
(homogenous to heterogenous)
1. Newark Basin arsenic
Mesozoic rift basin
infill (rivers & lakes)
Newark Basin
Natural concentration of As
in depositional environments
and natural release of As in
oxidizing environments
Sources of Arsenic
in Ground Water
Hematite (Fe2O3)
Pyrite (FeS2)
Illite
Basic Sed/Strat
Passaic Fm:
mostly vegetated mudflat and dry
play mudflat environments with
periodic deep lake events (Mostly
Oxic…red)
Lockatong and lower Passaic Fms:
deep lake anoxic and shallow oxic
saline mudflat environments
(Mostly Anoxic…black/gray)
Stockton Fm:
coarser sediments from a
Fluvial/Deltaic environment
(Oxic…red)
THE END