This program is designed to provide M.S. and Ph.D. students with the technical knowledge required for the study of a wide range of environmental, hydrologic, and climatological problems seen in the context of how these processes operate throughout the Quaternary. 

RESEARCH

The program focuses on the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the processes linking climate change, hydrology,  and the terrestrial  environment.

FACILITIES

The program is supported by seven specialized labs for research in paleoclimatology, sedimentology, paleolimnology, paleo-oceanography, hydrology, aqueous geochemistry,  and computer applications.  Field equipment includes truck?mounted drilling rig, coring equipment, equipment for well logging and hydraulic tests, seismic refraction/reflection, magnetometry, electrical resistivity, VLF electromagnetics, flow meters, and automated sampling equipment.  Other facilities include labs for plasma spectrometry, liquid ion chromatography, AA spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy, diffuse spectral reflectance, and X-ray diffraction.  Additional support is available through the associated Water Resources Research Institute and allied faculty in the Geography, Biology, Chemistry, and Mathematics Departments.

COURSES

Quaternary Geology, Glacial Geology, Cenozoic Climate Change, Hydrogeochemistry, Environmental Geochemistry, Light Isotope Geochemistry,
Introductory Hydrogeology, Riparian processes, Surface water Hydrology, Computer Simulation in Geology, Paleolimnology, Paleo-oceanography, Micropaleontology, Sedimentary Petrology, Sedimentology
 

FACULTY within the Quaternary Studies program encompass a wide variety of specializations including those of: 

JOSEPH D. ORTIZ, Ph.D., Oregon State University, 1995. Marine micropaleontology and  geochemistry of Foraminifera, stratigraphy, marine sedimentology, climatic change.
DONALD F. PALMER, Princeton University, 1968. Magnetic stratigraphy, magnetic susceptibility. 
ALISON J. SMITH, Ph.D., Brown University, 1991.  Limnology, Paleolimnology, Lacustrine-Ground water Interactions; Lacustrine Ostracodes as environmental and climatic indicators. 
NEIL A. WELLS, Ph.D.,  University of Michigan, 1984. Geomorphology, Clastic Sedimentology and Sedimentary Environments. 
DONNA L. WITTER, Ph.D. Oregon State University, 1995. Physical Oceanography, Remote Sensing, Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions.