Graduate Courses

The course schedule is subject to change. Please refer to student centre for the most up to date information. Registration for fall courses opens in early August, Winter courses in December and Summer courses in April.

Winter 2025

GEOLOGY/GEOPHYSICS 9580: Graduate Seminar Instructor: Roberta Flemming rflemmin@uwo.ca Wednesdays 11:30am-1:30pm Course Outline: Grad Seminar	This is a required course for all new M.Sc. and Ph.D. students in the Department of Earth Sciences. The objectives of the course are to: i) write and present a thesis/project proposal, ii) develop strong research skills, iii) learn how to effectively present information orally, iv) become familiar with grant proposal writing, and v) practice scientific and professional learning skills through teamwork exercises.
GEOLOGY 9516: Advanced Mineralogy Thursdays 1:30-4:30pm Instructor: Roberta Flemming rflemmin@uwo.ca Course Outline: 9516	Participants will investigate the relationship between crystal structure and mineral behaviour by collecting and interpreting crystallographic data on their own research specimens (and correlating this with other available data). Lectures will begin with fundamental crystallographic concepts, theory and techniques of X-ray diffraction. Additional topics include temperature-, pressure-, and composition-dependent changes in crystal structure, and selected spectroscopic techniques (may include Raman, IR, NMR or other methods). There are five laboratory assignments and an independent research project. The students will present their independent research projects as a manuscript-style report and a symposium-style presentation. There is a 3-hour final exam.
GEOLOGY 9552: Mineral Deposit Geochemistry Tuesday 12:30-2:30pm LEC Friday 10:30-11:30am LEC Friday 11:30am-12:30pm TUT Instructor: Nigel Blamey nblamey2@uwo.ca Course Outline: 4432 * Crosslisted with ES 4432	The principles of metal concentration and deposition in magmatic and hydrothermal environments are examined. Natural and experimental data, including fluid inclusion, stable isotope, metal solubility, mineral stability, and metal partition behavior, are used to develop genetic models for ore deposits. Such models form the basis of mineral exploration strategies.
GEOLOGY 9369: Geomicrobiology Instructor: Jeremiah Shuster jshuste3@uwo.ca Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-10:30am LEC Friday 2:30-5:30pm LAB Course Outline: 3369 *Crosslisted with ES 3369	A study of geomicrobiological processes recorded in the Earth record and bacteria interactions in contemporary systems, including methods for the analysis of prokaryotes. The factors affecting their community structure and function, and their relationship to geochemistry. In the laboratory, students will develop bacteriological culture techniques used in geomicrobiological research.
GEOLOGY / PLANETSCI 9606: Remote Sensing Monday 8:30-10:30am Thursday 8:30-9:30am Instructor: Catherine Neish cneish@uwo.ca Course Outline: 9606 *Crosslisted EarthSci 4606	The principle objective of this course is to provide participants with a strong technical and conceptual grounding in remote sensing data. The course will focus on image analysis; learning the ability to manipulate and analyze a wide variety of remote sensing data sets. Participants will get a hands-on experience applying the learned techniques to diverse terrestrial and planetary data sets and deriving meaningful geologic and environmental information. It will feature both overview lectures on background theory, as well as hands-on exercises using satellite data, geological maps, and field data. This course is intended to provide the non-specialist analytical tools when working with various types of spatial and spectral data.
GEOPHYSICS 9507: Mineral Physics Tuesday/Thursday 11:30-12:30pm LEC Wednesday 2:30-5:30pm LAB Instructor: Sean Shieh sshieh@uwo.ca Course Outline: 9507 *Crosslisted with ES 4424	The course introduces elementary solid state theory, thermodynamics, elasticity, equation of state, stress and strength, phase transformations, high pressure and high temperature science and technique, mineral physics of mantle and core. This course aims to introduce how to study the physical and mechanic properties of materials at ambient and extreme conditions that can be applied to nature and industry system.

Summer 2025

GEOLOGY 9650: Field Structural Analysis

May 1-11, 2025 Field School

Instructor: Dazhi Jiang djiang3@uwo.ca

Course Outline:

*Crosslisted with ES 3350Y

Fall 2025 (Subject to change)

Geophysics 9509: Geophysics Field School Instructor: Sheri Molnar smolnar8@uwo.ca Time: TBD Course Outline: 9509 *Crosslisted with ES 4451Z	August 24 - Sept 3, 2025 - contact Sheri Molnar for more details smolnar8@uwo.ca
Geophysics 9572: Physics of the Earth Instructor: Rick Secco secco@uwo.ca Time: TBD Course Outline: 9572 * Crosslisted with ES 3321A	An introduction to physics of the Earth's interior. Major topics are: Earth structure from seismic observations, heat flow, the physics of minerals under high temperatures and pressures, equations of state, seismological, thermal and compositional models.
Geophysics 9573: Natural Catastrophes Instructor: Katsu Goda kgoda2@uwo.ca Time: TBD Course Outline: 9573 * Crosslisted with HAZRR 9573
Geology 9506: Stable Isotope Geochemistry Instructor: Fred Longstaffe flongsta@uwo.ca Time: TBD Course Outline: 9506 * Crosslisted with ES 4431A	Stable isotopes (O,H,C,S,N), atmosphere, hydrosphere, sedimentary and diagenetic systems, hydrothermal systems, fluid migration, ore-forming fluids, igneous and metamorphic rocks. Environmental applications: groundwater, oceans, wetlands, acid rain; acid mine drainage, climate fluctuation; global cycle modification.

Winter 2026 (Subject to change)

GEOLOGY/GEOPHYSICS 9580: Graduate Seminar Instructor: Time: TBD Course Outline: Grad Seminar	This is a required course for all new M.Sc. and Ph.D. students in the Department of Earth Sciences. The objectives of the course are to: i) write and present a thesis/project proposal, ii) develop strong research skills, iii) learn how to effectively present information orally, iv) become familiar with grant proposal writing, and v) practice scientific and professional learning skills through teamwork exercises.
GEOPHYSICS 9508: Applied Seismology Instructor: Time: TBD Course Outline: 9508 *Crosslisted with ES 4423	An advanced overview of seismic hazard analysis for earthquake engineering purposes including strong motion seismology, earthquake site response and site classification techniques. Students will assess earthquake site response from earthquake recordings, numerical simulations, and evaluate case studies worldwide. Various software programs are used to model predictions of earthquake site response.
GEOPHYSICS 9522: Data Analysis and Signal Processing Instructor: Robert Shcherbakov Time: TBD Course Outline: 9522	This course provides the fundamentals of data analysis, signal processing and machine learning methods with emphasis on seismological, geophysical, and environmental applications. It introduces statistical methods to characterize univariate, bivariate and multi-variate data. It also introduces concepts required for digital signal processing and interpretation of geophysical and earth sciences time-series data. The overall goal of the course is to teach students the rigorous use of the statistical methods when analysing empirical data. This is a lab-oriented course that will provide extensive hands-on computer experience in data analysis, particularly with the numerical software package Matlab.
GEOLOGY 9552: Mineral Deposit Geochemistry Instructor: Time: TBD Course Outline: 9552 * Crosslisted with ES 4432	The principles of metal concentration and deposition in magmatic and hydrothermal environments are examined. Natural and experimental data, including fluid inclusion, stable isotope, metal solubility, mineral stability, and metal partition behavior, are used to develop genetic models for ore deposits. Such models form the basis of mineral exploration strategies.
GEOLOGY 9576: Advanced Glacial Geology Instructor: Time: TBD Course Outline: 9576 * Crosslisted with ES 4462	Explore glacier types, dynamics, budgets. Study glacial movement and erosional depositional landforms. Examine glacial sediments, facies, environments. Review icebergs, sea-ice, ice shelves, fjords, lakes, paleosols, and permafrost. Reveal climate change and impacts on the Canadian North. Investigate latest Quaternary glaciations, climate cycles, and delve into untouched deep-ocean records. Discover Holocene and Anthropocene climate-human interactions and ancient glaciations. Learn about glacial resources, earthquake engineering, and work on case studies of environmental site assessments and Western glacial cores.