Letter From Chair

Welcome to the Division of Marine Geology and Geophysics. The Division of Marine Geology and Geophysics is much more than its title suggests. Here scientists study the entire Earth incorporating all the principal scientific disciplines, physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics from space, on the ground, and deep below the Earth’s surface.

This is the division that looks for our planet to tell its past and evolving stories in sediment, fossils, and satellite imagery, so that scientists can better estimate what the future holds. Thanks to unique facilities, such as the Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing, scientists are able to corroborate computer geodesic models and evaluate changes in the earth’s shape and movement, particularly surrounding volcanoes, earthquake-prone fault lines, and flood-prone regions .

Coral reef experts in this division distinguish themselves from marine biologists by studying corals from a sedimentologist’s or paleoclimate perspective. And, they are not alone. Several other paleoclimatologists in this division are often in the field collecting core samples so that we have a better sense of what to anticipate in the future by learning what has happened in our very ancient past. These core sampling expeditions, however, can shed light on much more, as researchers also gain insight into what lies within our earth’s sediment.

Visit our pages of the Rosenstiel School Web site, and you will see a bustling division concerned with climate change, the earth’s change, and a collection of researchers leading the way in scientific change.

Peter K. Swart, Chair
Division of Marine Geology and Geophysics
The Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science
University of Miam i