Welcome to the Geology Department at UCC. We are a small and friendly field orientated department with strong interests in a number of key research areas. We hope you will enjoy browsing through our pages.
The Geology Department has eight academic staff, one post doctoral researcher and eleven postgraduate research students. It offers two single honours undergraduate degree programmes – BSc Geology and BSc Earth Science, the latter run jointly with the Department of Geography - and contributes significantly to the Environmental Science degree. We also play a significant role in a number of adult education courses.
Both the Geology and Earth Science degree programmes emphasise geological processes such as the evolution of the earth's crust and interior, the physical environment, minerals, rocks and fossils. Also included are specialised topics such as petroleum geology, evolutionary theory, geophysical exploration, hydrogeology, engineering geology and environmental geology. There is a strong emphasis on field work throughout the entire curricula.
The Department has a wide range of research interests and details of recent research projects carried out in these areas can be accessed through individual staff pages.
A feature of many of the research projects is that they usually involve extensive field work.
The principal research strengths of the Department are:
- The geochemistry of andesitic volcanoes (Professor. J. Gamble)
- Palaeozoic and Mesozoic palynology (Professor K. Higgs, Dr. E. Jarvis)
- Marine geology including deep water carbonates (Dr. A. Wheeler)
- Caledonian and Variscan tectonics of the British Isles and adjacent areas (Dr. P. Meere)
- Engineering and environmental geology (Dr. A. Allen, Dr. B. Higgs, Dr. E. Jarvis)
- Geophysical modelling (Dr. B. Higgs)
- Paleozoic stratigraphy (Prof. K. Higgs, Dr. E. Jarvis)
- Petrogenetic studies of Caledonian magmatism (Dr. J. Reavy, Prof. J. Gamble)
- Studies of Palaeozoic sedimentary basins (Dr. I. MacCarthy)
- Trace element geochemistry of the lithospheric mantle (Professor. J. Gamble)
- Structural studies of orogenic forelands (Dr. P. Meere)
- Structural evolution of high grade gneiss terrains (Dr. A. Allen)
Research projects are funded through national and international grants, petroleum and mineral exploration companies, local authorities and the University, with a limited number of postgraduate studentships being available each year. A First or Upper Second Class Honours degree in geology or earth science is essential and the studentships are tenable for up to two years (M.Sc.) Interested prospective post-graduate students should contact the research directors.