1. Current Practices Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick Campus
Dept. of Geological Sciences
Gail M. Ashley
Undergraduate Director
Jan 2007

2. 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

3. Geology Major (strengths)
1. Fundamentals
Chemistry (9 credits)
Physics (8 credits)
Calculus (8 credits)
2. Core Courses
Intro Geology (4) Historical (3)
Mineralogy (4) Petrology (4)
Paleontology (4) Structural Geology (4)
Sedimentology (4) Stratigraphy (4)
Geophysics (4) Field Geology (3)
3. Integrated Skills
Writing
Sense of time & space
Team Work
Lab- observations & synthesis
Field –observations & synthesis
Critical Thinking

4. Writing 1. Tests – essay questions 2. Labs – reports
3. Term papers – Word processor
- critiqued and turned back for revisions
(revisions may improve grade)

5. Sense of
time

6. Sense of space

7. Team Work and Field Observations

8. Lab Observations and synthesis
Petrographic Microscope
(rocks & minerals)

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. New Jersey: The garden state
Population: 9,000,000 people
Density: 130 people per square mile.
~105 superfund sites

13. (1) Coastal processes, sea level rise

14. Second largest “business” in New Jersey is the coast
(recreation)

15. 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

16. Soil Glacial Deposits Bed Rock
Office of Superfund Remediation Technology Innovation (OSRTI).
Soil
Glacial Deposits
Bed Rock

17. Sedimentological properties of glacial deposits
(homogenous to heterogenous)

18. Mesozoic rift basin infill (rivers & lakes)
Newark Basin
1. Newark Basin arsenic
Mesozoic rift basin infill (rivers & lakes)
Natural concentration of As
in depositional environments
and natural release of As in oxidizing environments

20. Sources of Arsenic in Ground Water
Pyrite (FeS2)
Hematite (Fe2O3)
Illite

21. 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)

22. THE END