Environmental Geology (B.S.)
The Environmental Geology curriculum is unique in New Mexico. It is the only degree specifically designed to provide the geological and technical training for students to fill professional and technical Environmental Geology positions in the public and private sector, both in New Mexico and throughout the United States. |
Objectives
1. Students will have a mathematical and scientific background commensurate with understanding the technical basis of Environmental Geology.
2. Students will develop communication skills that allow them to effectively transmit technical information to professional and non-professional audiences.
3. Students will be able to integrate information to critically analyze environmental geology problems and solve growing environmental issues, such as water quality and quantity, soil stability and fertility, resource sustainability, and natural hazard mitigation.
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Where Are We Headed?
Incorporating the use of computer models, geographic information systems (GIS) analysis, and digital field technologies in all field experiences.
Continuing to implement National and New Mexico Science Education Standards in all pre-service teacher education classes.
In alliance with the Chemistry Department, creating a National Science Foundation undergraduate research center (URC).
Continuing to expand collaborative research efforts and cooperative agreements nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, and the NM State Environment Department to provide students with additional hands-on training. |
Degree Options
B.S. in Environmental Geology
With a concentration in Geology: Download PDF
B.S. in Environmental Geology
With a concentration in Watershed Management: Download PDF
Minor in Geology
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Why Environmental Geology?
Download PowerPoint Presentation - (3.5 Mbytes)
Nationwide employment studies indicate a steady increase in the need for well-trained professionals in the field of Environmental and Engineering Geology.
Population growth will increasingly place humans directly in contact with natural geologic hazards; specialists will be needed to mitigate loss of human life and engineer solutions to Environmental Geology problems.
Growing ground water needs coupled with shallow aquifer contamination problems have boosted the need for well-trained specialists in ground water hydrology.
Abandoned mine sites and acid mine drainage problems throughout the mountain west have created a great need for Environmental Geologists.
The majority of employment opportunities for Geology graduates are now with companies and government agencies specializing in environmental concerns.
Geologists employed in environmental fields need a broad-based background in Geology to understand past and present ecosystems.
New Mexico Highlands University is ideally located to provide a field-based undergraduate education for students interested in their natural surroundings. |
The Environmental Geology Program
- The Environmental Geology Program is a field-oriented major emphasizing earth materials, mineral, rock, and water interactions, surface and ground water hydrology, and natural geologic hazards.
- The Environmental Geology Program provides undergraduate students with scientific knowledge, research skills, and technological abilities to understand the how the Earth works and how to address environmental hazards.
- The Environmental Geology Program maintains an assortment of equipment for landscape surveying, geologic mapping, water sampling, and other field studies. These include a total station, GPS hand-held units, a differential GPS unit, an on-campus monitor well, a gamma ray spectrometer, a seismograph, and a magnetometer.
- The Environmental Geology Programs holds various analytical equipment for rock, soil, and mineral analyses, including petrographic microscopes, a Vreeland spectroscope and a powder x-ray diffractometer. Access to a scanning electron microscope (SEM), a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer (NMR), and other instruments is available through the Chemistry Department.
- The Environmental Geology Program, in conjunction with the Natural Resources Management Division, has a state-of-the-art computer laboratory in the new Hilton Science Complex. The lab is equipped with 26 high-end networked computers that have GIS functionality (ArcGIS, Spatial Analyst, and 3-D Visualization) plus a 36-inch digital plotter.
- Cooperative agreements with nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory and the NM State Environment Department offer students the potential for additional hands-on training during the summer months.
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What makes us special?
- A low student-to-faculty ratio provides students with a superior learning environment, in both upper and lower-level courses.
- A strong undergraduate research program supplements formal classroom instruction.
- Faculty, not teaching assistants, teaches laboratory sections.
- All upper-division courses incorporate one to three field trips.
- Environmental Geology students have proven marketable skills. Highlands' graduates continue to be quite successful in obtaining interesting and well-paying jobs in a variety of fields.
- A unique location. Nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Highland's campus has been cited as one of New Mexico's best-kept secrets. The surrounding areas offer opportunities for studying and addressing environmental geology issues. The university is within a one to two hours driving distance from Cenozoic volcanic fields, Precambrian rock exposures, glaciated valleys, desert terrains, and several world-renowned geologic features - the Valles Caldera, the Rio Grande Rift, and the Harding Pegmatite Mine.
- A newly developed Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute focuses on the management of montane watersheds in the southern Rocky Mountain and high plains ecological provinces.
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Faculty
505-454-3263/3244
Ivan Hilton Science Technology Bldg
505-454-3263
HSCI
View the complete department directory listing here.
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Department Majors
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Available Minors
Biology
Biology for Teachers
Environmental Scinece and Management
Geology |
