Current & Past Events

Fall 2025 Seminar Schedule

Seminar is held Thursdays from 4:00pm-4:50pm in the Merion Science Center room 112. All are welcome.

seminar 1

A panel of alumni speak to current students about their career paths in industry, education, and graduate school.

seminar 2

Students work on their resumes and interview skills.

Schedule

Date	Speaker	Topic
8/28/2025	Dr. Marc Gagne	Earth and Space Sciences Department Faculty Introduction
9/04/2025	Dr. Howell Bosbyshell Dr. Daria Nikitina	Opportunties and Advising
9/11/2025	Dr. Marc Gagne	A.I. Panel Discussion
9/18/2025	ESS Students	ESS Student Internship Presentations
9/25/2025	ESS Students	ESS Student Internship and Research Presentations, Department Photo
10/02/2025	Susan Brantley (Penn State)	Natural and Human-Induced Reactions Among Water, Rock, Gas, Biota, and Soil
10/09/2025	Dr. Daria Nikitina Dr. Martin Helmke	ESS Field Courses (Iceland, Northwest National Parks)
10/16/2025	Weronika Tomczyk (Dartmouth)	Zooarchaeology, Paleontology, and the Pleistocene Overkill Theory
10/23/2025	Lynne Elkins (WCU)	Calculating Magmas: Computational Approaches to Understanding Igneous Petrogenesis
10/30/2025	Reto Gieré (MSA/ Penn)	Rock Fulgurites: A Record of Lightning Effects on Granite
11/06/2025	Vincent Carbone Greg Rosenzweig	PCPG Licensure
11/13/2025	Adam Maloof (Princeton)	Stratigraphy of Ancient Sedimentary and Volcanic Rocks and the Coevolution of Life and Climate
11/20/2025	WCU Alumni	Alumni Panel and Open House
11/27/2025	Thanksgiving Break	None
12/04/2025	Peter Berg (AGU/Virginia)	Carbon Cycling and Oxygen Dynamics at the Seafloor

Photo Gallery

The Department offers field courses to study and explore geology in regions outside the United States. The field study is conducted under the supervision of West Chester faculty and graduate students, during which students learn to apply geology field methods to study geomorphology and morphotectonics. Here is a summary International trips in the past:

2025 - Iceland 🇮🇸
2018 - Iceland 🇮🇸
2017 - Jamaica 🇯🇲
2015 - Costa Rica 🇨🇷
2013 - Russia 🇷🇺

In conjunction with Moscow State University, several students studied the most preserved geologic regions of all Europe; the Khibiny Mountains and Lovozero Tundra, the Baltic Shield.

2011 - Costa Rica 🇨🇷
2009 - Peru 🇵🇪

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for our students! For more information, please contact

Dr. Daria Nikitina

Geology of the National Parks (ESS 394/594 and 395/595)

Every two years in late summer, the Department offers a course studying field geology in the Western U.S., alternating between the NW Parks (in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana) and SW Parks (in Arizona and New Mexico). In this multi-week experience, students conduct geologic mapping exercises and investigating stratigraphy, tectonic history, structural geology, igneous petrology, geomorphology, hydrogeology, soils, natural hazards, and economic resources of the national parks.

For more information, please contact

Dr. Martin Helmke

Field Trips

Student Research

Drone Research

MS Geoscience graduate students Juliana Hartlove and Mariah Bowie conduct drone research using a new first-person view (FPV) camera system. Drones are just one of the many ways WCU ESS students apply cutting-edge tools to solve geologic problems.

Drone