Department of Geosciences at UMass Amherst

We're offering a new climate science minor, which offers a solid scientific foundation that can complement a wide variety of majors at UMass and can better prepare students to provide innovative solutions to one of the greatest challenges facing humanity.

Massachusetts is coming off one of the wettest years on record and one of the wettest winters on record, and we are now in one of the wettest Marches to date. It's no secret that our seas are rising and as of late, so are our rivers. One UMass Amherst professor is sounding a new alarm – a rising water table. 

Dr. David Boutt has been in the news in recent weeks being interviewed on PFAS contamination of groundwater in Western Massachusetts:

Dr. Matthew Winnick and Brian Saccardi recently demonstrated that the chemical process known as “carbonate buffering” can account for the majority of emissions in highly alkaline waters. Furthermore, carbonate buffering distorts the most commonly used method of tracking the origins of CO2 in streams...

To help answer the question of how long the buttressing Antarctic ice shelves might last in the face of warming and rising seas, an international initiative, including Dr.'s Mark Leckie and Rob DeConto, will turn to the geological record and recover sediment from regions beneath the floating Ross Ice Shelf and near the grounding zone of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that were deposited during past times when it was warmer than today. These sediments hold environmental information that is key to our future but, until now, has been impossible to obtain.

Dr.'s David Boutt, Jon Woodruff and Robert DeConto will contribute their expertise in snowfall, sea-level rise, water cycling and coastal sediment movement to the state’s new Climate Science Advisory Panel: a group of 21 experts who will attempt to bridge the communication and knowledge gap between policymakers and scientists.

Emeritus Professor Tony Morse passed away on January 9, 2024. Morse, widely recognized for his key contributions and reputation as a phenomenal scientist, was a beloved colleague to all in the department and beyond. A service for Tony will be held at Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst, MA, on Saturday, April 6th, at 1pm.

Massachusetts is looking for its next State Geologist! Could it be you?

We're looking for a skilled lecturer to teach GIST courses, primarily based at U-Mass Amherst's Mt. Ida campus.