Undergraduate Courses Open to All
EOS 110 Oceans and Atmospheres
 |
Origin and structure of the oceans and atmosphere. Dynamic processes that drive ocean and atmosphere circulation, weather patterns and global climate change. The coastal ocean, marine ecosystems, nutrient and carbon cycles, human influences on ocean environments, marine resources, and sustainability. This course has a laboratory component and is a prerequisite to most upper-level EOS courses. |
|
EOS 120 The Dynamic Earth
 |
Internal and external processes that shape the Earth and its landscapes. Nature of tectonic forces, earthquakes, volcanoes, rocks and minerals, and mountain building. Processes of erosion, sediment transport and deposition, and glaciation. Global water cycle and hydrological processes. Geologic record of past environmental change and its impact on life. Natural resources, natural hazards, and sustainability. This course has a laboratory component and is a prerequisite to most upper-level EOS courses. |
 |
EOS 170 Natural Hazards
 |
An overview of natural hazards including earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami, landslides, flooding, extreme weather, and meteor impacts. Particular attention is given to hazards related to climate change, hazards affecting south-western British Columbia, and important historic natural disasters. This is an introductory-level course that requires no science or math background. | 
|
EOS 350 Understanding the Oceans
 |
Human activities are having an increasing impact on the oceans. This course focuses on a small set of ocean topics that are of particular relevance to society. Topics examined may include pollution, overfishing, ocean acidification, marine conservation, and coastal modification. Students taking this class should have at least second-year standing, but there are no other prerequisites. |
 |
EOS 365 Climate and Society
 |
A survey of the climate system and its interaction with past, present, and future societies. Topics include: climate change and the onset of agriculture/domestication, climate change and the rise and fall of early civilizations, the anthropocene and global warming. The interplay between science, media, public relations and public policy will also be addressed. Students taking this class should have at least third-year standing, but there are no other prerequisites. |
 |
100-Level Course Descriptions
EOS 110 (1½) Oceans and Atmospheres
EOS 120 (1½) The Dynamic Earth
Back to Navigation200-Level Course Descriptions
EOS 201 (1½) Sedimentary Geology
EOS 202 (1½) Structural Geology
EOS 260 (1½) Earth System Evolution Through Deep Time
Back to Navigation300-Level Course Descriptions
EOS 300 (1½) Earth Science Field School
EOS 311 (1½) Biological Oceanography
EOS 312 (1½) Introduction to Chemical Oceanography
EOS 313 (1½) Geological Oceanography
EOS 314 (1½) Descriptive Physical Oceanography
EOS 315 (1½) Acoustical Oceanography
EOS 316 (1½) Igneous and Metamorphic Geology
EOS 335 (1½) Isotopes in Natural Sciences
EOS 340 (1½) Atmospheric Sciences
EOS 350 (1½) Understanding The World's Oceans
EOS 365 (1½) Climate and Society
Back to Navigation400-Level Course Descriptions
EOS 400 (1½) Advanced Field School
EOS 403 (cross-listed with EOS 503) (1½) Global Biogeochemical Cycles
EOS 416 (1½) High Temperature Petrology
EOS 425 (cross-listed with EOS 538) (1½) Aqueous Geochemistry and the Envrionment
EOS 431 (cross-listed with EOS 531) (1½) Physical Oceanography
EOS 433 (cross-listed with EOS 550) (1½) The Climate System
EOS 435 (cross-listed with EOS 530) (1½) Waves in the Ocean
EOS 450 (1½) Quaternary Geology
EOS 460 (1½) Earth System Science
EOS 480 (1½) Applied Geophysics
EOS 490 (1½ or 3) Directed Studies in Earth and Ocean Sciences
EOS 499A (1½) Honors Thesis; EOS 499B (1½) Honors Thesis
Graduate Course Descriptions
The courses required for your program will be decided through consultation with your supervisor/committee. The School offers a number of graduate courses but only a limited selection are taught in any given year. SEOS Faculty (both regular and limited term/adjunct) will generally offer courses when interest exists, so students should ensure that they (and their supervisors) communicate their interest to potential course instructors and/or the Grad Advisor.
Graduate students will have the freedom to take courses from departments other than the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences. Courses offered by the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Electrical and Computing Engineering, Geography, Mathematics and Statistics, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics and Astronomy are likely to be particularly relevant. Permission of the Instructor and of the Grad Advisor is a prerequisite for all graduate courses offered by the School. Some courses may require specific undergraduate credit for background preparation. Student academic records will be reviewed on an individual basis at the time of admission.
**NOTE: All Graduate Students in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences are required to take EOS 525 (1.5 units) as part of their graduate course requirement, unless in the case of a PhD student, they have previously taken this course in the MSc program. All students are also required to present at the Annual Graduate Student Workshop at least once during their degree program.
In case of a discrepancy between the listing below and the official UVic Calendar, the latter should be taken as correct. Course schedules can be viewed on-line via uSource.
See red text for courses being offered in the Fall 2012 term.
EOS 503 (1½) Global Biogeochemical Cycles
This course tracks the fate of organic matter from its formation (primary production) through its transformation and destruction during transport, depositional, and diagenetic remineralization processes. Global carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and sulphur cycles are discussed. Emphasis is placed on describing the fluxes of nutrients and other major compounds within soils, and the sedimentary and water columns, and across their interface.
EOS 504 (1½ or 3) SELECTED TOPICS IN GEOCHEMISTRY:
EOS 504B (1½): HIGH TEMPERATURE PETROLOGY
Offered Spring 2012 - CRN 27733 Instructor: Dr. Laurence Coogan
Topics will be selected in or will span the fields of solid earth, marine, atmospheric and planetary geochemistry. Examples include ocean biogeochemical processes, applications of geochemical tracers in oceanography and climate, principles of isotope geochemistry, hydrosphere-lithosphere reactions, and mantle-lithosphere exchange processes, discussion of geological controls on major and trace element and isotope signatures of coal, oil, carbonaceous shales, and environmental implications of use
EOS 504 (1½ or 3) SELECTED TOPICS IN GEOCHEMISTRY:
EOS 504C (1½): REVOLUTIONS THAT MADE THE EARTH
Offered Spring 2012 - CRN 27756 Instructor: Dr. Colin Goldblatt
In this special topics class, we will read and critically analyze Tim Lenton and Andy Watson's recent book "Revolutions that made the Earth" (OUP, 2011, 440 pages, see http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199587049.do). The book covers the co-evolution of the Earth system and life through Earth history, from authors who have been intimately involved in developing the discipline of Earth System Science (and Gaia hypothesis). Tim and Andy are both clever boys and know a lot, so we are bound to learn something. We will cover the whole book in the course, so weekly readings will average 30 - 35 pages (its written in quite straightforward prose and without much quantitative detail, so this should only take a few hours), and meet for probably two hours each week. Assessment will be by in class participation and by an essay.
EOS 504 (1½ or 3) SELECTED TOPICS IN GEOCHEMISTRY:
EOS 504D (1½): GEOCHEMICAL MODELLING
Offered Spring 2012 - CRN 27757 Instructor: Dr. Roberta Hamme
Meeting times: to be determined based on student schedules
Practical application of modelling concepts frequently encountered in chemical oceanography and related fields. Students will use MatLab to solve modelling problems in classic chemical oceanography papers. Topics will include: box models and iteration, time-stepping, one-dimensional advection-diffusion, Monte Carlo error analysis. No prior experience with MatLab or programming is required.
EOS 504A (1½) SELECTED TOPICS IN GEOCHEMISTRY: CHEMICAL OCEANOGRAPHY -
Offered Fall 2011 - CRN 17656 Instructors: Drs. Roberta Hamme and Jay Cullen
Chemical distributions in the ocean and sediments reveal the workings of physical and biological processes. This course will focus on the oceanic carbon cycle, including basic carbonate chemistry, and on explaining related tracers such as nutrients and oxygen. Mass balance concepts will be emphasized. Additional topics will be chosen based on student interest and may include speciation, redox chemistry, anthropogenic carbon uptake by the ocean, carbonate/opal preservation on the seafloor.
EOS 508 (1½) MARINE GEOLOGY
A seminar course covering modern processes of marine geology, including depositional processes and diagenesis of marine sediments. The course will examine a range of depositional environments: fjord and coastal, shelf, slope, and oceanic; with consideration of the data obtained from DSDP and ODP drilling.
EOS 510 (1½) PLATE TECTONICS: THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD Offered Fall 2011 - CRN 17761
Instructor: Dr. Stephen Johnston (location & times TBD)
An examination of the processes of plate tectonics as revealed by the geological record, including Precambrian evolution of cratons; rifts and passive margins; convergent margins and orogens; plate motions through time.
EOS 511 (1½) PLATE TECTONIC PROCESSES Offered Fall 2011 - CRN 17674
Instructor: Dr. George Spence (meets with EOS 410)
An overview of plate tectonic regimes with emphasis on physical processes and geophysical aspects related to the evolution of the earth's plate system. The course will be organized primarily as seminars and discussions, supplemented by special lectures by faculty and adjuncts.
EOS 513 (1½) ADVANCED IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC PETROLOGY
A seminar style course focusing on advanced topics in igneous and metamorphic petrology and how the tools of petrology can be used for geodynamic reconstructions.
EOS 516A (1½) OCEAN ACOUSTICS I
This course provides an introduction to the ocean as an acoustic medium, sound sources in the ocean, ray theory, normal modes, reflection and refraction processes at ocean boundaries and discusses sound propagation in deep and shallow water. The basic concepts are applied to special topics such as parabolic equation propagation models, sound propagation in bubbly fluids and ambient noise models.
EOS 516B (1½) OCEAN ACOUSTICS II
This course deals with theory and applications of ocean acoustic propagation modelling and acoustic signal processing. Propagation modelling topics to be considered include the normal-mode model including adiabatic and coupled modes and the ray-mode equivalence, and wave-number integration methods. Applications to acoustic interaction with the seabed, such as reflection from elastic media, are considered. Signal processing topics include the sonar equation, plane-wave beamforming techniques, and matched-field processing and inversion.
EOS 519 (1½) SELECTED TOPICS IN GEOPHYSICS
EOS 519A (1½) SELECTED TOPICS IN GEOPHYSICS: APPLIED GEOPHYSICS
Offered Spring 2012 - CRN 27894 Instructor: Jan Dettmer (meets w/ EOS 480)
This course may repeat with a different content (offered as 519A,519B, 519C and 519D).
Examples of topics included geodynamics or continuum mechanics with geological applications, time series analysis with geophysical applications, seismic data processing, well log analysis, environmental and engineering geophysics, and geophysics of the continental crust.
EOS 523 (1½) SEISMOLOGY
Theoretical and practical aspects of seismic wave propogation, earthquake seismology, and processing and interpretation of reflection and refraction data.
EOS 525 (1½) RESEARCH FRONTIERS IN EARTH AND OCEAN SCIENCE
Offered Fall 2011 - CRN 13489
Instructor: Dr. Kim Juniper; location: SCI A319
This interdisciplinary Earth and Ocean Sciences course examines, in detail, global topics that are current, significant and which require input and integration across diverse disciplines. The specific topics of the course change annually and the subject is team-taught by several SEOS/UVic faculty members.
EOS 526 (1½) INVERSE THEORY IN EARTH AND OCEAN SCIENCES
Inverse theory and its applications in Earth and Ocean Sciences. Topics include non-uniqueness, general linear least-squares, singular-value decomposition, empirical orthogonal functions, regularization, linearization, and global inversion methods such as simulated annealing and genetic algorithms. Applications will be drawn from the research literature and include topics such as inversion of geo-electromagnetic and seismic data, tomography, matched-field inversion, modal decomposition, and remote sensing.
EOS 531 (1½) PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY Offered Fall 2011 - CRN 13490
Physical properties of sea water, equation or state, gravitational stability, large-scale ocean currents, meridional distribution of salinity and temperature, surface heat budgets, water masses, estuary flows.
EOS 534 (1½) OCEAN MIXING PROCESSES
The distribution of properties in the ocean and ocean circulation are greatly influenced by small-scale processes that cannot be explicitly included in numerical models of the ocean. The physics and parameterization of processes such as breaking internal waves, double diffusion and boundary mixing are analyzed, with discussion of observational techniques as well as theories.
EOS 538 (1½) AQUEOUS GEOCHEMISTRY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Offered Fall 2011 - CRN 13491
Major aspects of the global water cycle, sources, sinks of chemical elements present in aquatic systems, weathering reactions, solution geochemistry of oxic and anoxic environments in natural aquatic systems (rainwaters, ground waters, rivers, lakes, estuaries and oceans). The computer program, "Hydraql" will be introduced and used for solving problems. Other topics include the application of natural and anthropogenic tracers to geochemical problems with aquatic systems. Note: Credit will be granted for only one of 425/538.
EOS 550 (1½) THE OCEAN-ATMOSPHERE SYSTEM
Studies of the Earth's climate require an understanding of the intimate links between the ocean and atmosphere. Basic theories of the circulation of each are discussed and the physics of coupled models examined, with emphasis on simple intuition-building mathematical models as well as discussion of large computer models.
EOS 551 (1½) INTRODUCTORY DYNAMIC METEOROLOGY
Offered Spring 2012 - CRN 27743 Instructor: Dr. Adam Monahan
An introduction to the dynamics and thermodynamics of rotating atmospheres. Topics include: equations of motion, circulation theorems, geostrophy and quasigeostrophy, boundary layer dynamics, waves in the atmosphere, barotropic and baroclinic instabilities, and the general circulation of the atmosphere.
EOS 562 (1½) MATHEMATICAL TOOLS FOR EARTH, OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
This course may repeat with a different content (offered as 562A, 562B, 562C and 562D).
Selected topics to provide training in mathematical techniques and tools used in ocean and earth systems data analysis and numerical modeling. Examples of topics are time-series analysis, statistical prediction and analysis, and numerical finite-difference, finite-element and spectral modeling techniques.
EOS 562a (1½) MATHEMATICAL TOOLS FOR EARTH, OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
Offered Fall 2011 - CRN 17759 Instructor: Dr. Adam Monahan (meets w/ EOS 225)
SELECTED TOPICS: An introduction to the construction, analysis, and interpretation of quantitative models of the Earth System and its components, with a particular emphasis on the use of computers in scientific problem solving. Both process models and statistical models will be discussed. Topics may include simple models of mountain building, reaction kinetics, global energy balance, ecosystem dynamics, the geothermal gradient, and ocean tides.
EOS 562b (1½) MATHEMATICAL TOOLS FOR EARTH, OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
Offered Spring 2012 - CRN 27742 (Time Series Analysis)
Instructor: Jorge Quijano Solis (days/times/location TBD)
SELECTED TOPICS: This course introduces the core concepts of signal processing used in the analysis of uniformly sampled signals. It will provide and overview and practical examples of the most common frequency/time domain techniques for the extraction of information from scientific data in research areas such as seismics, acoustics, and image processing. Topics include: time series and linear systems, Fourier series and Fourier transform, sampling theorem, correlation, convolution, discrete Fourier transform, power spectral density, frequency/time domain filtering, and beamforming techniques.
EOS 580 (1 to 3) DIRECTED STUDIES *
A course designed to enable students to pursue individual interests. Note: May be taken more than once for credit. *All directed studies will be advertised through the SEOS office within the first two weeks of term (or before) to ensure all graduate students are informed.
To register, you must complete the Directed Studies form, have it signed by the course instructor, then drop it off to the SEOS office where it will be signed by the Graduate Advisor and forwarded to GARO for processing.
EOS 580 (1.5) DIRECTED STUDIES - Arctic Acoustic Fish Tracking Modelling
Offered Spring 2012 - Instructor: Dr. Svein Vagle; location: IOS, Sidney, B.C.
Course description here. To register, please complete this Directed Studies form.
EOS 580 (1.5) DIRECTED STUDIES - Introduction to Experimental Petrology Offered Fall 2011
Instructor: Dr. Laurence Coogan; location: on campus (tbd)
This course will introduce the theory behind undertaking experimental studies in igneous petrology based on seminar style readings and discussion. This will go alongside undertaking an introductory experimental study in which the theory will be applied in designing and undertaking a small experimental project.
To register, please complete this Directed Studies form.
EOS 580 (1.5) DIRECTED STUDIES - Marine geophysics and seismic detection, mapping, and interpretation of marine depositional environments (Marine depositional environments)
Offered Fall 2011 Instructor: Dr. Michael Riedel; location: PGC, Sidney, B.C.
Course description here. To register, please complete this Directed Studies form.
EOS 599 (credit to be determined, but normally 9 units) MSc THESIS
The thesis or dissertation requirement for advanced degrees (599 or 699) applies to all students in the School. (Grading: INP, COM, N or F)
Fall 2012 - for on-campus students - CRN 11793
Fall 2012 - for off-campus students - CRN 11797
Spring 2013 - for on-campus students - CRN 21655
Spring 2013 - for off-campus students - CRN 21226
EOS 693 (3) PhD CANDIDACY EXAMINATION
Students must enroll in EOS 693 in their first semester and remain enrolled until their candidacy requirements have been completed, normally within the first two years of a PhD program. A pre-candidacy committee meeting must precede the formal candidacy exam. (Grading: INP, COM, N or F)
Fall 2012 - for on-campus students - CRN 13168
Fall 2012 - for off-campus students - CRN 13568
Spring 2013 - for on-campus students - CRN 22042
Spring 2013 - for off-campus students - CRN 22043
EOS 699 (credit to be determined) PhD DISSERTATION
The thesis or dissertation requirement for advanced degrees (599 or 699) applies to all students in the School. (Grading: INP, COM, N or F)
Fall 2012 - for on-campus students - CRN 11798
Fall 2012 - for off-campus students - CRN 11346
Spring 2013 - for on-campus students - CRN 20670
Spring 2013 - for off-campus students - CRN 21227
