Geoscience (BSc (Hons))

Geoscience at UCC centres on the study of the history of the Earth, its chemical and physical composition, its structure and evolution. The course allows the following of one of three themes in third and fourth year, these are geoscience, environmental geoscience, and palaeobiology.

The core of the course investigates the functioning, development, and use of Earth’s physical environment and involves the study of its crust and interior, its atmosphere and oceans, its surface processes, paleo-climatic and environmental changes and the fossil record. It also involves the study of Earth's natural and physical resources and incorporates interdisciplinary subjects across the traditional disciplines of geology, geography, geophysics, geochemistry, oceanography, and biological sciences.

The study of Geoscience is centre to a number of highly important challenges to human-kind in the 21st Century. These include the search for natural resources e.g. minerals required for battery production and clean groundwater: the predication and mitigation of geohazards e.g. earthquakes, flooding, and tsunamis: the production of green energy from Earth process e.g. tidal energy, onshore and offshore windfarms: the sustainable development of infrastructure e.g. contaminated ground remediation and geotechnical site investigation.

The BSc Geoscience course assumes no previous knowledge of the subject, but by taking this course, you will learn something of the processes that have formed this planet – spanning 4,500 million years – and those that allow human-kind and life, as we know it, to exist on Earth.

Geoscience investigates the past, measures the present, and models the future behaviour of our planet. But it also involves the study of other planets, asteroids, and solar systems, both to better understand the Earth and to expand our knowledge of the universe.

Aside from the core modules, fieldwork forms an integral part of all geoscience courses at UCC. In the summer of Year 3, and before the start of Year 4, you will undertake a major field-based research project in an area of your choice, in Ireland or abroad. In Year 4, you study Geoscience only and work towards completing your research project. Several aspects of Geoscience are treated up to specialised levels