Washington & Lee University has offered courses in geology for more than two hundred years and is one of the first institutions of higher learning in the United States to offer formal programs in the study of the Earth.  The department, a separate and distinct entity since just after the Civil War, currently offers a broad range of programs that include most of the important disciplines of the earth sciences.  A number of alumni have made significant contributions as academic geologists, as specialists in the energy industry, and as environmental scientists.

Lexington is surrounded by some of the most interesting and classical geology of the entire Appalachian Mountain system. Our programs emphasize, and takes advantage of our location.  The campus lies right in the middle of the Great Valley of Virginia, within easy reach of the Blue Ridge Province and the Allegheny Mountains.  The Department maintains two, 14 passenger vans to insure access to these areas.  During the Fall and Winter Terms, all of our courses (including Introductory-level courses) run field trips for "hands-on" study of this superb geology. In the Spring Term, we offer more intense field experiences. Some of these Spring Term courses emphasize the geology of the local area and provide familiarity with modern methods of field mapping. Other courses deal with the geology of a specific region and/or the study of the environment. Recent extended field trips have been run to such diverse areas as the Great Smoky Mountains, New England, the Colorado Plateau (including the Grand Canyon as well as Bryce and Zion National Parks), Greece, the Pyrenees, the Pacific Northwest (including Washington, Oregon and Northern California,.and coastal Virginia.

The Department is a member of the Keck Geology Consortium, made up if 12 of the outstanding undergraduate geology departments in the country (other members include: Pomona College, Carleton College, Colorado College, Franklin and Marshall College, Williams College, Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Whitman College (WA), Trinity University (TX), and College of Wooster (OH). This program allows our students to join undergraduates and faculty from other consortium institutions in summer research projects in such diverse locations as the Apennines of Italy, the Bahamas, the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest, Australia, Ireland and Cyprus.

Our department is active in a variety of research areas in which students play a central role. Active research areas include long-term plateau incision by escarpment breaching and capture, the modeling and growth fault-related folds, Holocene climate variation as recorded in coral growth and redox processes in aquifers.

Geology Major Degree Programs: courses and idealized schedules

Geology Classes that satisfy the General Education requirement in Science and Mathematics

Contact a Geology Professor at Washington & Lee University