Fresh water is an increasingly scarce resource in an increasingly populous and water-intensive world. Maintaining an adequate supply of fresh water both nationally and globally will be one of the largest challenges of the 21st century. Desalination of salty water, from both the ocean and the ground, represents a huge potential source of fresh water.

We will go on a tour of some selected outcrops of the Cretaceous System of central Texas. This general area constitutes one of the best exposures of Cretaceous strata anywhere around the globe. In the course, we will emphasize various aspects of the development, stratigraphy, sedimentology, structure, and paleontology of these Cretaceous units.

Geoscience is essential to our understanding and management of produced water, an inevitable byproduct of oil and gas development. This course provides a scientific and regulatory background of produced water, how it is commonly disposed, what opportunities exist for the re-use of produced water, and what the environmental and regulatory challenges for re-using produced waters are.

Forensic Geology/Petrography is not a new tool in the construction industry; however, it is generally not a well-known discipline. Observations detailed in this course are not typically covered during university geological studies. Most of these skills are learned on the job and do require a minimum of 5 years of experience directly under a Petrographer to earn a Petrographer title.

No country in the world produces all of the mineral resources necessary for modern society. International trade plays a critical role in providing these raw materials, forming a global network of production, export, import, and use. This network must continuously adapt to national and international developments in science, technology, politics, and economics.

This course is designed to help faculty and non-academic professionals host career discussions with students. The course provides learners with specific career-related content, materials, and well-tested tools that will help in facilitating geoscience career discussions and presentations. The course will cover three main sections:

Everyone is in favor of good moral and professional ethical behavior but few have thought about them rigorously. What constitutes common morality and professional ethics? This course explores the basic concepts and definitions of, and the differences between, common morality and professional ethics. This includes the distinction between moral rules and moral ideals.

The purpose of professional licensing is to ensure a minimum level of competency for practitioners in a given field in order to protect the public. Having a license to practice geology is a requirement in the majority of United States, Canada and several other countries. In contrast to other professions, a disconnect has developed between applied geologists and academia.

This course focuses on the adoption of and changes in geoscience-related ethics codes over the years. Many geological and related engineering professional associations were founded in the 19th and early 20th centuries but ethics codes were generally not adopted until after WWII. The AAPG Code of Ethics was the first code and was adopted in 1924.

This course will focus on how to use Membrane Interface Probe sensor results in combination with soil and groundwater analytical results to map the distribution of volatile organic chemical non aqueous phase liquids.

This course is designed to be an introduction to the subject of landslides or mass wasting. Landslides or mass wasting occur in both solid bedrock and in poorly-consolidated sediments. Concerning the latter, loose sands, clays and soft shales can prove to be quite problematic. These type of strata are highlighted in our discussions.

Geoscience research is at the forefront of characterizing the earthquake risks associated with the Cascadia subduction zone in the Pacific Northwest. This course covers the science and its implications for policy decisions and resiliency efforts.

The two most basic tools used in petroleum exploration and production are well logs and seismic data. Their integration is essential to enhance the probability of success of exploratory and development ventures. In this module we concentrate on the subject of well logs. Although we always hope for success when we drill wells, we can learn valuable information from dry holes also.

This course provides insight into the professional and technical writing skills that are needed by geoscience students pursuing careers in state government agencies.

This course is intended as a basic review of seismic prospecting methods for locating and extracting oil and gas global resources. It begins with a review of world hydrocarbon reserves, production and consumption, as well as overall goals and methods which apply to petroleum exploratory efforts.

This course is intended for geologists involved in Light Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid (LNAPL) assessment and remediation. This course provides information on the development of high resolution conceptual site models that can be used to guarantee the project goals are met.