Climate change is increasingly presented as posing significant security risks, but the relationship is much more complex than such a simple cause-effect statement might suggest. Researchers from diverse fields including geography, climatology, and political science are actively engaging questions about what kinds of security are threatened by climate change and through what mechanisms. For example, will severe drought lead to violent conflict? Who is vulnerable to reduced soil moisture or increased coastal erosion and why? What are the consequences of viewing a problem as a livelihood versus national security risk? Who are the winners and losers of climate change-based security interventions? This course will orient students to the evolving debate on the relationship between climate change and its impacts on national, human, and environmental security.

This course will use the weekly EES seminar series to survey historic breakthrogh papers or topics in the earth sciences, as well as modern papers - written by the seminar speakers - that often put the classics in perspective. Graduate students (Ph.D. only) in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science will engage in the material through reading, presentation, and discussion. The course has several goals. (1.) To engender an understanding and appreciation of major breakthroughs in our field. (2.) To develop skills in presenting and discussing scientific results. And (3.) to refine students' understanding of what constitutes great science.

This course focuses on the rock mechanics aspects of Engineering Geology. The theme is characterization of the geologic environment for engineering and environmental investigations. Covered are the various exploration tools and methods, including: Collection and analysis of existing engineering data; Interpretation of remotely sensed imagery; Field and laboratory measurements of material properties; Measurement and characterization of rock discontinuities; Rock slope stability analysis; Stress, strain and failure of rocks and the importance of scale; Rock core logging; Rock mass rating; Rock support and reinforcement; Rock excavation, blasting and blast monitoring and control.

Mechanical properties of solid and fluid earth materials, stress and strain, earth pressures in soil and rock, tunnels, piles, and piers; flow through gates, wiers, spillways and culverts, hydraulics, seepage and Darcy's law as applied to the hydrologic sciences.

Introcudction to the basic principles of the hydrologic cycle and water budgets, precipitation and infiltration, evaporation and transpiration, stream flow, hydrograph analysis (floods), subsurface and groundwater flow, well hydraulics, water quality, and frequency analysis.

Study of the genesis and properties of earth materials (minerals,rocks,soil, water); consideration of volcanic,erosional, glacial, and earthquake processes along with the characterization of the earth's deep interior crustal and near-surface structure.Classroom study of minerals, crystals, fossils, and rocks as time permits.