Environmental Geoscience

Environmental geoscience draws together geology, geography, and oceanography to explore the different processes that drive the global Earth system, on land, in the ocean, in the crust, and in the atmosphere. It is a discipline with genuine urgency: understanding how Earth's systems have changed through deep time, and how they are changing now under human influence, is central to tackling the environmental challenges of the twenty-first century. At the University of Southampton, this three-year full-time programme gives you a wide range of practical and transferable skills alongside a rigorous scientific understanding of Earth processes.

You will study sedimentology, palaeoclimatology, structural geology, geochemistry, oceanography, and environmental systems, developing the ability to read the history of the Earth in rocks, sediments, and ocean cores. Fieldwork is central to geoscience education, and you will spend time in the field applying your analytical skills to real geological and environmental settings. Laboratory work in geochemistry and sediment analysis will develop your practical techniques, while quantitative and computational skills in data analysis and modelling underpin the scientific rigour of the programme.

Southampton's coastal location and its links to the National Oceanography Centre give you an exceptional environment for studying the interactions between the solid Earth, the ocean, and the atmosphere.

Environmental geoscience graduates work in environmental consultancy, the oil and gas sector, water resource management, hazard assessment, climate science, remote sensing, and government environmental agencies. The combination of field, laboratory, and quantitative skills makes you versatile in any data-rich, technically demanding environment. Postgraduate study in geoscience, oceanography, climate science, or environmental management is a common next step for those who want to specialise further or pursue research.