• Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
• Frank Dawson Adams Building
• 3450 University Street
• Montreal QC H3A 0E8
• Telephone: 514-398-6767
• Email: grad.eps [at] mcgill.ca
• Website: mcgill.ca/eps

The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences offers both M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree programs. Graduate programs are based on research, although some courses are required to build the backgrounds of students. Research in the Department is wide-ranging, and includes:

• the geochemistry of the mantle;
• the nature of processes concentrating metals in hydrothermal mineral deposits;
• the controls of viscosity in magmas and the mechanisms of volcanic eruption;
• the fate of carbon and trace metals in marine sediments;
• the nature of changes in atmospheric and oceanic chemistry during Earth’s history;
• earthquakes and fault mechanisms;
• geomicrobiology;
• the movement of water and nutrients within complex ecohydrological systems;
• wetland hydrogeology;
• interactions between the cryosphere, solid Earth, and climate systems;
• global human processes and their relationship to planetary boundaries.

There is a very substantial interdisciplinary basis to much of the research.

Facilities in the Department include low-temperature and pressure to high-temperature and pressure experimental laboratories, a stable-isotope mass spectrometer, laser-ablation ICP-MS, and electron microprobe, as well as atomic absorption spectrometers. Our students also make substantial use of other facilities at McGill and at nearby Université du Québec à Montréal.

Financial assistance is available in the form of teaching assistantships, graduate student stipends, and scholarships.

Areas of Research:

Aquatic Geochemistry

Application of chemical thermodynamics, kinetics, and surface chemistry to the characterization of mineral–solution interactions in aquatic environments; carbonate geochemistry; early diagenesis of marine and coastal sediments; and trace metal and environmental geochemistry in freshwater and marine systems.

Biogeochemistry

Response of the marine ecosystem to climate change and anthropogenic stresses through observations of the modern ocean, and experimental and numerical simulations of ocean biogeochemistry. Reconstructions of past climate change using sediments from lacustrine, coastal, and marine sediments. The processes controlling carbon cycling in freshwater environments, including the burial of organic matter in sediments and the production of greenhouse gases through microbial respiration. Development of new isotopic methods for tracing carbon-cycle and hydrological change in the past and present. Investigating the dynamical relationships that link climate, biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems, and humans using a combination of large datasets, simple theory, and numerical Earth system models to identify novel processes and quantitative relationships.

Economic Geology

Studies of the genesis of hydrothermal mineral deposits through a combination of field-based, experimental, and theoretical methods. Research focuses on the understanding of physico-chemical controls of mineralization, through geological mapping of deposits; experimental studies of metal solubility and speciation in hydrothermal systems; simulations of hydrothermal alteration; and theoretical studies designed to estimate conditions of alteration and ore formation. Trace-element chemistry of minerals as quantitative probes of the compositions of ore-forming fluids.

Exoplanet Climate

Using telescopes on the ground and in space to explore the surfaces and atmospheres of the diverse planets outside the Solar System: How much incident stellar flux do planets absorb? How do they move this energy through atmospheric and oceanic circulation? Which planets enjoy habitable surface conditions? Do any of them exhibit atmospheric biosignatures?

Geobiology

Understanding the role of microorganisms in biogeochemical cycles; cultivation of environmental microorganisms; applying molecular and isotopic tools to characterize microbial activity in present and past environments.

Geophysics and Climate

Applying physics to study the interactions between the solid Earth, ice, ocean, and climate systems; numerical modelling, analysis, and interpretation of paleo and modern sea-level changes; solid earth deformation and glacial isostatic adjustment; and ice in the Earth and climate systems.

Hydrogeology

Studies of pore-water flow in northern peatlands; heat transport; heat as a tracer of natural systems; groundwater modelling; coupled numerical models of pore water flow and heat transport with freeze/thaw processes; and the impact of melting tropical glaciers on water resources.

Hydrology and Ecohydrology

Studies of the storage, release, and transport of water, nutrients, and other contaminants in watersheds; combination of field, laboratory, big data science and modelling approaches; use of a complex-systems lens to identify the resistance and resilience of watersheds to climate and environmental change; implications for water management and policy in forested, agricultural, and mixed-used watersheds.

Igneous Petrology

Experimental studies of the structure, thermodynamics, and transport properties (diffusion and viscosity) of silicate melts and applications to igneous petrogenesis. The nature of the Earth's upper mantle and the processes within it which give rise to basaltic volcanism on both the Earth and the other terrestrial planets. Applications of laser ablation ICPMS; petrology, geochemistry, and tectonics of the Appalachian lithosphere.

Integrated Earth System Dynamics

Global data analysis and modelling; approaches that cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries; integration of human and natural systems; interactions between macroecology, biogeochemistry, and climate change; Earth System Economics.

Isotopic Geochemistry and Sedimentary Geology

Sedimentology, stratigraphy, and isotope geochemistry as guides to reconstructing ancient environments. Reconstruction of Proterozoic paleogeographies and the origin and evolution of Proterozoic sedimentary basins. Documenting and interpreting paleoenvironmental change during the Proterozoic. Relationships between tectonics (i.e., supercontinental break-up and assembly), seawater chemistry and ocean redox, and climate change. Calibrating the diversification of early eukaryotes and their impact on global biogeochemical cycles.

Mineralogy

Chemistry and crystallography of carbonate and a variety of rock-forming and biogenic minerals; experimental investigations of the effect of environmental factors (e.g., solution composition and temperature) on the morphology and composition of carbonate and phosphate minerals.

Seismology

Subduction earthquake nucleation and rupture propagation processes; physical mechanism of aseismic deformation transients, deep non-volcanic tremors, dynamic and static stress triggering of low-frequency earthquakes, and transients; pore-fluid pressure coupling with frictional strength and slip.

Tectonics and Structural Geology

Digital field mapping, microstructural characterization, and mineralogical analyses of deformation structure kinematics, geometry, and deformation processes; archean orogenic processes; structural controls on ore deposit genesis; fluid flow in faults, granular flow in faults, and catastrophic structural/geochemical events in faults; earthquake mechanics and processes recorded in rocks; brittle-ductile transition structures and rheology.

Volcanology

Petrology and geochemistry of intermediate and felsic magmas; understanding physical processes and forecasting eruptions at active subduction-zone volcanoes; geochemistry of volcanic gases, their use for eruption prediction, and their impact on the atmosphere.