Geology BSc (Hons)

In the first two years of your degree (known as sub-honours), you will take the required modules in Geology alongside modules in at least one other subject.

In first year, you must complete two compulsory modules, and in second year, you must complete three compulsory modules.

1st Year

Students will take the following compulsory first-year modules alongside other optional modules in Geology or in another subject:

• Earth Resources and Environment: builds on the knowledge from Semester 1, including addressing issues related to natural resources.
• Planet Earth: introduces you to the key geological components that comprise Earth and the geoscientific and environmental sciences used to study the planet.

Students are required to take the following compulsory modules in their second year:

• Dynamic Earth: Earth Surface Processes: focuses on the low temperature processes that operate in land-atmosphere interactions, glacial processes, tectonic geomorphology, geomicrobiology and oceanography.
• Dynamic Earth: The Earth System: focuses on understanding the behaviour of the solid Earth and its interaction with the atmosphere and biosphere and beyond.
• Dynamic Earth: Magma, Minerals and Metamorphism: focuses on the geology and geochemistry of the solid Earth and processes in Earth's interior.

If you decide to take Geology in your third and fourth years, you choose from a wide variety of advanced options, including modules in hydrology, geodynamics and geophysics.

Honours modules involve key skills training and first-hand experience linked to new research discoveries and advances in Earth Sciences. Honours modules that have been offered in past years include:

• Advanced Geological Mapping
• Processes and Products in Sedimentary Systems
• Sedimentary Systems
• Geochemistry
• Petroleum Exploration and Geophysics
• Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology
• Structural Geology and Tectonics
• Advanced Petrogenesis
• Magmatic Ore Deposits
• Global Biogeochemical Cycles
• Geodynamics
• Hydrothermal-related Ore Deposits.

In your final year, you will also undertake an independent research dissertation involving field and laboratory work and research presentations.

The sub-honours modules listed here are the compulsory modules that students must take in order to graduate in this subject. However, most students at St Andrews take additional modules, either in their primary subject or from other subjects they are interested in. For Honours-level, students choose from a range of Honours modules, some of which are listed above.