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Earth science is no longer a simple study of rocks and
minerals. Today, work at IIT Bombay proceeds in
areas as diverse as climatology, geology,
petrography, geography, geomorphology, remote
sensing, paleontology, magnetism, geochemistry,
geophysics, and environmental sciences. All of this is
supported by a heavy emphasis on computer
interpretation and modeling of earth processes.
In addition, a growing concern about the state of the
earth's natural resources has heightened the role of
earth science in providing for societal needs. A
complex interaction of various components of the
earth drives global environmental change and the
many hazards affecting society's existence on the
planet. A key to understanding these complex
processes is the natural record. Unlocking the
mysteries of the past to help society cope with and
manage the complex and often destructive process of
the present is but one of the many areas of study for
the student of earth sciences.
The Earth Sciences Department has strong faculty,
but there are severe limitations on what these able
faculty can achieve in teaching and in research,
because of inadequate laboratory facilities. While the
department's needs are well met in areas where work
can be conducted solely using computer applications,
experimental and analytical work is hampered by an
almost total absence of state-of-the-art equipment.
Student education is mostly academic classroom
instruction in an area of science where laboratory and
field application is standard practice in world-class
institutes. Student education must include
laboratories for experimental investigations, to
motivate students, for developing creative inquiry and
for the very basic need to teach student how to use
equipment in standard use in industry today.
The vision for the department rests on creating core
laboratories, to meet common and basic needs, with
a series of satellite labs focusing on specialized areas
using highly specialized equipment. These labs would
serve the department's many areas of education and
study, but focus on four key areas of future growth:
earth resources, natural history, environment and
natural hazards, geological and geophysical data base
management.
Meeting this vision will enable the department's
faculty and students to compete with the world's best
and gain recognition for IIT Bombay as a world-class
institute.
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