As a discipline, environmental geology deals with using geological knowledge to address interactions between humans and the physical environment: the biosphere, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, and, to some degree, the atmosphere.

Geology 319: Structural Geology: The Architecture of Earth’s Continental Crust is designed to familiarize you with the structure and evolution of Earth’s continental crust. This knowledge is useful for a variety of purposes, from petroleum and mineral exploration, to finding groundwater, to controlling pollution, to deciding where to build homes.