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What's Your Major? - Geosciences

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Category: academics Video duration: What's Your Major? - Geosciences
Holly shares her studies in geoscience and through her focus in geology and geophysics, she learns not just about rocks, but what they do.
My name is Holly and I'm a fourth year at Virginia Tech. I'm a geosciences major and as a geosciences major studying geology and geophysics, I study the Earth and its processes. Not just the rocks, but what the rocks do. There are other pathways and geosciences, that students can take. There's paleobiology and geobiology, which is great if you want to study pre-historic environments and fossils. There's also geochemistry where they study the things like the makeup of minerals and rocks. There's also the Environmental Engineering Geology, which is great for students who are interested in engineering through the environmental and geology lens. There's also an education path if you're interested in teaching geology. I chose geosciences because I really enjoyed my earth science class in high school. And I realized just how important geoscientists are for the engineering and science fields. I'm currently helping in the Geodesy and Tectonophysics Lab under Dr. Sarah Stamps, where we examine the data that they are collecting in the Chesapeake Bay Area on vertical land motions, which is how much land is moving up or down. Our research can help the people living by the coast better be prepared for the changing environment. After I graduate, I plan to get my masters and then work for either a geothermal company or work with environmental hazards like earthquakes and volcanoes.