Geophysics Research

Programs that conduct research which uses the principles of physics, mathematics, and chemistry to study not only the Earth's surface, but also its internal composition; ground and surface waters; atmosphere; oceans; and magnetic, electrical and gravitational forces. Scientists working in this area include geophysicists who specialize in areas such as geodesy, seismology, or magnetic geophysics; geodesists who study the Earth's size, shape, gravitational field, tides, polar motion and rotation; seismologists who interpret data from seismographs and other geophysical instruments to detect earthquakes and locate earthquake-related faults; geomagnetists who measure the Earth's magnetic field and use measurements taken over the past few centuries to devise theoretical models that explain the Earth's origin; paleomagnetists who interpret fossil magnetization in rocks and sediments from the continents and oceans to record the spreading of the sea floor, the wandering of the continents and the many reversals of polarity that the Earth's magnetic field has undergone through time. Other geophysicists study atmospheric sciences and space physics.