Central Washington University offers a Masters program in Geological Sciences that aims to prepare students for professional employment in geoscience careers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond or for continuing graduate studies at the doctoral level. We specialize in active and regional tectonics, structural geology, and geodynamics; climate change, paleoflood studies, and environmental geochemistry; geochronology, petrology, and volcanology; and seismic risk and GPS geodesy.
This program normally leads to employment in consulting firms; in local, state, or federal government resource-based or planning agencies; in teaching at community colleges or at a secondary level; and to serve as a foundation for graduate studies beyond the M.S. level. It is also good high-level technical background for those interested in following related careers, such as environmental law, natural resource management, or teaching at the secondary level. The Department encourages an integrative, multi-disciplinary approach.
This collection features theses from Master of Science Students in the Department of Geological Sciences Graduate Program at Central Washington University.
Theses from 2010
Lacustrine Sediment Record of Multiple Quaternary Lava Dams on the Owyhee River, Southeastern Oregon, Caitlin Anne Orem
Fluid Budget of Metasedimentary Rocks from a Tertiary Accretionary Prism and Connections to Seismicity, Olympic Peninsula, Northwest Washington State, Holly Makena MacFadden Rotman
Theses from 2008
Energy Budget Analysis of Slow-Slip Tremor Events Along the Cascadia Subduction Zone Using Continuous GPS Array Data, James Steven Chapman
Petrogenetic Processes Characterizing the Mount Bachelor, Oregon Magmatic System: Open- versus Closed-System Processes, Sara Elizabeth Johnson
Middle Crustal Ductile Deformation Patterns in Southern Tibet: Insights from Vorticity Studies in Mabja Dome, Jackie Langille
Comparison of Landslides and their Related Outburst Flood Deposits, Owyhee River, Southeastern Oregon, Shannon Marian Othus
The 2004 and 1861 Tsunami Deposits on Simeulue Island, Western Sumatra, Katherine Frances Whitlow
Theses from 2007
Seismic Constraints on Slow Slip Events within the Cascadia Subduction Zone, Ana Cristina Aguiar
Late Holocene Uplift of the Chihshang segment of the Longitudinal Valley Fault at Fuli, Eastern Taiwan, Brian Thomas Gray
Paleoflood Record Reconstruction at an Archaeological Site on the Owyhee River, Southeastern Oregon, Stephanie Louise Vandal
Theses from 2006
Fluvial Response to Intra-Canyon Lava Flows, Owyhee River, Southeastern Oregon, Cooper Cooke Brossy
Deciphering the Signature of Magma Mixing: Examples from the Castle Creek Eruptive Period, Mount St. Helens, Washington, Seth Taylor Mattos
Theses from 2005
The Role of Geomorphic Features and Hydrologic Processes on Sediment Clusters in Gravel-Bed Rivers, Washington: A Field-Based Approach, Ross Richard Hendrick
Transient Detection and Modeling of Continuous Geodetic Data, Walter Michael Szeliga
Theses from 2004
A Large Late Pleistocene Outburst Flood From Pluvial Lakes Alvord and Coyote Into the Owyhee River, Oregon, Deron Torrey Carter
Theses from 2001
A small look at the big picture: linking geopotential height anomalies to paleofloods on the Snake River, Idaho and Oregon, Gwendolyn Bernitha Rhodes
Theses from 1998
Factors Contributing to Landslide Activity in the Winter of 1995-96, Clearwater County Near Orofino, Idaho, Aaron Paul Wisher