Water: Science and Society

Credit: Tufa at Mono Lake, Sunset, 2007 by James J. Ludemann is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Resource Description

We refer to Earth as the "Blue Planet" because of its abundance of liquid water; indeed, NASA's search for life on other planets starts with the search for water. While its importance for sustaining life is perhaps common knowledge, the extent to which we depend on water in every aspect of our everyday lives and activities is less obvious. Looking into the coming decades, the global need to decrease water stress and increase water quality is inescapable. In this course, you will explore water's impact on human society from investigating your own personal water usage to developing a water portfolio to addressing global water needs as human population centers and industrial development continue to grow.

Course Number

EARTH 111N

License

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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Author(s)

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Erin DiMaggio

"Erin DiMaggio is a sedimentary geologist and volcanologist in the Department of Geosciences at Penn State University. Her research is focused on extensional sedimentary basins and tephrochronology. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, and Master's and PhD from Arizona State University. Before joining the faculty at Penn State in 2014, she taught at Occidental College in Los Angeles. She has taught classes in sedimentary geology, and field geology, as well as freshman seminars. She conducts research primarily in Africa but has also worked on geomorphology and tectonics-related projects in Spain and Mexico.

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Demian Saffer

Dr. Demian Saffer is the Associate Head of Graduate Programs in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Department of Geology at Penn State University. Dr. Saffer has a PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a BA in Geology from Williams College.ÊHe has been at Penn State since 2007 and much of his research lies at the exciting crossroads between geohydrology, active tectonics, fault mechanics, and structural geology. His groupÕs research focuses on quantifying the relationships between fluid flow, mechanics and deformation, solute transport, and heat transport in a range of geologic settings.

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Mike Arthur

I'm Mike Arthur of the Department of Geosciences at Penn State's University Park campus, and my background is in marine geology. My research is focused on paleooceanography, which is to say the geologic history of the oceans including geochemistry, stable isotopes, and patterns of past global change.

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