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Majors and Programs

Explore the majors and programs offered by the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences below.

Please note: We have launched our Earth and Planetary Sciences major, our new undergraduate degree program. The Geology major is no longer accepting new students. The archived Geology page remains available through the menu.

Department News

Check out the latest news, research, and announcements from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences below.

Brown snails on green lettuce leaves in a close-up view.

Evolution of New Physical Traits in Mollusks Has Declined and Grown More Predictable Over Time

Paleobiologist Geerat Vermeij is enthralled with mollusks. Their shells line the surfaces and fill the cabinets and drawers in his office on the second floor of the Earth and Planetary Sciences Building at UC Davis. But Vermeij’s deep study of these organisms isn’t...READ MORE

Feathered dinosaur walking across a desert landscape with sand dunes.

Did Dinosaurs Use Their Forelimbs for Social Signaling?

In December 2025, Russian scientists published an analysis of a 67-million-year-old dinosaur fossil that was found in the Gobi Desert in 1979. The fossil specimen belonged to a small, two-legged dinosaur named Manipulonyx reshetovi, a part of the Alvarezsauridae family...READ MORE

A laptop displaying code on a rocky beach surface.

UC Davis Alumni Launch Geology Coding Bootcamp

Geology provides a language for understanding the Earth. Stories from the planet’s past are locked in the rocks and landscape. But others are hard to reveal, hidden in troves of data. No one knows this better than UC Davis Ph.D. alums and married...READ MORE

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