Rivers flow from a continent’s heart into the vast oceans, pumping weathered bits of rock and clay onto broad beds of sediment that form our continental shelves. Oceans change the shape of our coastlines in a relentless wave-driven dance of erosion and deposition. Coastal floods and storm surges alter people’s lives.
The new department of earth, marine and environmental sciences, which goes by the acronym EMES, reflects these natural connections between land and sea. Launched in July, it unites the University’s department of marine sciences, the department of geological sciences and the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) in Morehead City, North Carolina.
