Geological Engineering (GE)

College of Engineering and Mines
Department of Civil, Geological, and Environmental Engineering
907-474-7241

GE F101      Introduction to Geological Engineering
1 Credit

Offered Fall

Multiple aspects of geological engineering as a profession; the area and scope of the field.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 1 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Pass/Fail Grades

GE F261      General Geology for Engineers
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Study of common rocks and minerals, landforms and erosion. Geologic materials and engineering application of geology.

Prerequisites: MATH F151X; MATH F152X; Geology, science or engineering majors.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F322      Erosion Mechanics and Conservation
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Engineering mechanics of water and wind erosion processes, types of geologic or anthropogenic induced erosion, application of engineering principles for design, management and control of erosion and engineering analysis of conservation structures.

Prerequisites: ES F341.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F326      Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering and Foundations
4 Credits

Offered Fall

Identification and classification of soils; physical and mechanical properties of soil; subsurface exploration; movement of water through soil; soil deformation. Bearing capacity of shallow foundations and piles, and stability of retaining walls. Laboratory testing techniques, and introduction to soil issues related to cold regions.

Prerequisites: ES F331 (may be taken concurrently); GE F261.

Crosslisted with CE F326.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F365      Geological Materials Engineering
3 Credits

Offered Fall

Identification and classification of soils, physical and mechanical properties of soil, interaction of soils with subsurface water, subsurface exploration and case studies with an emphasis on permafrost.

Prerequisites: ES F208; GE F261.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F375      Terrain Analysis and GIS
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Evaluation of terrain characteristics and their geomorphic processes, using GIS techniques in combination with remotely sensed data for engineering and environmental applications. Alaska applications are considered.

Prerequisites: GE F261.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F376      GIS Applications in Geological and Environmental Engineering
3 Credits

Offered Spring Odd-numbered Years

Fundamentals, concepts and components of geographic information systems (GIS) in engineering design. Introduction to acquiring, manipulating and analyzing digital terrain data for geological engineering and environmental applications, and the assessment of mineral resources.

Prerequisites: GE F261; GE F375.

Recommended: NRM F338.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F381      Field Methods and Applied Design I
2 Credits

Offered Summer

Techniques and geologic mapping and geotechnical instrumentation applied to engineering design and resource evaluation.

Prerequisites: WRTG F111X; WRTG F211X, WRTG F212X, WRTG F213X or WRTG F214X; GE F261; GEOS F213; GEOS F214; GEOS F322; GEOS F314.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 1 + 0 + 40

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F382      Field Methods and Applied Design II
2 Credits

Offered Summer

Techniques and geologic mapping and geotechnical instrumentation applied to engineering design and resource evaluation.

Prerequisites: WRTG F111X; WRTG F211X, WRTG F212X, WRTG F213X or WRTG F214X; GE F261; GEOS F213; GEOS F214; GEOS F322; GEOS F314.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 1 + 0 + 40

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F400      Geological Engineering Internship
1-3 Credits

Offered Summer

Supervised work experience in engineering organizations. Assignments will be individually arranged with cooperating organizations from the private and public sectors. A report of activities must be completed and reviewed by the sponsoring organization. The report may be held in confidence at the request of the sponsoring organization.

Prerequisites: Upper-division standing.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 1-3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Pass/Fail Grades

Repeatable for Credit: May be taken 2 times for up to 6 credits

GE F405      Engineering and Environmental Geophysics
3 Credits

Offered Fall

Theory and application of seismic, electrical, gravity, magnetic, and electromagnetic methods for delineating near-surface features and structures as applied to engineering, environmental, and resource exploration problems. Overview of instrumentation, and the data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation process through hands-on practice.

Prerequisites: GE F375; PHYS F212X.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F420      Groundwater Engineering
3 Credits

Offered Fall

Fundamentals of groundwater occurrence, hydrology, resource development, water quality, monitoring and remediation. Field methods and modeling.

Prerequisites: CE F326, GE F326; ES F341.

Cross-listed with CE F420.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F430      Geomechanical Instrumentation
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Measurement of groundwater pressure, ground deformation, stress and temperature as well as the planning of monitoring programs, instrument calibration, maintenance and installation, data collection, interpretation, and reporting. Case histories are used.

Prerequisites: ES F331; GE F261 or GEOS F101X.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F440      Slope Stability
3 Credits

Offered Fall Odd-numbered Years

Slope design for open pit mining and other excavations. Stability analysis by various methods and on-site measuring and monitoring techniques.

Prerequisites: ES F331.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F441      Geohazard Analysis
3 Credits

Offered Fall Even-numbered Years

Procedures and techniques to evaluate geological factors for geohazards, such as landslides, earthquakes, volcanoes, flooding, coastal hazards and permafrost-related problems.

Prerequisites: GE F326.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F445      Design of Earth Dams and Embankments
3 Credits

Offered Fall Odd-numbered Years

Preliminary planning for design and construction of dams, site selection, reservoir assessment, foundation and other building materials, procedure for design of earth dams, design of abutment and spillway, estimation of volume of earthworks and storage capacities, site preparation for construction, excavation, slope stability issues and other geological engineering assessments.

Prerequisites: senior standing.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F480      Senior Design
3 Credits

Offered Spring

Design factors and procedures for the solution of geological engineering problems. A design project is the focus of the course.

Prerequisites: Senior standing in the geological engineering program with completion of GE F381; GE F382; GE F405; GE F420.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 1 + 6 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F620      Advanced Groundwater Hydrology
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Study of groundwater hydrology with emphasis on solute and contaminant transport, chemical reaction and ion exchange, advection and diffusion and computer modeling.

Prerequisites: GE F610; graduate standing.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F622      Advanced Soil Physics
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Fundamentals of soil physical processes, multiphase flow, heat transfer and transport in unsaturated porous media such as soils. Application of principles of unsaturated flow to geo-environmental and geotechnical problems. Characterization of hydraulic properties in relation to soil physical parameters in the context of geoengineering problems of flow, transport and stability.

Prerequisites: GE F610 and Graduate standing in Engineering.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F624      Stochastic Hydrology and Geohydrology
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Overview of the stochastic methods used to study and analyze hydrolic and geohydrolic processes. Emphasis on modeling hydrolic processes using statistical methods and stochastic interplay of processes between surface and subsurface hydrology.

Prerequisites: GE F620 and graduate standing in Engineering.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

Repeatable for Credit: May be taken 1 time for up to 3 credits

GE F626      Thermal Geotechnics
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Fundamentals of thermal regimes of soils and rocks. Thermal impact of structures on soils. Thawing of permafrost beneath roads, buildings and around pipelines. Natural and artificial freezing of soils. Engineering means to maintain thermal regime of soils. Thermal design considerations.

Prerequisites: CE F326; CE F422.

Cross-listed with CE F626.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F635      Advanced Geostatistical Applications
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Introduction to the theory and application of geostatistics. Review of classical statistics, continuous and discrete distributions, hypothesis testing and global estimation. Presentation of fundamental geostatistical concepts including: variogram, estimation variance, block variance, kriging, geostatistical simulation. Emphasis on the practical application of geostatistical techniques.

Prerequisites: MIN F408; graduate standing.

Cross-listed with MIN F635.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F663      Groundwater Hydrology
3 Credits

Offered Fall Even-numbered Years

Fundamentals of groundwater aquifer formations, groundwater flow, resource development, management and protection.

Cross-listed with CE F663.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F665      Advanced Geological Materials Engineering
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

In-depth study of geological materials (aggregates--sand, gravel and crushed rock for construction purposes) exploration, evaluation, testing and production. Emphasis placed on geological materials used for construction in Arctic and sub-Arctic environments, economic analysis of pit and quarry operations and availability of materials in Alaska.

Prerequisites: GE F365.

Recommended: MIN F408.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F666      Advanced Engineering Geology
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

The interaction between geology and engineering case histories.

Prerequisites: GE F365; graduate standing.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 2 + 3 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F668      Tunneling Geotechniques
3 Credits

Offered As Demand Warrants

Tunnel design, case histories, student report.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

GE F692      Graduate Seminar
1 Credit

Topics in geological engineering explored through talks, group discussions and guest speakers with a high level of student participation.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 1 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus

Repeatable for Credit: May be taken unlimited times for up to 99 credits

GE F692P      Graduate Seminar
1 Credit

Offered As Demand Warrants

Topics in geological engineering explored through talks, group discussions and guest speakers with a high level of student participation.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing.

Lecture + Lab + Other: 1 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Pass/Fail Grades

Repeatable for Credit: May be taken unlimited times for up to 99 credits

GE F698      Non-thesis Research/Project
1-9 Credits

Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Pass/Fail Grades

Repeatable for Credit: May be taken unlimited times for up to 99 credits

GE F699      Thesis
1-9 Credits

Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 0 + 0

Grading System: Pass/Fail Grades

Repeatable for Credit: May be taken unlimited times for up to 99 credits