The Earth Science and Geography Department is located in Ely Hall, a lovely Romanesque Revival building dating to the late 1800s. Originally serving as Vassar's gymnasium and swimming pool and then as the college's infirmary, the building was later renovated to house the Earth Science and Geography Department along with art studios. Ely Hall contains classrooms and laboratories for teaching and research, the A. Scott Warthin Museum of Geology and Natural History, and the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) lab, a computer lab used for construction and analysis of maps, numerical modeling, and geological data analysis. The building also houses an extensive collection of instrumentation, field equipment, and maps for use by students and faculty in a variety of courses and research projects.
Since much of the work of Earth scientists and geographers is done in the field, the department benefits from the 530-acre Vassar Ecological Preserve, which hosts a field station along with the department's meteorological station and groundwater teaching wells.
We also make use of facilities in the Bridge for Laboratory Sciences, particularly the Earth and Environment lab and the Science Visualization lab. In addition, we have online resources including a growing library of GIS data.