Exploration and applied geophysics
Course Description
Level: Second Level Degree
Degree Class:
LM-79 R - Content in Italian
Scienze geofisiche
Department: GEOSCIENCES
Admission: Free
CFUs: 120
Duration: 2 years
Website: https://www.dst.unipi.it/exploration-and-applied-geophysics-msc-wgf-lm.html
English
Pisa
- Exploration Geophysics - explores geophysics topics related to geological resource exploration and Carbon Capture Use and Storage (CCUS) monitoring
- Applied Geophysics - explores geophysics topics related to environmental monitoring, subsurface investigations, and engineering
- Earthquakes and Volcano Physics - explores topics aimed at a better understanding of natural phenomena such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
Students holding a Bachelor’s Degree or an equivalent or higher qualification who meet the following minimum curricular requirements are allowed: a total of 20 CFUs in one or more of the scientific-disciplinary fields MAT, FIS, CHIM, INF/01 and ING-INF/05; no more than 6 CFUs in the INF/01 and ING-INF/05 fields can be counted in this number, and a total of 60 additional CFUs in one or more of the following scientific-disciplinary fields: ING-INF/ 01 -02- 03-04-07 FIS/01-02-03-04-05-06-07 GEO/02-03-04-05-07-10-11 ICAR/01 ICAR/02 ICAR/03 ICAR/06 ICAR/07 ICAR/08 ICAR/09 ING-IND/06 ING-IND/11 Proficient knowledge of English at least at level B2 is also required. Graduates’ personal preparation for admission to the Master’s Degree course will be verified by means of an individual interview aimed at assessing candidates’ preparation, also verifying the contents of exams taken in 1st or 2nd level degrees, knowledge of a language of the European Union, as well as informing candidates about potential educational programmes and career opportunities. The verification of the adequacy of the student’s initial preparation can result in admission or non-admission. Non-admission must be adequately justified.
Students holding a Bachelor’s Degree or an equivalent or higher qualification that meet the following minimum curricular requirements are eligible for the Master’s Degree Course in Exploration and Applied Geophysics: a total of 20 CFUs in one or more of the scientific-disciplinary fields MAT, FIS, CHIM, INF/01 and ING-INF/05; no more than 6 CFUs in the INF/01 and ING-INF/05 fields can be counted in this number, and a total of 60 additional CFUs in one or more of the following scientific-disciplinary fields: ING-INF/ 01 -02- 03-04-07 FIS/01-02-03-04-05-06-07 GEO/02-03-04-05-07-10-11 ICAR/01-02-03-06-07-08-09 ING-IND/06-11. Proficient knowledge of English at least at level B2 is also required; this knowledge will be verified through an interview. If the requirements are not fully met, the Master’s Degree Course will specify the training activities necessary for their acquisition within the educational offer of the University of Pisa. Graduates’ personal preparation for admission to the Master’s Degree course and their English language proficiency will be verified by means of an individual interview aimed at assessing candidates’ preparation, also checking their basic knowledge in mathematics, physics and geology acquired during previous studies, as well as informing candidates about potential educational programmes and career opportunities. Before the interview, candidates may be required to take an online pre-evaluation test on the same topics as the interview. This test aims to identify specific gaps in their preparation and better guide the interview. The verification of the adequacy of the student’s initial preparation can result in admission, non-admission or conditional admission to a specific training programme in the Master’s Degree Course. Non-admission must be adequately justified.
Course Evaluations
Contacts
Presidente del Corso di Laurea
Eusebio Maria Stucchi
Email: eusebio.stucchi@unipi.it
Referente didattico
Giuseppina Siniscalco
Tel. (+39) 050 2215814
Email: giuseppina.siniscalco@unipi.it
Unità Didattica del Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra: https://www.dst.unipi.it/sportello.html
Orario di ricevimento: Lo sportello didattico riceve tutti i giorni dalle 12.30 alle 13.30 previo appuntamento mediante richiesta e-mail all'indirizzo: didattica@dst.unipi.it
Study Plan
For students enrolled in the academic year 2025/2026
Applied
Required
- Exploration seismology (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Laboratory of seismic acquisition and processing (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Applied geophysics (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Computational geophysics (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Signal processing for physics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Rock physics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Complements of electromagnetisms and optics (3 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
Cfis - disciplina caratterizzanti fisiche (6 CFU)
- Earth sensing and geophysical monitoring instrumentation (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Mathematical physics for geosciences (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
Cgl - discipline caratterizzanti geologiche (12 CFU)
- Fundamentals of geology (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Radar geomorphology (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Tectonics (6 CFU)
- Faglie e fisica dei terremoti (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
Required
Aff2 -affini e integrativi (6 CFU)
- Field campaign (3 CFU)
- Processes of formation of mineral deposits (6 CFU)
- Non destructive testing (6 CFU)
- Environmental remote sensing (6 CFU)
- Methods and technologies for remote sensing (6 CFU)
- Introduction to machine learning in geophysics (3 CFU)
- Electric and electromagnetic prospection methods (6 CFU)
- Geophysical assessment and monitoring (6 CFU)
- Geophysical exploration methods (6 CFU)
- Mining and environmental geophysics (6 CFU)
- Subsurface imaging and detection (5 CFU)
- Inverse problems in geophysics (6 CFU)
- Surveying in earthquake engineering (5 CFU)
- Earthquake seismology (6 CFU)
- Underwater systems (6 CFU)
Libera scelta (12 CFU)
- Remote sensing (10 CFU)
- Remote sensing for hearth observation and surveillance (8 CFU)
- Geophysical and radar imaging (10 CFU)
- Advanced digital signal processing (10 CFU)
- Geophysical surveys (8 CFU)
- Geophysical data processing (10 CFU)
Earthquakes and volcano physics
Cgl - discipline caratterizzanti geologi (12 CFU)
- Physics of volcanic processes (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Fundamentals of geology (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Tectonics (6 CFU)
- Faglie e fisica dei terremoti (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
Cfis2 - discipline caratterizzanti fisici (12 CFU)
- Earth sensing and geophysical monitoring instrumentation (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Fluidodynamics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Rock physics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Mathematical physics for geosciences (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
Cfis3 - discipline caratterizzanti geofisici (24 CFU)
- Mechanics of geophysical fluids s (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Exploration seismology (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Inverse problems in geophysics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Earthquake seismology (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
Aff5 - affini e integrativi (15 CFU)
- Laboratory of instrumental seismology (9 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Introduction to machine learning in geophysics (3 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Computational geophysics (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Signal processing for physics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Complements of electromagnetisms and optics (3 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
Exploration
Required
- Exploration seismology and introduction to well-logs (9 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Laboratory of seismic acquisition and processing (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Computational geophysics (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Signal processing for physics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Rock physics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Complements of electromagnetisms and optics (3 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
Aff3 - affini percorso exploration -curr2 (6 CFU)
- Advanced well logging (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Seismic imaging (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
Cfis - discipline cartterizzanti fisiche - curr2 (6 CFU)
- Earth sensing and geophysical monitoring instrumentation (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Mathematical physics for geosciences (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
Cgl - discipline cartterizzanti geologiche obbligatorie (12 CFU)
- Fundamentals of geology (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Radar geomorphology (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Tectonics (6 CFU)
- Faglie e fisica dei terremoti (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
Required
- Inverse problems in geophysics (6 CFU)
- Seminars (1 CFU)
- Thesis (40 CFU)
- Training (4 CFU)
Leoben image
Required
- Exploration seismology and introduction to well-logs (9 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Laboratory of seismic acquisition and processing (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Computational geophysics (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Signal processing for physics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Rock physics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Complements of electromagnetisms and optics (3 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
Cfis - discipline fisiche (6 CFU)
- Earth sensing and geophysical monitoring instrumentation (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Mathematical physics for geosciences (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
Cgl - discipline geologiche (12 CFU)
- Fundamentals of geology (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Radar geomorphology (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Faglie e fisica dei terremoti (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
Cgf2 discipline geofisiche (6 CFU)
- Principles of geophysics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
- Introduction to well-logs (3 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Applied geophysics (6 CFU) - Secondo ciclo semestrale
- Inverse problems in geophysics (6 CFU) - Primo ciclo semestrale
Required
Aff4 -curr3 (9 CFU)
- Advanced well logging (6 CFU)
- Processes of formation of mineral deposits (6 CFU)
- Non destructive testing (6 CFU)
- Environmental remote sensing (6 CFU)
- Methods and technologies for remote sensing (6 CFU)
- Introduction to machine learning in geophysics (3 CFU)
- Electric and electromagnetic prospection methods (6 CFU)
- Geophysical assessment and monitoring (6 CFU)
- Geophysical exploration methods (6 CFU)
- Geophysical well-logs (6 CFU)
- Mining and environmental geophysics (6 CFU)
- Potential field methods in applied geophysics (6 CFU)
- Seismic imaging (6 CFU)
- Seismic interpretation (6 CFU)
- Subsurface imaging and detection (5 CFU)
- Geoarchelogy and geophysical techniques (3 CFU)
- Surveying in earthquake engineering (5 CFU)
- Earthquake seismology (6 CFU)
- Big data analysis in geophysics (6 CFU)
- Signal theory for geophysics (6 CFU)
- Underwater systems (6 CFU)
Career opportunities
- Companies offering geophysical services and consultancy
- Agencies for environmental monitoring and protection
- Geological resource companies
- Design and engineering companies
- Public and private research institutes