Dr. Mohammed H. Aljahdali
Chairman of Marine Geology Department
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is bounded by major seaways (the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf) that shaped up almost every aspect in our life in the Arabian Peninsula. From climate change into economic change, these marine bodies had a great impact on our natural resources that made the kingdom the center of strategic and economic momentum of the Middle East and the Arab World. The spirit and theme of development are deeply rooted within the early days of the creation of the Kingdom. This development was crowned in 1978 by establishing the Faculty of Marine Sciences at King Abdulaziz University to be a leading institute in the region. Furthermore, this faculty has been specialized in four major fields: Marine Geology, Marine Physics, Marine Biology and Marine Chemistry. Nowadays, the Faculty of Marine Sciences is a leading school in the Middle East region due to its unique and cutting-the-edge laboratories and ambitious academic staff.
The Marine Geology Department is one of the most interdisciplinary and diverse fields in geosciences and its major focus is situated on formation, composition, and history of the sea/ocean basins and margins; their mineral deposits (metallic and non-metallic), petroleum, and natural gas resources. Marine Geology has an intimate connection with other disciplines of Marine Science, to provide an understanding of the phenomena and processes that influence the under seawater geological and geophysical characteristics in terms of sedimentology, paleontology, mineralogy, geochemistry, economic geology and environmental geology. Remote sensing and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technologies are now a routine part of a marine geologist's toolkit to map the sea bottom. The Department of Marine Geology offers degrees at undergraduate (BSc) and graduate (MSc and PhD) levels. Marine geologists approach their field of study using integrated knowledge in various marine geology aspects: chemistry, biology, physics, and natural sciences. The academic staff in the department carry out research on different assets of marine geosciences and focus on the seafloor and coastal regions of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf. Moreover, marine studies carried out in the department are unique, original, and of great significance in providing the critical evidence for mineral resources and environmental conditions submerged the seafloor surrounding Saudi Arabia.