Through inter-institutional projects such as POLARIS and POLO, seismology students are exposed to other geophysical methods, such as gravity, electromagnetics, and geomechanics. Students in geochronology join a group that has been strong in the department for more than two decades; by its nature, the research in this area is well integrated with other departmental activities in structural geology, tectonics, sedimentology, geochemistry, and economic geology.

Using a state-of-the-art laser lab, the research of the geochronology group focuses on elucidating fundamental problems in the Earth Sciences, ranging from the timing of economic mineralization on a local scale, to the duration and evolution of crustal-scale tectonic processes.

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In addition to supervising their own graduate students, core geochronology staff members are commonly involved in the joint supervision of graduate students based in Fields I, II, or III; their graduate courses are generally attended by students from a variety of different geological fields. The most recent Ph.D. graduate from the Geophysics program is now a Post-doctoral Fellow in a Himalayan seismology project based in the U.S., and the preceding two M.Sc. graduates have petroleum-industry jobs in Calgary and S. Africa. This typifies the ability of graduates from this program to pursue opportunities in either academe or industry; in both situations they have been very successful, reaching Full Professor and Senior Scientist ranks. Geochronology graduates follow similar career paths.