The M.S. degree program trains students equally for professional practice and continued graduate study. The typical course of study takes two years to complete. The Ph.D. degree program, with interwoven components in lithospheric and hydrospheric science, is problem oriented rather than specialty oriented: this program is designed to produce scholars and practitioners capable of applying their training to achieve sound and pragmatic solutions to real problems in the earth sciences. Students in the doctoral program will normally spend a minimum of two years of formal coursework, not including dissertation research.

The Department has a variety of geological and geophysical field equipment including a drill rig, portable water sampling and analytical systems, and marine and land-based seismic and electrical resistivity systems. In addition, the Department maintains the following equipment directly or through its association with the UWM Center for Great Lakes Studies: x-ray diffractometer and spectrometer, atomic absorption unit, gas and ion chromatographs, liquid scintillation counter, cold region environmental chambers, operating well field, seismograph, Paleomagnetics laboratory, and recirculating flume.

Supporting facilities in the University include a computing center, scanning electron microscope, a cartographic laboratory, the Saukville Field Station 50 km north of the campus, the Center for Great Lakes Studies, and the Urban Research Center.